How long do I need treatment for my FFA?

How long do I need treatment for my FFA?

I’ve selected this question below for this week’s question of the week. It allows us to review some concepts in treating FFA.

Question

I was diagnosed with frontal fibrosing alopecia last month. I’ve started on hydroxychloroquine and steroid injections. How long am I going to need to do this treatment?

Answer

Thanks for your question. Some patients with FFA need treatment for 1-2 years and some patients with FFA need treatment for 10-20 years. Some never can stop treatment without losing hair. It’s difficult to say for any given person how long they will need treatment but over time you’ll come to know the answer for yourself and your specific case.

The first step in treatment is to stop the disease so that it does not keep getting worse and worse. Once your doctor stops the disease, he or she will want to continue medications a bit longer and see if it stays quiet for many years or starting acting up again and causing more hair loss. If the conditions stays quiet, it may be possible to starting slowly ‘tapering” medications or reducing the dose bit by bit. If the disease stays quiet and you don’t start losing hair again when the dose is tapered then it means that things are truly quiet.

Step 1 therefore is to stop the disease

Step 2 is to keep the disease stopped

Step 3 is to slowly taper some medications (if possible)

There is a view out there in the internet that scarring alopecia simply burn out after a year or two. This is not correct. Some patients of course do have a form that goes inactive rather quickly. But not all do. Some patients need to try many different medications before they find a combination that finally stops the disease. some get the treatment right on the first try.

What treatments for Androgenetic Alopecia Regrow Hair and Which just Stop it from Getting Worse?

Treatments for Androgenetic Hair Loss in Women

I’ve selected this question below for this week’s question of the week. It allows us to review treatments for androgenetic alopecia.

Question

I know there are many treatments for female androgenetic hair loss. I would like to know which treatments come with the chance that it will regrow hair and which just stop it from getting worse? How are these divided

Thank you

Answer

Thanks for the great question.

Every single recognized treatment for androgenetic hair loss comes with the potential to 'regrow hair.' That does not mean that it actually will regrow hair for any given person, but all come with some chance.

Again, it might not do that for every single user, but every treatment has this chance. If it does not, it doesn't work at all! There is no treatment in the world that "just maintains" hair. We do not categorize treatments in terms of “this group is a group that grows hair” and “this group is a group that just maintains it.”

Every single treatment has a certain percent of patients that will regrow some hair, a certain percent that will regrow a lot of hair, a certain percentage that will not regrow all that much but will maintain, and a certain percentage that the product won't help at all and hair loss will occur.

Example with topical minoxidil

For example, consider topical minoxidil:

30%-40% of women using topical minoxidil will regrow some hair with a 15-20% of women will regrow a lot of hair

30% of women using topical minoxidil will not regrow all that much but will still benefit from using the product because it will help maintain density.

30-40 % of women using topical minoxidil won't get much help at all from using the product.

Thanks and I hope this helps.