Hair Loss Treatments That Actually Work for Women & Men! | Dr. Shereene Idriss

good morning little nerds I'm Dr Shireen Idris and welcome to my YouTube channel where every Saturday morning we do a pillow talk Durham and given that it is August it is National hair loss Awareness Month today we are going to be focusing on hair loss Solutions before I jump in make sure to subscribe to my channel like this video and comment on what it is you want to learn about next because we cover everything everything every Saturday morning at 10 A.M so hair loss is extremely extremely extremely psychologically tolling is that even a word it can take a toll on you psychologically and being somebody who actually not only experienced hair loss during covid because of the stress that it took on my body but also experienced hair loss postpartum especially with my daughter and then after my son I am somebody who's very attuned to the psychological implications of hair loss because it can be very distressing extremely distressing but it is very important to understand that not all hair loss is created equal and before you decide that you have female pattern or male pattern hair loss also known as androgenetic alopecia which does have genetic predispositions it is so important that you rule out any medical causes that may be contributing to your hair loss because female pattern and meal pattern hair loss is a lifelong issue there is no cure for it and everything you're going to be doing is going to be a Band-Aid so if you can find an isolate a root cause right it's kind of counterintuitive but it might be better for you because then you can treat the problem and move on without having to constantly worry about it so when you're talking about hair loss the most common form of hair loss is female pattern or male pattern hair loss this is known as androgenetic alopecia there is a genetic predisposition to this men tend to lose their hair along their temples and the back of their scalps the women tend to lose it more diffusely but more prominently on the top of their scalps we see a gradual thinning and baldness that occurs and it is quite frankly not fun to deal with medical conditions can definitely lead to hair loss as well and when somebody comes in with female pattern hair loss in my office or even meal pattern I first and foremost run a bunch of blood tests one of which includes a thyroid panel because you want to make sure that there's no thyroid disorders happening under the surface that may be contributing to your hair loss you also want to make sure that the person is not iron deficient and you want to make sure that the person doesn't have an actual sort of underlying medical condition other medical conditions that can affect that are quite visible are alopecia areata which appear like bald patches on the scalp when your whole scalp is affected it is known as alopecia totalis and when your whole body is affected and you have zero hair all over your body it is known as alopecia universalis which leads me to other types of autoimmune conditions can also affect your hair as well as even infections scalp infections can lead to hair loss dandruff is a scalp infection that can make your hair loss worse and even skin conditions autoimmune ones like psoriasis can cause and contribute more hair loss hormonal changes that are fluctuating over the course of your life can cause hair loss like I had postpartum when you go through menopause even birth control pills that causes certain hormonal fluctuations can lead to hair loss stress and Trauma are not to be underestimated and that is the second form of hair loss that I experienced post covid anytime your body undergoes severe stress whether physical or mental a few months after that you can get a condition known as telogen effluvium where hair Falls diffusely and dramatically the good news is it is reversible and once the stress is resolved your hair grows back nutritional deficiencies I hinted at that when I said iron deficiencies but also zinc deficiencies and certain vitamins and even if you are biotin deficient you can have hair loss now biotin has been way overblown in terms of marketing as a supplement that can help you with hair growth and it is really not that super helpful unless you are really truly biotin deficient medications anticoagulants beta blockers for your heart and your blood pressure anticoagulants and antidepressants can all have side effects of hair loss as can certain hairstyles hairstyles and behavioral patterns are leading cause of hair loss if you are somebody who pulls your hair a lot either you do a lot of braids or you wear tight ponytails and you're constantly doing that motion you can get what is known as traction alopecia and if you have if you use very frequently hot styling tools or you do chemical treatments to your hair you can get a lot of breakage and hair thinning over time age I mean everything kind of goes south as you get wiser other than our wisdom but age can also lead to hair thinning just because we're not making hair as efficiently and as much as we used to and obviously radiation chemotherapy you can get something known as anagen effluvium and this results once you're hopefully done and past the chemo so it is super essential that you identify the underlying cause now we're going to focus on genetic predisposition androgenetic alopecia for this part of the video because more often than not that is the issue that is going on as somebody who has had two types of hair loss one was postpartum one was post covet and I do think I have a little bit of that female pattern predisposition hair loss okay I'm given my genetic predispositions I am someone as a physician who strongly believes that once you've ruled out everything else throw the kitchen sink at your scalp get your hair stimulated get those follicles going and give yourself the best chance to keep that hair on your head if you are that distressed by it so I'm going to give you guys a lot of options you can literally do all of them if you're the right candidate and then once your hair has shown signs that it is growing and getting stimulated and looking healthier you can pair back so starting with over the counter number one best over-the-counter treatment for hair loss is minoxidil which is also known as Rogaine it has been shown to promote hair growth and slow down hair loss and it was originally developed as an oral pill for blood pressure and they noticed people were actually growing their hair when they were on this blood pressure medication and so they thought why not make it topical where people can apply it topically on their scalp so it's interesting that it had an oral component and became a topical medication it is also now available over the counter at anywhere from three to five percent if you are a woman losing hair go on Rogaine but pick the men's strength go for the five percent because more often than not you're gonna see that minoxidil is targeting women at three percent and they're gonna say on their thing women should not use like this one says do not use if you are a woman this is wrong and this should get deleted the reason they probably did that is because they didn't do their studies on women at the time and so they were stuck within the constraints of regulations but you can absolutely use it all right you can absolutely use the five percent you'll be wasting your time effort energy and very much so your money if you're buying the three percent because of the pink tax associated with it how does it work it dilates your blood vessels it helps to promote blood flow to your hair it nourishes the hair follicles and it extends the antigen phase of your hair the growth phase of your hair so the hair in the growth phase stays longer on your head and it stimulates hair growth so that is how it works when you stop it your hair will fall off again why it's so important for you to know what the root cause is it has been described in certain populations that when people use Rogaine they can get increased hair growth on their face I've seen it happen make sure to put it on your scalp wash your hands really well and if you're very nervous about this maybe wear a bandana or even a cap to go to sleep because you're going to use it at night number two is and believe it or not nizeral shampoo which is known as Ketoconazole is a great adjunct for you to be using if you are losing your hair and you do not know why Ketoconazole is an anti-fungal medication it is available prescription at two percent over the counter it is available at one percent and using this is a great adjunct if you're losing your hair because it helps by decreasing any sort of inflammation on your scalp it it kills any kind of fungus the malesthesia fungus which causes dandruff which may contribute to hair loss so it kills that and it has been shown this is a little bit iffy but it has been shown to basically block dihydrotestosterone also known as DHT which is in your hair and which leads to your hair staying small and short the miniaturization of your hair that is one of the leading causes of female and male pattern hair loss we're not 100 sure about that but we think that's how it works and it also makes your hair appear Fuller by making it appear thicker because it increases the diameter of your hair so that is very interesting and an easy one for you to add on number three and more recently this has had a huge craze and Revival on Tick Tock rosemary oil is having a basically a place in the Limelight rosemary oil is a nice adjunct to use it has been shown to be as effective as minoxidil however you have to use it twice a day not just once a day for at least six months to see full effect so you have to understand that you need to use much more of it and in the same way it helps to improve blood circulation block DHT it is an anti-inflammatory and has great antioxidant properties so people are very excited by rosemary oil at least of recently it's been used for years in various different cultures but if you are losing your hair in your distress take everything you can get and really try to help promote your hair to help yourself number four is a prescription you can only get this as a prescription it is known as finasteride finasteride is also known as Propecia and this has typically been given to guys in an oral tablet it blocks DHT so it blocks the miniaturization of your hair and it allows to normalize your hair cycle so your hair is much healthier and actually keeping in its growth phase and it actually is very effective for the crown of the scalp as well as the mid scalp for a long time we were telling women not to use this women of childbearing age who are looking to get pregnant or are pregnant should not be on this because you can affect the development of a baby boy and you can even affect potentially development of your baby girl because you're playing with your sexual hormones if however you do not want a baby and you are done with having babies a thousand percent and or you are a menopausal or postmenopausal knock yourself out you can actually go on it orally as well the biggest side effects for both men and women are going to be libido which can truly really happen actually had patients who've complained about this it is very hard to reverse so I personally do not give finasteride orally anymore I give it topically we'll get into that in a second you can have erectile dysfunction and it could really also even affect women it is available also topically so like minoxidil Rogaine which was a blood pressure medication that became more of a topical treatment for hair finasteride is also available topically and we believe there's going to be obviously much less systemic absorption because it's localized to the area that you're treating there is still potentially a chance that it can be systemically absorbed so all of those side effects that I mentioned are possibilities but they are much less likely to happen but it still holds true if you're trying to carry a baby or you want to get pregnant or you are pregnant I would just avoid finasteride topically until you're done with that phase of your life it works topically by blocking five Alpha reductase which makes dihydrotestosterone and honestly I think anybody man or woman who's not looking to have a baby should be on this topically as an adjunct to Minoxidil it works really well together okay so these this is finasteride topical this is minoxidil topical spironolactone is another prescription medication this one is oral it is a blood pressure medication as well that has been shown to have anti-androgen effects it blocks the testosterone receptor on your hair follicles so basically women especially women who are on spironolactone benefits from this very much so when they have hormonal acne but it has been shown maybe to have promising benefits for hair as well it does decrease your Androgen production overall in your body so you have to be careful again if you're trying to get pregnant you are not allowed to be on this they most recently came out with a spironolactone cream also known as wind Levy I have been giving it to some patients to see what it does for them especially those who are extremely distrust so those are truly the Roundup of topical over-the-counter and prescription options that you guys have at your disposal in terms of supplements are they helpful are they not again throw the kitchen sink at it if there's no underlying medical issue neutral and this is not sponsored is something I take myself it is a natural solution to promote hair growth patients swear by that's why I have it in my practice because of patients telling me how much they love it the reality is this yes how much of that is Placebo versus reality as long as they're seeing results and they're feeling better Placebo is a very strong thing the company itself has shown results through their own studies but don't underestimate Placebo in helping yourself especially when it comes to hair but just to give you guys a breakdown of what neutrophone is it helps with hormonal imbalance inflammation oxidative stress and obviously nutritional deficiencies because it's a multivitamin so if you're going to take neutrophil be careful I'm taking a multivitamin as well because you don't want to overdose on vitamin A or vitamin D or whatever it is this trick to this is being very consistent with it over six months which sucks because it's expensive that is the reality and you're not going to grow hair Elsewhere on your body that doesn't happen when I tell my patients who don't want to pay for neutrophil is you could take prenatal vitamins you don't have in prenatal vitamins the soft palmetto extract the perfume in the ashwagandha the Marine collagen and all of those other goodies but you're going to get all the vitamins that you need in a prenatal vitamin and men can take prenatal vitamins as well okay they're not just for women they're not just for women who are looking to be pregnant or who are pregnant and you can continue this even after pregnancy so those are all of the over-the-counter oral um and topical available options to you guys last is in-office treatments and my husband is somebody who has recently been losing hair he has a meal pattern hair loss it is very much genetically and it runs very much genetically in his family and it was bothering him and he was considering a hair transplant but he's also the worst patient that I didn't want to deal with the aftermath of that so I said before we go down that road we are going to try everything at our disposal for you so I had put him on topical minoxidil for a while and his hair looked like this and this is the before picture and it wasn't great he wasn't very somebody who's very good to adhering to something even taking pills is something he's not good at so I said let's take a step back let's do PRP we're going to do four sessions of PRP one month apart normal I tell patients do three sessions because he has access to the kitchen for free I said let's just do four and let's stop and see and see where you're at in a few months so I started him on PRP in January and this is his picture in April his hair has grown immensely additionally I think because he was now motivated I put him on oral minoxidil as well but I will say that in the last few weeks he's told me he feels like it's slightly thinning because it's been now four months since his last PRP so we are going to redo a PRP for him as well so PRP is known as platelet-rich plasma it's when we take your blood from your arm we spin it and we separate your blood from the platelet-rich plasma and that platelet-rich plasma is then either applied topically or injected into your scalp you can apply it topically through microneedling or you can inject it I much prefer just to inject it because microneedling when you have any sort of hair is I don't want to be contributing to your hair breakage at all if you're completely bald we can also micro needle and apply it topically after injecting PRP is rich in growth factors it has a bunch of growth factors but it's not a home run for everyone it is kind of a up in the air situation so that is why I tell patients if you're not very much financially constricted and you are able to take this risk do three treatments stop and see at five to six months after the first treatment where you're at while doing everything else because that is how you're going to know if it works for you if you just keep doing it all the time you're never going to know so three treatments one month apart is what you need to know if you are actually going to respond to it not necessarily everybody responds but when you do it works amazing and the pictures prove it right here it helps to prolong the growth phase of your hair cycle it increases the thickness of existing hair strands and it stimulates dormant or sleepy hair follicles so that is what I think about PRP I think it is a wonderful adjunct it is low risk just definitely make sure you're going to something reputable you do not need to buy yourself an infection or get yourself an unwanted problem but if it works you have your own fertilizer in your body that you can use once or or twice or three times a year as often or as little as you see fit I mentioned microneedling I don't like it when people have some hair on their head because I don't want to cause hair breakage but if you're bald you can definitely micro needle at home or in the office at home you have to make sure you're cleaning your tools very well and you could do it before applying anything that I talked about the one thing I did not talk about was retinol you can use retinol as well retinol is not going to stimulate your hair growth but what it is going to do is going to stimulate the blood flow to your scalp with your cellular turnover of your skin maybe potentially making the other products work better for you plus it regulates your sebim and people hair also have too much oil on their scalp so it can maybe help with that last and this is one that is very very new is exosome therapy and this is a regenerative medical approach where exosomes are small extracellular vesicles derived from stem cells that are used to promote hair growth and hair Health how do they get it they get it from stem cells such as your bone marrow or adipose tissue and that is processed in a laboratory where the exosomes themselves are collected and purified then that application is either applied topically or injected and used through microneedling it stimulates growth factors and it has very very promising results but this is an ongoing area of research there is very little to no regulations around it so the big question mark If you see it is where are they getting their exosomes from promising option I think there's a lot of merits around it I just think it needs to be streamlined in a way that is really regulated and it is not there yet regarding your hair loss journey and your hair regrowth Journey know that you're not alone I actually saved my hair this morning and I forgot to show you guys this was in the shower um after washing my hair it's normal to lose hair on a daily basis but if you're really super thinning and everything know that you have options to help you help yourself and I hope this video has provided you guys some guidance and you feel more informed and when in doubt go find a board-certified dermatologist who can help you help yourself throughout this journey have a beautiful Saturday I will see you guys next week [Music]

Channel: Dr. Shereene Idriss

Views: 475,506

Keywords:

Id: CQ8-J5bzRCE

Length: 19min 54sec (1194 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 19 2023