The cause of hair loss include heredity, hormones, diet, stress, illness, and also poor hair care. Diet, Stress and illness are considered more temporary conditions and the hair loss usually can be reversed when the diet is improved, or when the anxiety inducing condition is reduced, the illness is cured, when hair care improves.

Hormones and heredity are a much more different matter. Heredity is a condition that is irreversible. Your parents pass certain physical traits along to there children and hair loss can often be one of these. With hormones, it is completely different and they will have effect people differently.

With males, testosterone is produced in abundance. There are enzymes that alter testosterone, this in turn produces something called DHT. DHT is known to be present in the blood and also it can cause other conditions, the shrinking of the hair follicles is one of these. If a hair follicle shrinks, enough it will be unable to grow or produce new hair. With the old hair dying constantly falling, it will not be replaced as is normally the case.

In women, a hormone imbalance can cause hair loss. Childbirth, pregnancy, and menopause can all lead to significant changes in the levels of hormones in the body, leading to both mental and physical effects. You can also find that during this time these changes can cause temporary or permanent loss of hair.

Products used for hair regrowth and hair loss have been used for centuries. In the ancient times, many different herbal and oil based remedies were made by the American Indians, Aztecs, Mayans and Egyptians, all with varying degrees of effectiveness.

The modern medical research community has mainly focused on different ways to open or stimulate the semi dead hair follicles, allowing hair growth to occur naturally again, as well as keeping the normal hair follicles healthy. This has lead to many products being available, some you can get over the counter and others you will need a prescription.

There is one ingredient in particular that many hair loss products include and that is minoxidil. It has been shown in research studies that this helps about 80% of the time to slow hair loss and in some actually helps to re grow hair. The most well known of these would have to be Rogaine.

Another product that contains minoxidil is Provillus, and it has also proven very effective in studies. The primary different between this and other products that are similar, is that they have added Azelaic Acid, this appears to enhance the repair of the hair follicle in both men and women.