Significant hair loss can be caused by illness, chemotherapy and even nutritional deficiencies, but the most common type of hair loss---male pattern hair loss---is hereditary. The American Hair Loss Association states that male pattern hair loss accounts for more than 95 percent of hair loss in men but there are several treatments to help slow-down loss and regrow hair.
Hair Cycle
Hair is continuously shed, and new hair grows in its place. Hair growth goes through cycles with a two- to three-year period of growth followed by a period of rest that lasts about three months. At the end of the resting phase the hair falls out of the follicle (the sac-like structure that grows and nourishes hair) and a new hair begins to grow.
Male Pattern Hair Loss
Male pattern hair loss---called Androgenetic alopecia---is characterized by a receding hairline at the temples and balding on top of the head. The American Hair Loss Association states that male pattern hair loss accounts for more than 95 percent of hair loss in men. Testosterone converts to dihydrotestosterone (DHT) in the follicle's oil glands. In male pattern hair loss, DHT causes the hair follicles to shrink so they no longer grow hair. When DHT is inhibited the follicles continue to produce hair.
Propecia
Propecia is one of two medications approved by the FDA for the treatment of male hair loss. It is in pill form and works by inhibiting DHT. You may need to take it for as long as three months before seeing improvement. Merck, the developer of Propecia, states that while clinical trials have shown success on the top and middle front of the head, they don't have evidence to show it works for receding hair at the temples. They've also found that the sooner men start taking Propecia, the better their chances of significantly slowing or preventing future hair loss.
Rogaine
Rogaine is the only topical medication approved by the FDA to regrow hair. Rogaine also inhibits DHT so that follicles can grow new hair. In a study published in the November 2007 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, Elise Olsen et al. reported that 164 men using 5 percent Rogaine foam for 16 weeks saw an average increase in hair count of 13.4 percent.
Surgical
Surgical transplantation originated in Japan in the 1930s, and the first transplant in the United States was in 1952. The use of a "punch graft" rather than a small incision created bad results. In the mid-1990s a technique called follicular unit transplantation was developed that produced natural-looking results. The only way to transplant hair is to be your own donor and to harvest DHT-resistant hair follicles from the back of your scalp that are transplanted to balding areas, according to the American Hair Loss Association. The important thing to know about surgical transplantation is that you only have a finite amount of hair to donate, so you can't continuously transplant as more hair loss takes place. Surgery should be a last resort.
LaserComb
A new development is the HairMax LaserComb. A press release issued by the manufacturer notes that the LaserComb delivers laser light to the scalp; this is "hypothesized" to increase ATP (a source of energy), which increases cellular metabolism and "invigorates the hair follicle" to regrow hair. Matt Leavitt et al. published a study in the May 2009 issue of Clinical Drug Investigation. The study abstract states that the 110 participants "exhibited a significantly greater increase in mean terminal hair density."
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