If hair loss is genetic or an autoimmune condition, available treatments night not be effective for regrowth, but there are hair systems that look like your own hair that can help. The hair is attached using surgical glue and the hair can be blow dried, dyed, straightened. You can swim, shower etc with it. While not your own hair, they can be truly wonderful. I met several young women who wore them and you couldn’t tell. Are they difficult to deal with? Yes. But at the very least they help. I interviewed several women who were fine with not covering their bald heads, but who felt compelled to do so for work and society in general. One woman, a teacher, told me she covered up because her student’s parents complained to the administration, concerned that she was ill.

A side note–the same companies that sell hair systems to men are marketing more to women now. Why? Because the young men especially see it as a fashion statement to just shave their heads. Women so far, unless they are in the music industry like Sinead O’Connor, cannot just shave it off and go out in public.

There are other things that might help some women. The laser comb appears to help at least keep the hair looking a bit better. Will it grow hair? The jury is out, but people do say it keep the hair that’s left looking better, thicker.

Hair transplantation may help IF the woman has enough donor hair. So far the only way we do hair transplant is to take hair from one area of the scalp – usually at the back, near the nape of the neck, and move some of that hair to the thinning areas. Women however, don’t lose in the pattern as men do and have thick hair still in the back. While we may lose in a pattern–widening part–we also thin diffusely, over all our scalp. So hair transplant might not be right for everyone. Again, this is a discussion with a dermatologist and a hair transplant surgeon. But have realistic expectations of what it can and cannot accomplish. I go into this at length in my book.

There are also camouflage treatments that help get rid of the shiny scalp. These usually have keratin particles that cling to the fine hairs and give a thicker look. I tried it once and I was okay until I ran my hands through my hair and had fingernails full of the stuff. Not good if you don’t keep your hands out of your hair.

The more women talk about their hair loss and say ‘’I’m losing my hair and I’m scared,” the better chance we have of being heard and taken seriously. We’re okay with talking about our facelifts, boob jobs, eyelifts and permanent makeup tattoos and yet, we pretend the thinning hair is not happening.