Hair & Scalp (Trichology)
What is Trichology?
Trichology is the branch of Medicine, which deals with the diseases related to Hair and Sclap.
Dr. Arnav Mukherjee – Certified Medical Trichologist (CMT):
Dr. Arnav is a medical graduate in Homeopathy (BHMS) from University of Calcutta. After graduating, he got the opportunity to work with renowned Homeopathic and Trichology institutes like Dr. Batra’s and DHI India. He is having altogether 12 years of professional experience in the field of Medical Trichology. In the year 2020, he completed Post-Graduate Diploma in Medical Trichology, recognized by University of Greifswald, Germany. He had successfully treated more than 2000 patients with intricate scalp and hair related issues.
Structure of Hair and Hair Cycle:
Each human hair is having 2 parts, – Hair shaft and hair root. Hair shaft is basically visible part of hair which comes out from the hair root. Hair root is attached to the deeper layer of the skin. The shaft of hair is having 3 layers, – Cuticle, Cortex and medulla. Theses 3 layers are covered by Cell membrane.
Hair Cycle
From starting till end, a hair passes through 4 different stages. Those stages are Anagen, Catagen, Telogen and Exogen. Anagen phase is the growing phase where hair grows around half an inch in a month. This stage lasts for 3-5 years. Then comes Catagen phase, which is very short and known as transitional phase. Catagen phase lasts for around 2-weeks. Then comes the telogen phase or the resting phase; here the hair rests for around 3 months, – no possible activity is found during this stage. Finally, hair comes into exogen phase, where the hair is released from the follicles and falling off. The most important thing is that all the hair follicles remain in different stages at one point in time so at a time only few hair remain in the telogen or exogen phase, whereas around 90% hair remain in Anagen or growing phase.
Types of Hair Loss
We also say alopecia as hair loss, hair loss is a health condition due to interruption or disturbance in the body’s normal or natural hair cycle. Hair loss can happen from any part of the body but most disturbing is the scalp hair loss. In average Indian individual, we have around 100,000 hair on our scalp and they go through Anagen, Catagen, Telogen and Exogen phases as in growing, transitional, resting and falling phases. In the normal conditions, around 10% of our hair remain in Telogen or Exogen phase that means around 10,000 hair remain in this phase at a time, but the important thing is that all these hair do not fall off at a single time it falls in a phased manner. So in an adult individual, we consider that falling of around 50-100 hair per day is normal, provided the Anagen phase or Growth Phase is intact.
Androgenetic Alopecia or Pattern Hair loss:
This is the most common type of hair loss. It follows in different pattern different in male and female.
The most common cause of androgenetic alopecia is Hereditary. The most important factor of this kind of hair loss is Di-hidro testosterone (DHT).
Telogen Effluvium:
This is another very important kind of hair loss where excessive number of hair enter in the resting phase (Telogen phse) in a very short period of time. So eventually these hair go to the Exogen phase or falling phase; thus people experience an excessive amount of hair fall. This might quantify upto 300 to 500 strands of hair fall per day. Excessive number of hair fall might lead to reduction in volume of hair and also thinning from certain parts of the scalp. But this condition is reversible with proper medication and therapies. If it persists more than 6 months it is called Chronic Telogen Effluvium (CTE).
The causes of this problem are, – thyroid imbalances, Childbirth, infectious disease, surgery etc. Improper diets, vitamins or mineral deficiency, intake of different medications such as isotretinoin – commonly prescribed to control acne, warfarin and blood thinner are common causes; stoppage of oral contraceptive pills (OCPs) also a factor for sudden hair loss.
Anagen Effluvium:
In this condition, there is sudden enormous amount of hair loss mostly due to the after effect of chemotherapy. This condition is self-limiting. Sometimes it requires medical interventions.
Alopecia Areata:
It is an auto-immune condition, where our body sometimes un-naturally and without any apparent reason produce some antibodies which in turn destroys our own healthy tissue, – in this case hair follicles. This type of hair loss can happen at any hair producing part of the body especially over the scalp. Once the alopecia covers the entire scalp,- it is called alopecia totalis and when alopecia happens from the entire body’s hair bearing area, – it is called alopecia universalis.
Types of Hair Loss due to Scalp disorders:
Cicatrical Alopecia:
Cicatrical alopecia is known as scarring alopecia. There are several kinds of chronic (sometimes autoimmune) inflammations over the scalp causing some sort of permanent damage of the hair follicles and scarring. Once the scar tissues are formed, there is no chance of hair growth on that particular area. There are several skin conditions which incurs to scarring alopecia or cicatrical alopecia:
Lichen Planopilaris:
It is a sort of dry, scaly, flaky rash over the scalp. When it occurs over the normal skin surfaces, – we call it as Lichen planus. The skin becomes red, irritated, itchy, burning and painful. As the follicles are damaged, hair falls off in lumps over the affected areas. In classical homeopathy we have permanent solution for this issue.
Discoid Lupus Erythematosus:
It is a type of skin lupus. It is an autoimmune skin lesions. There are inflamed sores over the different parts of the body, once it happens over the scalp – no hair grows from that particular area of the scalp.
Folliculitis Decalvans:
It is also a chronic inflammatory disorder, mostly autoimmune mostly happens over the scalp. This disorder starts with folliculitis and followed by pustules, which causes the permanent skin damage.
Central Centrifugal Cicatrical Alopecia:
It occurs basically due to use of some hair products, chemicals or some styling things. The regular usage of hair straighteners, blow dryers, curling irons might cause this kind of scalp condition.
Types of Hair Loss due to Hair Shaft Abnormalities:
Hair Shaft Abnormalities are very common now-a-days. Continuous usage of chemicals, products, gels causing brittleness of the hair shaft. In this case the hair loss does not occur at the follicles. It breaks in the middle of the shaft. It also happens due to some chronic deficiency like zinc, iron, calcium, vitamins etc. There are different kinds of Hair Shaft Abnormalities:
Lose Anagen Syndrome:
Here the hair is not firmly rooted in the depth of hair root. It can be pulled out very easily. It occurs mostly in the young kid. Sometimes, it happens in adults also, where he or she has been suffering from chronic nutritional deficiency. Here the hair is falling from the anagen stage which is very uncommon as we know that hair normally falls after reaching to the falling phase or telogen or exogen phase. It cures very rapidly with proper classical homeopathic medication at Healer’s Homeopathy.
Trichotillomania:
It is a psychological disorder where the patient pulls their own hair. The person who are suffering from chronic depression seldom having this kind of habits of pulling out their own hair. Homeopathic medication and psychotherapy cures this kind of disorder in a very short period of time.
Traction Alopecia:
This type of hair loss generally happens due to constant traction on some part of the hair roots of the scalp. It mostly happen for the female whose job requires to have a tidy hair style most of their duty hours like air hostess, hospitality industry. Or male who wear turban like sikh people do. Here, it has been noticed that change of hair style often cure the condition naturally; but once the hair roots are permanently damaged, then there are very few chances left.
Hypotrichosis:
Hypotrichosis is a genetic disorder, where there are very little hair grows on the scalp and over the body. Most of the people with hypotrichosis, get bald very early or by the age of 25 years. There are few homeopathic medications by which we can improve this condition of hypotrichosis.
Diagnosis of Hair and Scalp Disorders at Healer’s Homeopathy:
At Healer’s Homeopathy, under the guidance of Dr. Arnab Mukherjee, who is a Certified Medical Trichologist (CMT), we first try to pin point the diagnosis. Unless we diagnose the disease condition perfectly, we cannot formulate the exact treatment protocol for the patient.
Tools used for diagnosis of Hair and Scalp:
We use Follioscope or Video Microscope where we can magnify the scalp visibility upto 500 times (500X) and with the help of this we can check the scalp condition and hair shaft. We use Woodslamp. With the Woodslamp we can differentiate between scalp seborrhea and scalp psoriasis and different other scalp disease conditions.
Treatment Protocols:
Formulated Homeopathic Medication:
This is the most important aspect of treatment. Once we diagnose the actual disease condition, at Healer’s Homeopathy we start prescribing for our patients. Prescribing of homeopathic medication for hair and scalp disorders is having 2 parts, – First, symptomatic prescription, which is basically understanding the disease condition where patient is complaining about pain, burning, flaking, bleeding, itching, scaling etc and we prescribe accordingly. Second is symptomatological prescribing where we prescribe constitutional medications after understanding the complete case history. This medication eventually cure the disease from its root.
Associated with this we give our patients a specially formulated combination of Hair Growth Serum which is to improve the underlying blood circulation surrounding the hair follicles and to rejuvenate the follicles. Associated with this we also provide our patients combination of different essential minerals which is very important for the hair to grow in a healthy manner.
Collagen Induction therapy:
Collagen induction therapy is basically microneedling. Microneedling can be performed with the help of either dermaroller or dermapen. The objective of this treatment is to create tiny and very minor scalp injuries which range from .5 mm to 1 mm in depth. These tiny micro pores then release the factors that promote hair growth.