Treating Hair Loss---Are You Using the Correct Herbs? I 治疗脱发，怎样选用中药才有效？
The herbs to treat hair loss are abundant in the ancient sources of Traditional Chinese Medicine. There are even records of white hair turned black. There are also many herbs that are well known to be effective to cure hair loss----the fleece flower root and the black sesame are the most famous two. Other medicines such as fructus ligustri lucidi (nu zhen zi), Yerbadetajo Herb, prepared rehmannia root, and goji berry are all commonly used. In addition, there are many prescriptions specially made for hair loss. The effects of TCM on hair loss is obvious, but in practice, not so many people find it effective. For example, many people use ginger to rub their bald spots on the heads and few of them have any effects. Some even have more hair loss after the treatment---why?
This is because the correct herb is not used. There are three main types of hair loss, and each type requires using correct herbs for the type---this is very crucial. Let’s talk about the three types one by one:
1. Rapid hair loss in a period of time (up to several years)
This type includes spot balding and full balding. This is usually related excessive stress within a short period. Therefore, fleece flower root and other nutritional herb are no use. To stop the hair loss effectively, this type requires treatment directly to the root of the problem.
According to my clinical experience, for rapid hair loss, herbs of soothing stress, strengthening body, and enhancing sleep are the best. Ginseng, American Ginseng, and Radix Bupleur are the best.
2. Hair become thin and soft
This kind of problem is a result of the malnutrition of hair. There fore we need herbs that can give more nutrients to the hair---in TCM these are the herbs that strengthen the liver and kidney. Fleece flower root, prepared rehmannia root, angelica sinensis (dang gui), hyssop, fructus ligustri lucidi (nu zhen zi), and goji berry are just some examples of these herbs. The doctor needs to combine them with different proportion to let the body better absorb it.
3. Too much head oil causing the hair loss
The key of this type is to quickly stop the extraction of hear oil. If not dealt with, the head oil would be stopped at the hair pore and become poisonous to the hair, causing serious dying of hair. For this kind of patients, their body usually can not well use the oil and they usually prone to the high cholesterol level at older age, which would further affect their health. Therefore, ginger, fleece flower root etc.. are not useful to them. In contrast, the oil-reducing herbs, such has chinese hawthorn, lotus leaf, red sage root, mulberry tree’s leaves, are more helpful. In case the patient has inherit problems, they need to also apply the liver and kidney strengthening herbs such as prepared rehmannia root and hyssop.
In general, each type of hair loss needs to use the herb that is most suitable. This can lead to another topic---why hair vitamin in the market are mostly not so effective, and we will talk about it later.
The TCM and its related products have been their for thousands of year. It will have a good result if one can choose the right method and herbs.
我们翻开中医古书，会发现有无数的中药可以治疗脱发，甚至还有白发转黑的记载。
例如药材中的何首乌和黑芝麻是最广为人知的两种药材。女贞子、旱莲草、熟地、枸杞子也有广泛的运用。复方中的六味地黄丸、七宝美髯丹、二至丸、通窍活血汤等亦是广为人知。不过，虽然中药的效用是不容置疑的，但这么多的药材和药方，使用有效的人只有一小部分，大部分人使用的效果都不佳---这是为什么呢？
举个例子，很多人用生姜外擦秃发区，或用生姜水洗头，不但没有效果，有的掉头发反而更多。这是因为没有正确选择适合自己的药物。选择适合的药物非常重要，这里我们根据脱发的三种类型来具体分析一下：
1. 一段时间内或几年内大量快速脱发：
这类型的脱发包括斑秃，全秃等。这种症状往往跟短时间遭遇较大的精神压力有关。因此，用何首乌等补虚的营养型草药就没有任何效果。只有针对地治疗病因，才能快速制止脱发并让头发再生。
根据我临床的经验，即使是男性脱发，只要有快速大量的脱发，都要选择有缓解压力，增强体质，改善睡眠等功效的药物，例如人参，西洋参，柴胡等。
2. 头发变细、变软、变稀薄：
这类型的脱发，是一种头发营养不足的表现，因此需要给头发补充营养----就是我们中医说的补肝肾的药物。例如首乌、熟地黄、当归、牛膝、枸杞子、女贞子等。如果能让这类药物有机复合使用，并且让肌体得到较全面的吸收，那就能有最好的效果。
3. 油脂较多的脱发：
这类型的脱发治疗的关键是如何快速制止头发的出油问题。油脂阻于发束，并且油脂的衍生物对发囊形成中毒反应，导致发束大量快速死亡。而且这类型的人由于肌体的机制，不能充分利用油脂，因此他们在年纪较大的时候也更容易患高血脂等症状，进一步影响健康。因此生姜、何首乌等对于这类人士就没有任何作用了。相反，能够去除油脂的药物会更有帮助，如山楂、荷叶、丹参、桑叶等。如果病人还有遗传等因素，那就还要补肾类的药物配合，如熟地黄、牛膝等。
