So, is there a new shampoo that will stop my balding and thinning and restore my hair to its proper thickness and pattern? I hate to be the one to break the bad news but there are no shampoos that stop hair loss. If you run across a shampoo based product that claims to restore lost hair in record time you probably should take a closer look at some of the fine print or ask someone who has tried the product.
While there aren’t any shampoos that stop hair loss there are a few that create an environment conducive to new growth and may accelerate the growth of existing hair. Many of these shampoos contain ingredients that are both scalp and hair conditioning agents such as horsetail extract, jojoba oil, aloe vera extract, or essential oils such as lavender. These types of ingredients are a good start as long as a shampoo is not loaded with harmful chemicals whose names you can’t pronounce. Many experts believe that looking for hair and scalp conditioning ingredients along with a label stating the product is organic is a good rule of thumb.
The problem with this approach is that shampoo carefully formulated in this manner are quite expensive and may be out of the financial reach of many people. Others will deduct that the cost outweighs the benefits. Hopefully, over time high quality organic shampoos that stop hair loss will become more affordable and thus more mainstream.
Why aren’t there shampoos that stop hair loss? This is a great question and you deserve an answer! There is no denying that there are some very good natural shampoos which stimulate hair growth and condition the scalp but the problems lies with the cause of most balding and thinning hair; androgenetic alopecia.
Androgenetic alopecia is more commonly known as male or female pattern baldness and attack the hair follicle at the dermis level of the skin (just under the scalp). First it is an inherited condition which makes many people vulnerable to its damage. Second, it is hormone drive. The primary hormone responsible is dihydrotestosterone which accumulates within the hair follicle and actually causes the follicle to shrink to a point where hair growth is no longer possible. Shampoos are simply not capable of reversing this mechanism.
In fact there currently is only one FDA approved topical ingredient that has been proven to slow androgenetic alopecia and that is minoxidil. But even minoxidil struggles with reopening damaged or dead follicles. The success rate is about 30 percent and of that number half of the re-growth is very fine or fuzzy.
In summary, it isn’t necessarily a bad idea to try shampoos that stop hair loss, in fact I have done it myself. What I found was that they did a good job of conditioning and a poor job when it came to restoring lost hair. A good way to look at these products is that they are gentle scalp and hair conditioning agents that may contain ingredients to stimulate the growth of existing hair, and don’t contain many of the damaging ingredients such as sodium laureth sulfate often found in cheaper shampoos.
What Next? There are currently a handful of hair re-growth products (specially formulated for both men and women) which have been proven effective both in blocking harmful hormones and bringing the all important dead hair follicles back to life. These specially formulated treatments can be used both as a preventative tool, starting before hair loss becomes severe, or after loss of hair has become noticeable. Whatever the level of balding or thinning you are experiencing these products could be just what is needed to overcome this latest life challenge.
