It may not be what we want but hair loss is quite a normal bodily function. The causes are many and varied but one thing is for sure and that is untold millions of people of all sexes and ages are affected by it worldwide. Alopecia is the general medical term for hair loss of any type. The most common type of hair loss in men is genetic; known as male pattern baldness, it affects close to 95 percent of males.

What most people don’t know that is if your hair loss is only moderate, it may be that your eating habits are causing the problem and your diet needs to be assessed. Exposure to chemicals or cosmetics, hormonal imbalance, stress, anxiety and mental tension are some of the other causes. No matter what the reason, it is worth remembering that it is only if the hair follicles are damaged that can make the condition permanent. Often mistakenly thought to be a strictly male disease, women actually make up forty percent of American sufferers.

Hair loss is in fact more common with women as they age but it is often caused by a thyroid problem. By the age of sixty, four out of every ten women in the world will have experienced some loss. During and after a pregnancy is another time when women may experience a hair loss problem. If you always thought that patterned hereditary baldness was a male problem then you will be surprised to learn that in America approximately 30 million women also suffer from this condition.

The best solution if you have permanent hair loss is to have it surgically restored and although a relatively new treatment has achieved considerable success. The treatment uses a technique to transplant hair follicles from a healthy area of the scalp to an area where the follicles are dead. Hair transplants have become the most popular form of hair restoration treatment for men with the entire procedure done under local anesthetic and on an out-patient basis. Many women are now deciding on hair transplant surgery as a method to hide scarring cause by facelifts for example.

The best result you can go for is to try and recapture how you originally looked when you have hair transplant surgery and not attempt to change your appearance. For a person planning on having hair transplant surgery, all current health issues must be cleared up before any treatment can commence. While cosmetic surgery does include hair restoration as one of its sub-fields, this is a different form of cosmetic treatment available. Fortunately, the science of hair loss and hair restoration is constantly advancing, so if you do not respond to other medical treatments, surgical hair restoration may be the only truly permanent solution to baldness.