Hope for Hair Loss Sufferers

There is hope for men and women who suffer from common pattern baldness-or alopecia-but it requires a lifetime commitment.

Hair loss is one of those genetic misfortunes passed from generation to generation. There is no cure, but there are medical and surgical solutions available for balding folks.

The most common pharmaceutical weapons against hair loss, minoxidil and finasteride (Propecia), get a lot of late night TV advertising. Best known is Rogaine, a topical solution containing minoxidil. The drugs are somewhat successful in stopping or slowing hair loss, but less successful in regrowing lost hair, says Arnold Gurevitch, M.D., USC professor and chief of dermatology. "The results are very limited," Gurevitch explains. "For men and woment using a 2 percent minoxidil formula, less than one-third of the users respond to the treatment and a majority of those responses are cessation of hair loss. Less than 10 percent of all the users actually regrow hair."

Minoxidil is now available in a 5 percent formula, approved for use by men only. The 5 percent formula is somewhat more effective than 2 percent minoxidil in producing new hair growth.

Propecia, taken in pill form, is significantly more effective than 2 percent minoxidil. About two-thirds of men will grow more hair, and the remaining third stop losing hair, Gurevitch says.

Both of the topical solutions, as well as the Propecia, require a lifetime commitment, though-stop using them and hair loss resumes. "They are really best for younger people at the onset of hair loss," Gurevitch says of the drugs. "Once you have a shiny scalp showing through, they're not going to work."

For men and women with major hair loss, surgery is the final option. Dermatologists and plastic surgeons can remove some of the bald spot through scalp reduction surgery (literally pulling the hair-growing sections of scalp together) and transplant living hairs-often one at a time-from the thickest hair on the side of the head to a hairless area.

"It's quite effective," Gurevitch says. "It's also quite expensive."