Regrow Hair

Is it possible to regrow hair? Generally speaking, you can't regrow what isn't planted, so as long as the hair follicle is not dead (in other words, is either healthy, damaged or dormant), there is a chance to stimulate the follicle to regrow hair. Under normal circumstances the hair follicle doesn't die suddenly - simply put, it has the life squeezed out of it until it eventually withers and dies. So just because you have a balding spot on your head doesn't necessarily mean that the follicle is dead and that you cannot regrow hair there. The longer the hair loss period has been though, the less chance there is to regrow hair. It is essential therefore that you take whatever remedial steps you feel necessary as early as possible from the onset of hair loss. The sooner you take action, the better chance there'll be to regrow hair.

At the time of writing however there are only two approved pharmaceutical products on the market that are capable of actual hair regrowth – Propecia and Rogaine (with their active ingredients being Finasteride and Minoxidil respectively), as well as a number of surgical procedures which can transplant healthy hair follicles, and thus create hair growth.

These options are not without their share of limitations. In the case of a pharmaceutical remedy to growing hair, continued usage is a must. Once the patient ceases to use the product, any new hair growth will be lost and their hair will revert back to its pre-usage state, sometimes at an alarming rate. In the case of regrowing hair surgically, this method can be extremely expensive and the results can be varied, depending on who you choose to carry out the procedure.

There are also some ‘combination treatments’ coming onto the market that claim to regrow hair. These products normally contain either Finasteride or Minoxidil and are combined with herbs and other ingredients and marketed under completely independent brand names. In these cases it pays to remember that it’s probably the Finasteride or Minoxidil ingredient that provides any real hair growth, thus you would be better opting for either Propecia or Rogaine in the first place.

There are also any number of other products (ranging from completely natural to totally synthetic) that suggest they can too can regrow hair, but these products don’t have any national regulatory approval, such as from the U.S’s FDA. Use a great deal of discretion if trying out such products. With the FDA, as a general rule of thumb, any ‘over the counter’ product ( to be applied externally) that purports to regrow hair, must be classified as a new drug and therefore pass through the FDA’s drug approval process. Only the previously mentioned Propecia and Rogaine have so far satisfied this procedure for regrowing hair.