Alopecia, or hair loss, is a common but distressing group of conditions that collectively affect most people at some point in their lives. It can affect part or all of your hair. Some types are temporary, but others may be permanent. You don’t have to suffer in silence, as alopecia treatment in Las Vegas is available through high-quality clinics, such as Nuance.
Types of Alopecia
There are several different types of alopecia, classified by their appearance:
- Male-pattern hair loss, where hair on the front and top of your head is most affected
- Female-pattern hair loss, which affects the part line.
- Diffuse alopecia, or telogen effluvium. These features generalized thinning of hair throughout the scalp.
- Alopecia areata, where well-defined patches of hair loss may appear and disappear; grow larger over time; or suddenly appear and remain stable.
- Alopecia totalis, where patients lose all the hair on their head.
- Alopecia universalis, the most extreme case where patients have no hair at all.
Causes of Alopecia
Before finding the right alopecia treatment, you must first find the cause. Some resolve on their own, while others will worsen or show no improvement without intervention:
- Wearing tight hairstyles such as ponytails can cause traction alopecia. This is a type of localized hair loss where you lose hair from breakage or ripping the follicles out.
- Androgenic or “male-pattern” hair loss is caused by chronically high levels of testosterone, or its most potent form, DHT.
- Estrogen deficiency may affect hair health in women during and after menopause.
- The normalization of hormone levels after pregnancy can cause postpartum hair loss. In some women, this is simply a “correction” of the enhanced hair growth you had during pregnancy.
- Pharmaceutical drugs, most infamously chemotherapy, used in cancer treatment. Fortunately, this is almost always temporary.
- Chronic stress, which is usually another temporary cause of hair loss.
- Aging leads to an overall decline in tissue integrity and function, including your skin, hair follicles, and the blood vessels that supply them with nutrients.
- Autoimmune alopecia has no known singular cause, but is most likely the result of genetic vulnerabilities interacting with environmental, lifestyle, and/or viral factors. Here, a dysregulated immune system attacks the hair.
Hair Loss Treatment in Las Vegas
At Nuance, we pride ourselves in offering the best hair loss treatment for men and women. The two interventions we offer here are hair transplant and the newer platelet-rich plasma (PRP).
Hair transplants involve moving hair follicles from the back of your scalp up to the top. It’s best for people with male-pattern baldness, as the transplanted follicles are not vulnerable to the effects of testosterone or DHT. We prefer the modern follicular unit extraction (FUE) technique at Nuance, as the use of individual hair follicles prevents creating a “strip mining” look.
PRP contains the platelets and their growth factors taken from a blood sample of your own. It's over 20 growth factors support hair follicles, skin tissue, and the blood vessels. Alopecia caused by aging, or an incomplete recovery of hair after stress, illness, or certain pharmaceutical interventions may respond the most.
Prevention
Preventing alopecia aims to address the causes listed above. Even if you receive treatment at Nuance, it’s best to still incorporate these practices where relevant:
- Avoid letting stress get out of hand with the mindfulness or decompression methods of your choice. These could range from regular exercise to seeing a therapist.
- Ensure a healthy diet with sufficient protein and anti-inflammatory foods, such as deep-colored fruits, fermented dairy, spices, and oily fish
- Use looser braids and other hairstyles instead of pulling ponytails tight
- Check your haircare products, as those with harsh chemicals may contribute to hair loss.
- Hair loss treatment for women may require hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which is preferably individualized
- Avoid using anabolic steroids, which boost testosterone to excessive levels.
Alopecia isn’t “just hair”, and you don’t have to simply live with it. Contact us here to make an appointment with Dr. Medhi Sina or Dr. Jeannie Khavkin, or to ask further questions.
