Why am I losing hair at a young age?

Recently, I went out for a picnic with my college friends. We all had a good time there spent in the middle of valleys and mountains. After two days, my friends started posting our pictures on Instagram and Facebook. We were so thrilled with the move we made that weekend. But, I don’t know why –I was not happy looking at those pictures. I was kind of feeling ashamed of looking at myself in the clicks.

The reason was my receding hair line giving me an ugly look! I figured it out after closely inspecting those pictures for an hour.

Those were my college days and I did not want to spoil my look for the entire life. I wanted a quick-fix solution for hair loss. I read a lot about hair loss treatment for men on the internet, consulted my girlfriend, asked my mum, etc. My girlfriend suggested me to change the shampoo and stop using hair gel. My mom told me some DIY-treatments – I followed their instructions – still I was losing hair.

We understand the trauma of this college teen losing hair at a young age. While it is uncommon for him to see his hair falling, hair loss for men at a young age is quite common these days. Men are officially inching towards losing more hair in their 20s, which is debilitating for a person’s psyche and gives rise to emotional turmoil. They feel defeated much before in their early years and feel compelled looking at the ads, jingles, medicines, and products, which says, that they offer the best hair loss treatment for men.

While it is important to understand that hair loss for men or women, is not cosmetic. Hair loss is a medical condition. There are 40 different types of hair loss and there are 100s of medical reasons why the hair loss can happen. Therefore, the first step to correct hair loss for men is to identify the reason – is it happening due to your addictive behavior (smoking, alcohol), or you’re getting exposed to pollution, stress, medications, every day. Or, you might have some hidden medical disorder, which is causing you hair loss as a side-effect.

The right step for taking hair loss treatment for men would be to consult a trichologist. A trichologist can easily identify the symptoms of hair loss for men and ‘stage them’ appropriately with a video microscope (an instrument available at all our Dr Batra’s clinic).

Video microscopy is a painless, non-invasive technique. It magnifies hair follicles and the scalp up to 200 times. It helps to detect hair thinning early - before it is visible to the naked eye! Besides, it provides a microscopic view of the scalp and determines the status of your hair follicles. It can also help to measure and compare hair density, or thickness, in different areas and over a period of time. In the process, it can help to monitor and record the progression of hair loss treatment for men.

A susceptibility to hair loss can also be predicted with video microscopy - in other words, the technique can help analyse and foretell possible hair loss years before it actually occurs.

What does this imply? The earlier your hair loss is diagnosed, the better your success rate with suitable hair loss treatment for men.