Alopecia areata is an autoimmune condition that occurs when the body’s white blood cells begin attacking the cells of hair follicles, causing them to shrink and slowing hair production.
What is alopecia areata?
Alopecia areata is a medical condition characterized by rapid hair loss, usually in patches. This leads to patchy baldness.
What is hair loss in women? What Does Excessive Hair Loss in Women Mean?
If your hairline is getting wider, you are experiencing bald patches or excessive hair loss on your scalp or you are losing more than 125 hairs per day, then you need to understand that your hair loss is not normal. And you need to see a skin specialist immediately.
Serious Symptoms
When a woman experiences unexpected hair loss. Normally a person loses 50 to 100 hairs per day, but new hairs keep growing in their place. Hair loss is part of the natural balance.
Some hairs fall out, while others continue to grow. But when there is a disturbance in this balance, i.e. hair falls, but new hair does not grow in its place, then this type of hair loss is called alopecia in medical term.
Mostly hair grows on almost all surfaces of the skin, except our palms and soles of our feet. The lighter, finer and shorter hairs of the upper lip and eyelids are called vellus, and the terminal or androgenic hairs are darker, thicker, and longer.
Alopecia Areata
Alopecia areata is an autoimmune disease, in which the immune system attacks a person’s hair follicles, causing hair loss.
Although hair loss may occur, it may not be noticeable at first or seem strange! But when excessive hair fall starts and new hair does not grow in their place and you start feeling baldness in yourself, then that condition can be called Alopecia Areata.
Although this disease and condition can be worrying. But there are many treatments that can help manage the symptoms of hair loss. Let us find out about the most popular methods of its treatment.
What is Alopecia Areata?
When alopecia areata occurs, inflammatory cells infiltrate the hair follicles, resulting in hair loss. Although this hair loss often occurs on the scalp, it can also affect the eyebrows, eyelashes and facial hair.
Alopecia areata can happen to anyone and at any age. It does not discriminate on the basis of caste or gender! By the way, it is usually in the form of a patch rather than being in the whole hair. But in severe cases, it can also affect the entire scalp. says Elizabeth Geddes-Bruce, a dermatologist at Westlake in Austin, Texas.
It is usually asymptomatic. Which means that in most of the cases it is neither painful, nor there is any kind of itching or burning sensation. While it’s not known with any certainty why or how it happens, some people think it could be triggered by a viral infection, she says.
This condition of this viral infection can result in ‘total hair loss’, known as alopecia universalis, in which hair cannot grow back.
The condition affects 6.8 million people in the United States and about 147 million people worldwide, reports the National Alopecia Areata Foundation.
Treatment of Alopecia Areata – Alopecia Areata treatment
People who have alopecia areata or are showing symptoms may have some options to manage their symptoms or condition, although there is no ‘one size fits all’ option. You may have to try a few before you settle on any one formula.
Because alopecia areata is an autoimmune disease, many treatments involve immunosuppressant medications.
Other forms of treatment include stimulating hair growth. It can work comfortably for those whose condition is not that severe.
Most treatments for alopecia areata involve preventing the immune system from attacking hair follicles. Treatment can be anything from prescription to pills, in-office injections, and OTC over-the-counter medications, says Geddes Bruce.
But it is important for you to remember that not all treatments work for everyone. Sometimes, hair loss may recur even after a single treatment.
Ask your doctor to help you decide how serious your condition is and what treatment is right for you. This is the best option.
Because alopecia areata is an unpredictable condition, and affects patients differently, each patient’s experience with each treatment or product will or may be different, says Naapthalung. That is why it is important that doctors and patients have an open and honest dialogue and work together to meet individual needs.
How to choose the best treatment for Alopecia Areata?
Consult medical practitioners and skin specialists for their recommendations to select the best treatments for alopecia areata.
Best Treatments for Alopecia Areata
Topical immunotherapy involves applying chemicals directly to the scalp to produce an allergic reaction. This in turn stimulates the immune system and aids in hair growth.
Chemicals used in this way may include deferiprone dinitrochlorobenzene and squaric acid dibutyl ester.
Pros
This course of treatment is usually prescribed and directed under the supervision of a skin specialist.
This treatment can be very successful.
According to the NAAF, about 40 percent of patients treated with topical immunotherapy regularly for about 6 months can help their scalp hair grow back.
If treatment is successful, continued use of the bean treatment should result in re-growth of hair.
Minoxidil – minoxidil
Best for – Mild Alopecia
Minoxidil, also commonly known as Rogaine, is a topical treatment that is easy to apply and can be bought over the counter. When the immune system attacks the hair follicles, Miloxidil works to help hair grow back faster. This treatment is capable of growing new hair.
Typically, topical minoxidil treatments come in strengths of 2 or 5 percent, making them ready to be applied directly to the scalp.
You can apply it on the scalp twice a day.
It works by encouraging blood flow to the hair follicles, stimulating dormant follicles, and aiding hair growth.
Pros
It is easy to buy and apply.
This treatment has no side effects when applied in the recommended quantity.
It is relatively cheap.
Cons-Cons
Minoxidil may not work on its own. But some people see better results when applied in combination with topical corticosteroid medicine.
It does not work on extensive hair loss.
Minoxidil can also cause serious side effects when used topically. These include chest pain, weight gain, headache and irregular heartbeat.
Laser Therapy
It is a low-key tool as a solution to hereditary hair loss in both men and women, which can help increase or improve hair density.
Hair transplant
There are 2 types of hair transplants, Follicular Unit Transplantation, also known as Strip Technique. In this, a strip of graft is taken from the donor area. This leaves a linear mark in the back, which can be difficult to hide with shorter hairstyles.
Second, Follicular Unit Extraction, in this method hair follicles are extracted one by one and then transplanted. And according to the doctors, there is no linear mark or scar in this technique.
Injection
Steroid injections are a gentler option for mild, patchy alopecia areata to help hair grow back on bald patches. Steroids are injected through small needles into the skin of the affected area.
The treatment needs to be repeated every one to two months for the hair to regrow. But this treatment does not stop the loss of new hair.
Oral Treatment
Cortisone tablets are sometimes used for alopecia extensive but due to the potential for side effects, you need to discuss this option with the doctor.
Oral immunosuppressants such as methotrexate and cyclosporine are another option you can try. They work by blocking the immune system’s response but they cannot be used long-term because of the risk of side effects such as high blood pressure, liver and kidney damage and an increased risk of serious infections.
Natural Treatment
Some people also choose alternative therapies to treat the condition. Which may include some natural methods like-
Aromatherapy
- Acupuncture – Acupuncture
- Microneedling
- Probiotics
- Low-level laser therapy
- Vitamin A like Zinc and Biotin
- Aloe vera drink and topical gel
- Onion juice rubbed on the scalp
- Some essential oils like tea tree oil, rosemary, lavender, peppermint oil
- Other oils like coconut, jojoba, olive oil
Alopecia and Ayurveda
Indralupt or Alopecia is an autoimmune disorder, which we know as rapid hairloss and hair follicles and fungal infection. Currently, it is becoming a very common disease affecting people from young to old age groups.
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