If you or your barber or hairstylist notice that your hair is thinning, you'll probably want to seek out the services of a hair loss specialist. Depending on the person's qualifications, a hair loss specialist can help you decide on and implement a treatment for your thinning hair. You may consider surgical hair implants. As this is a surgical procedure, you should be very careful in selecting the surgeon who will perform the procedure. Be sure to ask for references as well as before and after photographs of the surgeon's work. There are numerous hair loss treatments now available, so it may be a good idea to speak to more than one specialist in order to understand all your options.
Before seeking cosmetic treatments for hair loss, it may be a good idea to first seek medical advice. Hair loss is sometimes a symptom of a medical condition and ought not be ignored. In some cases, treatment for the condition can halt or even reverse the hair loss, making further efforts at hair restoration unnecessary. Your regular doctor may be able to offer guidance or may refer you to a dermatologist or even an endocrinologist in hopes of discovering why you are losing hair. Your doctor may recommend or prescribe either prescription drugs to treat your hair loss or topical treatments that can be purchased over the counter.
In situations where hair loss is inevitable or permanent, you may want to speak to a hair loss specialist who can help restore your hair. In some places, such as the United States, there is no one officially recognized credential or board certification for medical hair loss specialists. This means that while any doctor can technically perform hair restoration and call himself a hair loss specialist, not all of them should be doing so, and you may not get the results that you want.
When hair loss is temporary, such as during chemotherapy, wearing a wig can be an option. Wigs and hairpieces are also a non-surgical, non-medical approach to dealing with hair loss, which appeals to a lot of people. In some places, health insurance companies now cover the cost of wigs for patients with hair loss, so it is a good idea to check with your insurance to see what it will cover. Some boutiques and salons now offer special services for those who need cranial prosthetics, an insurance-industry term for wigs, including specially designed wig caps and custom styled wigs. If medical treatments are not a good option for you, ask your hair loss specialist for a referral to a good source of wigs.
