It takes many years of love and care to restore hair back to its natural state. This can often be achieved through multiple surgeries. But what if it was possible to keep hair thicker and fuller for longer without going under the knife?

There exist many alternatives to standard hair loss treatments. Around the world, people are losing their precious hair every day. You may be one of them. Your hair is your crowning glory, an achievement of virility, a signature of your appearance and an ever-changing indicator of your ethnicity. It only goes to show that keeping hair intact remains a challenging yet necessary function of our lives. Many cures exist that aim to combat hair loss by destroying the main cause, namely dihydrotestosterone (or DHT). DHT is best known for causing male and female hair loss. It cannot be eliminated as it is an essential part of the testosterone hormone, but it can be reduced. This and other factors contribute to the declining state of an individual’s hair. Read below to discover how you can potentially avoid surgery through alternative hair loss treatments.

• Low Level Laser Technology (LLLT)

Close-up digital images of the scalp are first taken, to determine a candidate’s suitability. Once the candidate is accepted for the LLLT treatment, a non-abrasive (or ‘cold’) laser light is passed over the strands of hair, creating a far thicker and fuller look. This is not an experimental technique and it has full FDA approval plus raving reviews from many hair loss doctors from around the world. It must be noted though, that the LLLT treatment is not amazingly effective when it comes to growing actual hair. The treatment will however halt hair loss and strengthen existing hair on the scalp.

• Tea and coffee

Unbelievably, both tea and coffee play a role in keeping hair follicles strongly in place. Tea, specifically green tea has been shown to reduce DHT levels by 50%. Taken in either the capsule or beverage form, green tea has many other health benefits and adding it to your diet will do more than simply keeping your hair strong. If you are not fan of tea, then try a good, strong cup of coffee. You do not drink coffee to reduce hair loss though. When mixed into a shampoo in its purest form or used as a spray of coffee beans, it has been shown to reduce testosterone-induced follicle growth suppression. Further research must be conducted but the studies are promising.

• Diet and daily life

It takes many contributing factors to avoid a hair transplant, but vigorous, constant exercise on a daily basis is a deciding factor in your bodies fight against hair loss. Combine this with a diet that is sufficient yet reasonable in terms of fat and total calorie ingestion and you have a (yet to be proven) way to reduce baseline insulin levels, as well as baseline total and free testosterone. And how does this assist you? In short, aerobic exercise also leads to a reduction of DHT.

• Other allies in the fight against alopecia

A combination of oils (such thyme, rosemary, lavender, and cedar wood essential oils) in a blend of carrier oils (like jojoba and grape seed) has shown to decrease alopecia in case studies. Onions have been used as a natural hair loss preventative for centuries; these dates reach back as far as the ancient Greeks. Liquorice, coconut oil and lime-pepper seeds are another. These techniques are all unproven, yet as curatives (even if they are only placebos) it can have a wonderful and positive mental effect on the hair loss patient.