Conventional Medicine
Early stages of hair loss can be slowed or reversed with medication, with FDA approved drugs being minoxidil and finasteride. Topical formulations of finasteride have demonstrated similar efficacy to its systemic administration, although prostatic weight and serum PSA levels were not measured in these studies to exclude systemic absorption of finasteride as the mechanism of follicular growth. Other systemic options include the longer acting dutasteride and spironolactone, the latter of which has a high rate of feminizing side effects.
More advanced cases may be resistant or unresponsive to medical therapy, and require hair transplantation. Naturally-occurring units of one to four hairs, called follicular units, are excised and moved to areas of hair restoration. These follicular units are surgically implanted in the scalp in close proximity and in large numbers. The grafts are obtained from either Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) or Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE). In the former, a strip of skin with follicular units is extracted and dissected into individual follicular unit grafts. The surgeon then implants the grafts into small incisions, called recipient sites. Specialized scalp tattoos can also mimic the appearance of a short buzzed haircut.
Read more about this topic: Androgenic Alopecia, Treatment
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