What is hair loss?
Hair loss is used as an umbrella term for any hair shedding. But in reality, some amount of hair fall is completely normal. In women that is about 80-100 strands and in men about 50-70 strands. But if this increases or if you start to notice hair thinning which is making your scalp visible along with hair loss. Then you are probably suffering from a hair loss condition.
What are the different hair loss conditions?
Androgenic Alopecia - Also known as Male Pattern Baldness or Female Pattern Hair Loss. This type of hair loss condition is very gradual and starts with hair thinning. In men it presents as a receding hairline or thinning around the vortex. In women it results in widening in the partition or poor hair growth. It progresses in stages and there are 7 stages of progression. It is genetic but it can be triggered by diet, stress, lifestyle, sleep and health issues.
Telogen Effluvium - This hair loss is triggered when your body undergoes significant physical and mental stress. This can be due to multiple causes such as sudden weight loss, pregnancy, illness (Covid, malaria, dengue, thyroid) and mental trauma.This presents as rapid and heavy hair loss. Thus people can end up losing 200-300 strands in a day.
Alopecia Areata - This hair loss condition is an autoimmune disorder. It presents as a round bald patch on the scalp and in some cases even on the rest of the body as well. This requires treatment with corticosteroids and must be taken only with the supervision and prescription from a dermatologist. While there is no conclusive evidence, research suggests that stress can be one of the triggers.
Now that you know about hair loss conditions, it is time to compare treatment options - Allopathy vs Ayurveda.
Allopathy vs Ayurveda : Which one is a better treatment for Hair loss?
Allopathy and Ayurveda are two different types of sciences widely used in hair loss treatments. Both of them work towards managing hair loss, but the approach is quite different. Allopathy treats hair loss as a result of hormonal imbalance, stress, illnesses, vitamin deficiency and genes. According to Ayurveda hair loss can be a result of internal health issues such as digestion, sleep, metabolism, lack of nourishment to follicles among others.
Ayurveda doesn’t directly treat hair loss but takes a bottom’s up approach, where it treats hair loss by improving your internal health. Whereas, allopathy works directly by blocking DHT, reversing the effect of DHT on follicles and elongating the growth phase of the hair cycle using clinically approved treatments. So what works better?
What causes hair loss?
Hair loss can be due to several reasons, some of the major reasons are listed below :
- Genetic: Androgenic Alopecia or male or female pattern baldness, which is one of the most common causes of hair loss. When your genes carry the genetic predisposition to hair loss, it is termed as genetic hair loss. It is best managed at an early stage or during the onset of the condition.
- Stress related: Hair fall is triggered due to physical or mental strain or stress that pushes the majority of hair in the telogen shedding phase and this is also called Telogen Effluvium. You notice more than desired shedding during this period of time.
- Nutritional deficiencies: Diets that lack sufficient amounts of proteins, iron and certain vitamins and minerals can make hair structurally weak, causing them to fall out easily.
- Unhealthy lifestyle: Disturbed sleep cycles, lack of physical activities, alcohol abuse and smoking interferes with the body's normal functioning causing hormonal imbalances and leads to hair loss.
- Health conditions: Health conditions such as PCOS, thyroid, depression, covid, dengue, typhoid can trigger hair loss conditions. By either aggravating pattern hair loss or triggering telogen effluvium. Not only do health conditions directly affect hair loss but certain medications you might be on also increase hair loss.
- Internal Health: Poor digestion, metabolism and absorption can affect nutrition levels, hormonal balance, dosha balance and bone health all of which can contribute to hair loss by aggravating existing hair loss conditions.
- Environment: Exposure to constant pollution, elements and hard water can also aggravate hair loss by deteriorating scalp health.
How does Allopathy treat hair loss?
Allopathy treats hair loss with clinically proven prescription medication such as Minoxidil, Topical or Oral Finasteride, Redensyl. Allopathy solutions help inhibit or block DHT production, increase blood flow to follicles and increase the duration of anagen (growth) phase. While these products are quite effective they don’t guarantee sustainable results because they don’t resolve the triggers that are aggravating the hair loss conditions. Therefore, allopathic treatments cannot be seen as a complete solution for hair loss.
Redensyl is the latest innovation on hair loss and is made out of plant based ingredients. It is not a prescription solution and can be bought over the counter. It works on stem cell division and promotes hair regrowth by stimulating hair to enter the hair regrowth phase.
How does Ayurveda treat hair loss?
On the other hand, ayurveda aims at bringing about healing from within. It targets root causes of hair loss and aims at improving internal health. Ayurvedic science uses traditional herb mixes and diet modifications to address these issues. Tray’s ayurvedic herb mixes target different root causes to improve over health, control hair loss and boost regrowth.
Hair Ras - This herb mix formula contains herbs like ashwagandha, shatavari, amalaki, bhringraj and tapyadi lauh amongst others to provide nourishment to your hair follicles and reduce pitta dosha in your body.
Health Tatva - This Ayurvedic formula is made with kitchen herbs such as black pepper, ajwain, hing, cumin, sonth, rock salt, etc to boost your metabolism, absorption and fight fatigue naturally to improve your energy levels and boost hair health.
Gut Shuddhi - This formula is made with natural ingredients such as amla, behada, clove, ginger, cardamom, haritaki, etc to improve your gut health by cleansing and detoxing it. It helps improve unsatisfactory bowel movements and constipation to facilitate better gut health which helps boost hair health.
