The principal methods of non-surgical hair replacement today include the use of hair systems and hair loss concealers. Various types of hair systems such as full wigs, hairpieces, toupees, hair extensions and weaves can look very authentic and have been used for ages to cover bald spots and typically with good rates of success. However, their main weaknesses are high maintenance costs and, in many situations, the discomfort of wearing them. Hair loss concealers on the other hand have been around for a shorter period of time and have often been looked down upon for being incapable of withstanding adverse external conditions such as heavy rain or wind and for appearing unnatural. This is no longer true as many of them have greatly improved recently, both in terms of their authentic appearance and their resistance.
There are three basic types of hair loss concealers: those that simply paint your scalp to match your hair colour, then there are hair thickeners that thicken your hair by coating and penetrating the hair and trapping volume-building proteins and moisture inside the hair shaft and, lastly, there are concealers that use microfibers that cling to your hair like branches to the trunk of a tree, increasing the hair density. Some products combine two of the aforementioned approaches and paint your scalp and thicken your hair at the same time. All of these products come in various forms, such as a powder, cream or a spray. Hair loss concealers do not contain any active ingredients that would combat hair loss but some of them allow you to continue with a topical hair loss treatment such as minoxidil.
Microfibre-based hair loss concealers can be typically applied in as little as 30 seconds versus a minimum of five minutes needed for hair thickeners. However, microfibres are less water-resistant and it is quite difficult to apply them precisely and, therefore, they are not too good for creating an authentic-looking frontal hairline. Their greatest advantage is that they are unrecognisable in your hair, even with a very close inspection. Hair thickeners, mainly those that also colour your scalp, are extremely water-resistant and excellent for frontal hairlines but they take longer to apply. They cover your scalp with a layer of colouring substance, which makes it difficult to effectively apply any topical hair loss treatment. Their greatest weakness in comparison to microfibres is that in direct sunlight it can become visible to the sharp eye that the scalp has been painted.
The most commonly criticised weakness of all chemical substances used for concealing hair loss is the limited choice of available shades. Some hair loss sufferers use a combination of two products simultaneously in order to overcome the weaknesses of individual products and to achieve the most authentic shade and appearance. Most often a combination of a hair thickener and a microfibrous concealer is used. The results of such combinations are usually excellent. If you want to try any such combinations, make sure that you apply the scalp-painting, hair loss thickener first and then use the microfibres to mask the remaining imperfections. There are many products in all three categories of hair loss concealers and you may need to test several of them in order to identify those that best match you hair colour and style of application.
Hair loss concealers have often been looked down upon for being incapable of withstanding adverse external conditions such as heavy rain or wind and for appearing unnatural. This is no longer true as many of them have greatly improved recently, both in terms of their authentic appearance and their resistance.
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