Preventing hair loss is a very difficult thing to do, because [link]male pattern [link]baldness[/link][/link] is genetic and predetermined at birth; but there are a few things you can do to slow it down if not prevent hair loss. If you are looking into preventing hair loss the first place to start is by understanding exactly what causes it. A less common form of hair loss, alopecia areata, is an auto immune disorder. This means that your own immune system is attacking hair follicles and there is nothing that can be done in the way of hair loss prevention in this case. If you wear your hair in a tight braid or pony tail, you may be experiencing traction alopecia. This simply means that the hair is at such high tension that it is being ripped out of the scalp and scar tissue is replacing the hair follicles. If you want to prevent hair loss of this type, simply stop wearing your hair in such a harmful manner.

The most common cause of hair loss is by far male pattern baldness. If you've come to this site looking for answers on preventing hair loss you are most likely already experiencing a receding hair line or thinning hair. However, there are tests which can very accurately predict the chances of you losing your hair to male pattern baldness, and how early this is likely to occur. If you become aware of this, there are lifestyle changes you can make to significantly slow down its progression. Androgenic alopecia is caused by a hormone called DHT, and a healthier diet seems to slow down its progression. This means more fruits and green vegetables and less fats, sugars and salts.

Exercise can help slow this down as well, but it is specific to different types of exercise. A good example of this is the rise in male pattern baldness in Japan after the Second World War. Before the war, the rates of men who began to bald before the age of forty were very low. They lived a much more active lifestyle, the agricultural sector employed a vast amount of people and they would work their field throughout the entire day. During and after the war the country began to industrialize and the average lifestyle became far more sedentary; and cases of male pattern baldness rose dramatically. Some speculated that it could be due to the trauma of enduring the war, but this has largely been disproven as the higher rates still persist to younger generations who did not experience it. So aerobic and cardio exercise throughout the day may very well be a great source of hair loss prevention. There are varying thoughts on whether shorter, more strenuous forms of exercise like weight training help or hurt the hair loss process, though most would agree it is harmful. This is because it produces large amounts of testosterone, which goes unused and is turned into DHT which chokes off nutrients to hair follicles.

As I said, these are ways to slow down hair loss and are not necessarily hair loss prevention. To effectively combat hair loss you need to take a much more direct approach. This means stopping DHT from binding to hair follicles. There are both pharmaceutical product and herbal supplements and ointments which can accomplish this task. While pharmaceuticals usually have negative side effects, their herbal counterparts do not but still retain a relatively high success rate. If you have already lost a significant amount of hair, the same products can be used to regain hair as well as prevent hair loss.