Dr. Niranjana Raj, MBBS. MD Skin,VD & Leprosy, FRGUHS – Dermatologist, Dermatosurgeon Joint Managing Director – YCDCMBBS. 

Have you noticed your hairline beginning to recede? Most men and women notice the first signs of hair loss at some point in their late 20’s, 30’s or 40’s. Nothing is quite as terrifying to an individual as losing his/her hair.

Each year thousands of individuals go abroad and go under the knife to get back their hair. Receding hairline is a type of progressive hair loss that is characterized by the thinning of hair – typically on the sides of the forehead – before developing into full baldness. It is, therefore, an early warning sign of baldness or balding. A receding hairline is something that most individual – if not all – will have to deal with at some point during their lives.

It’s easy to panic when you see your hairline creeping backward every year but there are some measures you can take to help keep your luscious locks in-tact and ready to fight another day. Take a look at your lifestyle; if you’re particularly stressed, have had a change in diet or have male pattern baldness in your family then the likelihood of you losing your hair is higher.

A receding hairline is most often linked to aging and hereditary factors. Other factors like smoking cigarettes can contribute to a receding hairline and aggravate hair loss.

There are more natural, herbal remedies widely available for you to try. While these might not grow your hairline back, they can certainly offer a slight relief when it comes to hair loss, especially when it comes to thinning hair for men.

The social stigma surrounding hair transplants is steadily decreasing. This is thanks in no small part to a number of high-profile public figures opting to have the treatment and be open about it.

Put simply, the procedure involves extracting hair follicles – either individually or in strips – from an area of the scalp where hair doesn’t get lost (usually the back and sides). Then it’s a case of rehoming them in places affected by hair loss. The finished results can be very impressive, with many men enjoying full heads of hair again within a year.

However, the surgery’s continued success hinges on the use of the medications mentioned above. If a patient has the treatment and is not taking a hair loss preventing drug, hair loss could continue to get worse and make the transplant look unnatural.

Apart from this, your diet plays a massive part in knowing how to stop a receding hairline as a diet rich in protein and iron will help fight against the balding. Now, this isn’t a cure for a receding hairline, but it will certainly help tackle it. If you have, or have ever had, an eating disorder, then this may be a reason for your shedding scalp; also crash dieting as well, as you’re denying your body of the nutrients it needs to help regrow your hair.

At the end of the day, most of us would rather keep the hair we have – if only because it’s fun to have a hairstyle and reassuring to have something to keep your bonce warm in the winter.