Hair Loss Diagnosis

Propecia and Rogaine may be the best sellers amongst the hair loss treatments but their market share is not too big. Combined sales of natural hair-loss products are due to their sheer variety already exceeding the sales of medicinal hair-loss treatments. The key to the growing popularity of natural products is a general belief that they are as effective as medicinal treatments but less expensive and do not carry the risk of negative side-effects. However, none of these claims seem be true.

There is an array of herbal and naturally-derived substances out there that are assumed to treat hereditary pattern baldness in humans but none of them has ever been clinically proven and independently verified in a statistically significant sample. Hence, no matter what the marketers of the natural hair-loss treatments say about the superior effectiveness of their products, you should take their word with a grain of salt. That does not automatically imply, though, that all natural hair-loss products are a scam. Natural treatments are a mix of numerous components that are thought to promote hair growth and they may work for some people but their mechanism of action is a mystery and their results usually vary significantly between patients. Nonetheless, you will always find some hair loss sufferers who will swear by their natural remedy.

It is needless to say that herbal and naturally-derived supplements have not been subjected to any rigorous clinical testing regarding their safety, either alone or in interactions with other substances, as medicinal drugs. Most plants and naturally-derived substances are only tested on rodents not on humans. In addition, increasing numbers of herbs and herbal products are recently becoming responsible for nasty allergic reactions. Many marketers tell you that saw palmetto is as effective as finasteride in treating hereditary baldness and that it can be used as its natural alternative. Its mode of action is to reduce the dihydrotestosterone (DHT) levels in your scalp, the same job finasteride does. However, saw palmetto is supposed to have no negative side-effects. Saw palmetto simply enjoys the best of both worlds; it is as effective as finasteride but as harmless as drinking bottled water. A quick internet research turned up the following list of side-effects experienced by saw palmetto users: stomach pains and diarrhoea, severe bleeding during saw palmetto use, allergic reactions, difficulty with erections, testicular discomfort, decline in sexual desire, breast tenderness and enlargement and a warning that saw palmetto extract is not recommended for women who are pregnant or breast-feeding because of its possible hormonal activity. This shows that herbal substances after closer examination may not be so harmless at all.

And lastly the price comparison does not always speak in favour of natural hair-loss remedies, either. They happen to be some of the most outrageously-overpriced hair loss products on the market. Sure, it is not easy to beat the price of cheap generic minoxidil. But why should you pay ten times more for the same generic minoxidil just because it comes in a box with a few herbs and vitamins? Natural hair-loss products usually come as a complete treatment, consisting of topical and oral applications and a shampoo. You are advised to use the entire therapy, as the individual components complement each other. This ensures very good profits for the manufacturer although some of its components such as shampoo can never grow you new hair.

In spite of the fact that the hair loss industry generates worldwide annual revenues of many billion US dollars, there seem to be only a few treatment options proven to deliver measurable and satisfactory results. One such option is hair surgery. Hair surgery alone is estimated to earn revenues of three billion dollars from the nearly 300,000 hair transplants that are expected to be performed around the world this year. In addition to that, there are billions of dollars to be made annually from the sales of diverse hair loss products. But how many of them really work? One would not be exaggerating to say that at least 90% of all non-surgical, hair loss treatments are a scam. Having said that, billions of dollars are spent every year wastefully on useless rubbish. One thing is wasting money and the other no less important thing is losing the battle against time while the hair loss continues, most likely becoming irreversible. This guide should help you identify a treatment which is not a waste of your time and money without trying it out first.

Once you have pinpointed the product you are considering trying, check the independent consumer reviews to get a basic understanding of its effectiveness. Do not use testimonials from the manufacturer’s website, they are most likely fake. It is best-advised to use references from large independent websites across the web such as Folica, Amazon, GreyHairLoss or RateItAll and crosscheck with reviews at various hair loss forums. Since it is difficult to recognise right away who is telling the truth and who is cheating, you will need to come back and check the arguments again here once you have done your research and gained a better understanding of the product and its individual components.

As a second step, you should look at the composition of the remedy you are considering buying. If you cannot find the list of individual, active ingredients, ask the manufacturer or his marketers to provide it. If they fail to provide you the required breakdown, consider it a scam. You need to verify the stories behind active substances and if you want to get a really good understanding of their science, you must verify references to clinical trials and peer studies. This is probably the most difficult and the most time-consuming part of this job.

The third thing you might need to do is to check the manufacturer’s claims. If they sound unsubstantiated and too good to be true or the before and after pictures appear unrealistic, raise your guard. And lastly, if the product you are looking at is promoted on the web, check on the site and in the whois directory who is behind the website promoting it. If the name and the address of the owner is hidden behind a WHOIS guard, apply a deep discount to your valuation. Any person or company that truly believes in its product will be proud to have its name and address attached to that product.

Although these tips may not be exhaustive, they should guide you in estimating the potential of the hair loss product you are considering buying and might save you frustration with wasting time and money on useless rubbish. If you have tried certain hair regrowth products already and want to share you experiences, there are several useful places where you can have your word spread and heard by other hair loss suffers, such as the aforementioned Amazon, Folica, RateItAll and GreyHairLoss, to name just a few.