The normal hair growth cycle lasts for 2 to 6 years. During this phase each hair grows approximately 1 cm per month. At any one time on your scalp, about 90% of your hairs grow while 10% are in a resting phase. After two or three months, hair in resting phase falls and the new hair start growing in its place. It is quite normal to shed some hair each day being a part of this cycle; however some people experience more than normal hair loss.
Causes of Excessive Hair Loss
Excessive hair loss may take place due to several reasons-
Illness- Three or four months of illness, after that there is a sudden hair loss in large amount. This kind of hair loss is for a temporary period.
Hormonal Problems- If your thyroid gland is overactive or under active, it can cause hair loss to you. It can be controlled by taking a treatment for thyroid. Hair loss may also occur, if androgens (male hormone) and estrogens (female hormone) are imbalanced.
Medicines- Some medicines can cause hair fall for the period you take them. As soon as you stop taking medicine, hair loss gets controlled up to a great extent.
Fungal Infection- Hair loss due to fungal infection is common in children. It can be cured with antifungal medicines.
Hair Loss in Men
Hair loss in men is quite serious issue these days which usually gets turned in to common baldness. The reason behind it may be imbalanced diet and stress related to personal or professional life. Common baldness is a permanent baldness. It results in a receding hair line and baldness on the top of the head. Men can develop common baldness at the early age also, that affects their look and they start looking older than their actual age.
Role of Propecia in Hair Fall Treatment
Propecia is FDA approved hair fall medicine, specifically for males. Propecia is finasteride 1 mg pill. Finasteride is also marketed as proscar, fincar, prosteride, finax, finolo and some other brands. Finasteride inhibits the enzyme, type II 5-alpha reductase that converts testosterone (steroid hormone from androgen group) to dihydrotestosterone and this way finasteride controls hair fall in men. It also treats prostatic cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia.
In 1997, the US Food and Drug Administration approved finasteride to treat male pattern hair loss. A five year clinical study was conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of propecia in mild to moderate hair loss in men. As a result, 48% of those, who were treated with propecia, experienced hair regrowth and 42% had no further hair loss. There was shown an increasing difference from hair count of people in the placebo group throughout five years of study.
Finasteride preparation “proscar” contains 5 mg of it. Some people, in order to save money, buy proscar in spite of propecia as it can be used five times by splitting it into five parts.
There is one salt which has been proved more effective than finasteride (propecia) in blocking the formation of DHT. This salt is named as dutasteride which is marketed as avodart (dutasteroid 0.5 mg).
You can buy propecia, proscar, avodart and quality generics online; however the quality should not be ignored. Therefore it is always preferred to buy propecia or relevant medicines from the authorized websites only, who is the member of one of the reputed organizations like International Association of Licensed pharmacists. These websites give an easy and self explanatory access to order these medicines even without prescription. You would get your order delivered in a few days as these online systems provide quite fast shipping with discreet packing. A few of them also provide discount on every medication reorder.