Hair Fall

 Hair Fall  - Reason and Remedies

Dr. KS Prasanna, Director, Institute of Applied Dermatology, Kasaragod, Kerala

Scalp hair is cosmetically an essential part of the human body. Both men and women wish to have healthy, thick, and stylish hair. Many beauty parlours thrive because of different hair styling and other hair cosmetics.  However, to have the right hairstyle, one should have thick and healthy scalp hair. Ladies want only thick scalp hair, not the facial one, whereas men long to have good scalp hair as well as moustache & beard.

In our day-to-day practice, we come across many patients complaining of hair loss. In dermatology, the hair itself is a different speciality known as Trichology.

The common complaint is” sudden loss of hair doctor, I am afraid to have a bath or comb my hair. I could see hair everywhere in the bathroom, pillow cover, and floor. I am sure I will be bald soon”.Being a dermatologist, I must console this patient and give her relief. This can be done only by asking her some questions. Dermatologists want the answer to the questions, what is the duration,  is your menstrual cycle regular, is it confined to one area or entire scalp, is it complete hair fall or broken shaft, do you have itching or dandruff, any of your family male members have baldness, are you on any drugs, do you have any other severe illness, is there any sibling rivalry, are you stressed for any reason, are you on a crash diet, do you have small baby,” and so on.

Taking a good history usually draws out the diagnosis in most of the cases. However, to confirm it, we have to investigate the patient, by doing a blood test, hair microscopy, and hair scan, which is known as Trichoscopy. Trichoscopy gives a definite diagnosis of hair loss. The treatment of hair loss is a combined effort of the dermatologist, dietician, Ayurveda physician, and homeopathy doctor. Diet is significant in hair fall, to correct their dietary deficiencies. Ayurveda has rejuvenating oils, homeopathy, when combined with allopathy, is good medicine for stress management. By this combined effort; allopathy, Ayurveda, homeopathy, and diet correction for hair loss disorders, what we call in our institute as integrative management, we can give a ray of hope for these fed up hair fall patients.