August 27 2010, 12:49 pm PT | Posted in: African American + Female Hair Loss + Hair Products
I interesting in learning what can be done for Black Women who are lossing their hair. And the physcians are saying it from the chemicals that we use. Ex. perms. they say the only treatment is rogaine and injections which will also cause complete baldness if we can no longer afford that treatment while they give the white women hormone replacement. Can you help and give better advise
Chemicals (like relaxers) can cause damage, but many black women will also see traction alopecia, which is permanent hair loss caused by the pulling of tight braids, many times from when they were very young. For women, the only FDA approved hair loss treatment is Rogaine (minoxidil). Hormone replacement likely won’t regrow your hair and I’m not sure which injections your doctor is recommending.
This isn’t an issue of race so much as gender. For men, the great majority of cases of hair loss are from genetics and there’s an oral pill for that. For women, there’s a large list of possible causes of hair loss and no truly great solutions. So it’s not that black women have less options, but rather, all women have limited treatment options.
See this page for more — Female Genetic Hair Loss Is Different From Male Genetic Hair Loss.

If you are asking whether a hair relaxer will help or make your condition worse, I would guess “no” to both. If you are asking if a hair relaxer will help with your look, that’s a styling question and I would rather leave that up to you.
African hair is fragile, but if your brush is indeed too ‘hard’ on the hair I’d suspect you would notice thinning everywhere you brush.
While Chris Rock’s new documentary, Good Hair, is certain to get laughs, it’s sure to leave the audience talking. And that’s the point, the comedian says.