Newest hair loss treatment options available in Connecticut

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — Thinning hair is not an easy thing for men or women. However, it is very common, with 80 million people experiencing hair loss in the U.S.

All of her adult life, Mary Provini, of North Haven, longed for thicker hair.

“I have baby-fine hair,” she said. “I also spent a lot of my adult life looking at other women and saying inside, ‘Gee, I wish I had hair like that.’”

Two years ago, she gave up and told her daughter she was going to start wearing a wig. That’s when her daughter convinced her to see Yale Medicine Dermatologist Sarah Perkins. Provini was put on a combination of two drugs in pill form.

Perkins said hair loss has many causes, but it is treatable.

“Absolutely,” she said. “And this is really something that has become exciting over the last couple of years. There are more and more treatments that are coming out.”

She said that while daily use of a topical minoxidil is still very popular and effective, she is now finding success combining prescription drugs that work in different ways to regrow hair. 
She said there are now a few that work in pill form.

“So, I work with a couple compounding pharmacies that will combine minoxidil with fenasteride — another medication that prevents some of the hormonal drivers for hair loss — and so I think of it kind of as minoxidil plus,” Perkins said.

Perkins also has her patients get on and stay on supplements such as Nutrafol or Viviscal, which support follicle health.

In West Hartford, Dr. Desmond Ebanks is using a serum and ultrasound treatment called Alma TED. The wand forces a growth factor serum into the scalp painlessly. Before and after photos show hair growth in men and women.

“Sometimes is a 20, 30, 40, even 50% improvement from where you’re starting as far as hair density, hair thickness,” Ebanks said.

However, these results come at an out-of-pocket price tag. Three treatments, one month apart, cost a total of $3,500. A yearly maintenance treatment is $1,000.

Other procedures being done include having platelet rich plasma or PRP injected into the scalp to restore hair. Ebanks likes the fact that Alma TED is not painful or invasive to use on his patient’s scalps.

Meanwhile, Provini is thrilled.  Her new hair has restored her social confidence.

“I love meeting new people, and I feel so good about my hair,” she said.

In order to regrow or thicken hair, the follicles have to be responsive. The doctors said they can’t get hair to grow in follicles that have been dormant for a while. The topical and pill products also have to be taken daily.