Innovative therapies for hair restoration and rejuvenation: an overview

Hair loss and baldness are incredibly common and are determined by a variety of underlying contributing factors, including endocrine problems; specific drugs; autoimmune diseases; systemic illness; infection; dermatological scalp conditions; and a lack of certain nutrients in the diet (Glancey, 2023).

There are many different types of hair loss, including:

This last type is the most common cause of hair loss in men and women, affecting approximately 80% of Caucasian males and 50% of females, respectively, by the age of 70 years (Yang et al, 2021), and will therefore be the presentation most frequently encountered by aesthetic practitioners. This would suggest that AA presents an urgent challenge for aesthetic practitioners, which is especially the case when considering the psychosocial impact of hair loss. More than 25% of males with AA report hair loss to be extremely upsetting, with 65% expressing modest to moderate emotional distress; according to a systematic review, males experiencing high levels of hair loss also indicated increased incidence of negative socioemotional events, including fear that others would notice and of looking older than their actual age; feeling less attractive and hopeless about their hair loss; and getting teased by their peers (Aukerman and Jafferany, 2023). The same systematic review found that 70% of women experiencing hair loss express feelings of extreme emotional distress due to their condition, with higher incidence levels of depression reported; ANOVAs comparing female AA patients to male AA patients found that, on average, women experienced a greater reduction in positive life events and more adverse psychosocial effects, including higher social anxiety, lower self esteem, and reduced life satisfaction (Aukerman and Jafferany, 2023). Women were also found to be more likely to demonstrate coping strategies or patterns, some of which could be maladaptive, including tendencies and characteristics associated with body dysmorphia and mood disorders (Aukerman and Jafferany, 2023). The prejudice faced by those experiencing hair loss is not merely a subjective perception: a study conducted in Korea in 2002 assessing the perception of baldness in society revealed that balding males were perceived as being older and less attractive than nonbalding males by over 90% of the total respondents (Aukerman and Jafferany, 2023).