It can be alarming when you notice more hair on your pillow each day you wake up. Losing a few hairs daily when you wash or brush your hair is normal, but when you find more than usual, you could start to wonder if you have alopecia. Hair loss can reduce your confidence and self-esteem. It is thus best to understand the causes and possible treatment for your hair loss. One of the few questions you keep asking is whether hair loss from alopecia is permanent or temporary. This should not worry you since your hair can grow back.
The good news is, when you experience hair loss due to alopecia, there are some treatments you can undergo, such as a hair transplant. Before proceeding to a hair transplant, you should check to see the hair transplant cost. However, it is best to read on to understand more about hair loss due to alopecia.
What Is Alopecia
Alopecia means baldness or loss of hair. People with alopecia are not all affected in the same way, but mostly it leaves small patches of hair loss on the scalp. It can also cause a person to lose all the hair on the head and others on the body, but these are rare cases. Alopecia can occur at any age, both to men and women, but it is usually milder if it appears when you are older.
Symptoms and Causes of Alopecia
The immune system is supposed to protect your body from any foreign bacteria and viruses. When you have alopecia, you have autoimmune conditions, which develop when the immune system mistakes the healthy cells for foreign invaders. When this happens, the immune system attacks your hair follicles, causing them to become smaller and thus stop hair production, leading to hair loss.
Hair loss is usually the main symptom of alopecia. When experiencing hair loss due to alopecia, it is not a must for it to occur on the head as it can also appear on other parts of the face, including beard, eyebrows, and eyelashes. Hair loss from alopecia is unpredictable as it can grow back at any time, and it can fall out again. How much a person can lose hair and experience regrowth usually varies from one person to the next.
As alopecia can occur in both men and women, females are more likely to develop it. Hair loss in females occurs mainly on the scalp, eyelashes, and eyebrows. Hair loss in men is more likely to be significant as it can appear on their face, chest, scalp, and back.
Treatment Options for Alopecia
You need to understand alopecia does not have a cure. However, you do not have to be stuck with baldness or thin hair forever. When suffering from hair loss due to alopecia, then it will grow back eventually. Hair growth will not happen overnight as it might take months to grow back. Several treatment options can help restore your hair.
You can opt to get a hair transplant. The right kind of hair transplant will retrieve follicles which will help in giving you a fuller appearance. The best hair transplant should heal quickly and should not leave painful scars on donor areas.
If you are having one or small-sized bald patches, you can opt for steroid injections. When steroid is injected into the bald patches, it can suppress the local immune reaction, allowing the hair follicles to function normally, making the hair regrow. It is crucial to know steroid injections do not work for everyone, especially for big-sized bald patches. Topical steroids may also help hair regrowth, but they do not work as well as a steroid injection. If you have bald patches that cannot be treated with steroid injections, you can opt for this as it takes between 3 to 6 months for the hair to regrow.
Not treating hair loss due to alopecia is common. For many people, bald patches regrow without treatment. It is advisable to let the hair regrow if there are just one or small bald patches. You can opt to change your hairstyle to conceal the few bald patches, but if the hair loss becomes too much, you can reconsider treating it. It is crucial to note that alopecia will not damage your general health and that treatments encourage hair growth but do not cure the condition’s underlying cause. There is always a chance that hair will regrow regardless of whether the hair loss is too bad or not.
