Many different specialists deal with the problems of thinning hair. These will include your barber or hairdresser who may be able to suggest new styles and shampoos. They will not of course be able to prescribe medication.

Herbalists may have great knowledge on the subject and be able to suggest food supplements that may help. Both Chinese and Indian herbalists have a long experience with the condition.

Your general practitioner will be able to discuss the matter and eliminate certain causes such as hypothyroidism, or, in the case of a short term cause, such as the end of pregnancy or interaction with a necessary treatment, they will be able to reassure you. They may also be able to prescribe medication or refer you to a specialist if this seems necessary and helpful.

In the case of women who have recently been pregnant your health visitor or district nurse will be able to explain what is happening and why and what you can expect to happen.

There are many companies out there selling hair restoration products. Look at their web sites carefully and you will see that some have available the results of recent clinical trials or feed back from clients who have used their products. There are also independent web sites giving advice on the subject such as that produced by GM television or Alpha7 Hair Care. However some sites which appear to be independant may belong to drug companies or clinics. That isn’t to say that their advice is necessarily biased, but read carefully.

The makers of wigs and toupees are specialists in their own right if that is the way you decide to proceed.

It may be that your general practitioner will refer you to a dermatologist – that is a specialist in skin conditions, or to an endocrinologist – i.e. a specialist in the function o f the glands.

You may decide on hair transplant surgery in which case there are a number of clinics which specialise in this sort of treatment, and although these will be private clinics, once again your general practitioner will be able to advise you. Modern methods seem to achieve quite good ( though expensive) results without the cornrow appearance of earlier methods.

Some web site writers are experts of a different sort – they use words such as ‘restore the health of your hair’ – this does not necessarily imply new growth. They may have complicated facts and figures that do not compare like with like. They may say such things as ‘6% improvement after 10 months’, but if the clients concerned had 80% loss it will still look like a bald head. So read with care.

Hair loss is a complicated business and there are many different causes of baldness and many different treatments available. However the most common cause is genetic i.e if your father or mother had hair loss then your chances of having the same are much increased. In this case this is a progressive condition. Beware of spending your hard earned cash with so called experts who offer amazing results. Some treatments may halt loss or even improve matters for a while, but they can prove quite expensive in the long run and hair re-growth is a slow process, because we all know that even in the best of circumstances hair grows very slowly.