One product you used to see quite often in advertising is Avacor. According to Response magazine, Avacor was the third best selling product on the Internet in April, 2002. Avacor was originally manufactured by Global Vision Products. After being taken over by new management, it is now being manufactured by Avacor Products LLC.

Like most products that advertise 'Stop Hair Loss and Regrow Hair!', Avacor contains the only FDA approved topical drug minoxidil. Avacor, like other products with similar claims, mixes FDA approved drugs in their generic form with other ingredients in a multiple regimen of products like shampoo, lotion and vitamins.

Avacor historically cost approximately $239 for a two to three month supply and over $1000 for a year’s worth.  New prices are much more reasonable which range from $180 for a 3 month supply to $400 for a year’s supply of the men’s and women’s formula. Note that the ingredients in Avacor can be bought over the counter at your local store at a fraction of the cost for which they are sold in Avacor. However, they do offer 24/7 customer service and a 90 day money back guarantee.

Marketing Practices

Avacor, like other products with similar claims, has taken a lot of slack over the years for their controversial marketing tactics. Avacor has a checkered past and has previously been the focus of lawsuits and investigative reporting by major media like ABC news. Recently however, new management has taken over and claims they are very serious about selling quality products at more reasonable prices, without the hype and controversial marketing strategies. In looking at their website, while Avacor still uses slick marketing language to promote their products, the vast majority of their claims are much more realistic.

Avacor includes 3 distinct products that claim to provide “total hair care”. This includes a 'Scalp Detoxifying Shampoo', a 'Physicians Topical Formulation' and finally a 'Nutricap'. Avacor's Nutricap ingredients consist mainly of common herbs like saw palmetto, gingko biloba, keratin, resveratrol, and bilberry. While conjectured to inhibit the production of DHT, none of these ingredients are FDA approved or proven to stop hair loss. Avacor’s Physician’s Topical Formulation however, does contain 5% of the FDA approved hair regrowth agent minoxidil.

Other than minoxidil, no other ingredient is proven to regrow hair. A number of studies have been done that suggest saw palmetto inhibits the production of DHT, like Propecia. But, unlike Propecia, it has never been proven to stop or reverse hair loss.

Avacor Products

Avacor admits on their website that the only product proven to regrow hair is the Avacor Physician’s formulation which includes the FDA approved ingredient minoxidil (5% for men and 2% for women). The other products claim to provide hair with the essential nutrients for healthy hair growth but are careful not to claim to prevent the progression of male or female pattern baldness (androgenic alopecia). Perhaps this is why the Avacor Physician’s formulation can now be purchased separately. Costs of the Physician’s Formulation are still, but only a little more expensive than Rogaine topical hair loss treatment, one of the first and most popular topical minoxidil products.

The Avacor Study

At this time, Avacor’s proof comes in the form of the FDA approved study showing that minoxidil can stop and reverse hair loss.  No other study is provided with their product.  Their website also is much more realistic as to what their product line can accomplish for hair loss suffering consumers.

Confidence in Products and Services

Before you consider spending hundreds of dollars for any product or service, do a review. Legitimate products will have legitimate studies and have been reviewed on many quality websites. Doctors with real talent and satisfied patients will be able to show you dozens of photos and allow you to talk with past patients. Proven physicians will make available their resumes along with their formal education and associations they belong to.

It is always best to review a product or doctor for information on their background before you make a decision for something as important as hair loss and hair restoration.

Conclusion

At the very least, the Avacor Physician’s formulation will be as effective as the Rogaine liquid formula or generic minoxidil. However, to date, both Rogaine and generic minoxidil are more cost effective than Avacor.  The nutricap, shampoo, conditioner and other products may promote healthy hair and provide it with volume, but make no claims of stopping hair loss or regrowing hair.

We believe that patients have a right to full disclosure and a complete understanding of exactly what hair restoration surgery involves.

This step by step presentation shows how today’s state of the art follicular unit hair transplant procedure is typically performed.

Patient is prepared for surgery

During surgery hair follicles from the back of the head that are genetically resistant to going bald will be removed and relocated (transplanted) to the balding areas.

Donor area is trimmed

Prior to surgery, the hair in donor area that will be surgically removed is trimmed.

Donor area is prepared for surgery

Once the donor area has been prepared it is given local anesthesia.

Donor tissue is removed

The donor tissue containing the bald resistant hair follicles is then surgically removed.

Donor area is sutured

The donor tissue containing the bald resistant hair follicles is then surgically removed.

Hair combed over sutures

When patient’s hair is combed over the donor area the sutures are not visible. These sutures are typically removed approximately ten days after surgery.

Donor tissue is trimmed into follicular unit grafts

Surgical technicians then use microscopes to view the donor tissue in order to dissect and prepare follicular units hair grafts.

Bald recipient area is prepared

After being given local anesthesia, the balding recipient area is ready for surgery. No trimming or shaving of hair is needed in the top recipient area.

Incisions are made in the balding areas

Tiny incisions are made in the recipient areas in irregular patterns that mimic nature. The follicular unit grafts will then be placed carefully into these tiny incisions.

Grafts are placed into the incisions

Follicular unit grafts are gently placed into the recipient incisions.

Grafts are placed in varying densities

Typically the smallest one and two hair grafts are placed in the very front of the hairline, with three and four hair grafts placed behind them.

Patient immediately following surgery

Following surgery a patient will have hundreds of tiny incisions with short hair stubble showing from the new grafts.

Close up of recipient area after surgery

The tiny graft incisions heal rapidly. The redness and scabbing in the recipient area normally clears up within about one week.

There are a variety of hair loss remedy "concealer" products that are applied to the scalp and/or hair in the thinning areas to mask a person's baldness and increase the look of fullness of thinning hairs. These products such as Toppik, Couvré, and Prothik can work surprisingly well at creating the illusion of fuller hair.

Some of our member physicians advise their hair restoration patients to use such hair loss remedy products to enhance the look of fullness in their transplanted areas. These products can also be used post operatively to hide the immediate surgery.

Toppik - Toppik is an effective, safe, and easy-to-use product that completely covers up the scalp's thinning areas.

Couvre - COUVRe is safe for men and women, easy to use, and is totally undetectable to the world's toughest critics.

Caboki - Caboki is comprised of a series of charged microfibers that, when applied to the scalp, tightly bind hair shafts and create a denser, fuller appearance.

DermMatch - DermMatch is a safe and easy way to cover-up thinning areas and instantly provides the appearance of a natural looking head of hair.

Nanogen - Nanogen is one of the fastest, easiest ways to conceal thinning hair and hair loss.

Prothik - Prothik does an exceptional job of adding thickness and fullness to thinning hair while reducing the contrast between thinning hair and the scalp.

Today it is a very refined outpatient procedure that can produce full and natural looking results, even after only one hair transplant session.

When performed correctly not even a hair stylist will detect that a person has had a hair transplant.

However, to achieve such natural results it is critical that the hair transplant procedure be "performed correctly". To do so requires a hair restoration clinic that can perform a follicular unit hair transplant at the highest levels of skill, experience, and dedication.

What it takes to create natural results.

A great hair transplant is the result of using a state of the art surgical procedure and performing it with great skill and artistry. Today the acknowledged "gold standard" in hair transplant surgery is called "Ultra Refined Follicular Unit Hair Transplantation".

This relatively new hair transplant procedure enables a patient to achieve extremely natural results because it recreates and mimics the way a person's hair grows naturally, hair for hair.

Recreating Nature Hair for Hair

To understand this procedure you must first understand how hair grows naturally.

If you look closely at naturally growing hair using magnification you will see that hair actually grows in groupings of one, two, three, and four hairs.

These naturally occurring hair groupings grow in irregular patterns on the scalp similar to trees growing in the forest. These groupings are technically referred to as "follicular units".

By relocating these carefully prepared and isolated follicular units, physicians doing "follicular unit hair transplantation" recreate a natural pattern of hair in the balding areas.

Follicular Unit Hair Transplant tough on the clinic but easy on the patient.

To do this properly is a very time consuming process. It requires a team of skilled and meticulous medical technicians working closely with the lead physician.

All our physician members perform this hair transplant procedure with excellent results. They are granted membership in the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians strictly based on their proven high level of experience, ethics, and skill in successfully performing this patient friendly procedure.

While the follicular unit procedure is more demanding upon the medical staff, it produces dramatic and life long advantages for the patient such as undetectable naturalness, rapid healing, and optimal use of their limited donor hair.

The Standard Hair Transplant, easy on the clinic but not on the patient.

Only a minority of hair transplant surgeons are committed to doing the follicular unit procedure properly. Many physicians continue to dissect grafts without regard to the integrity of the follicular units. Follicular units are often transected and damaged as donor tissue is cut to conform to the size of the recipient holes rather than to maintain the integrity of the follicular units.

Such common standard hair transplant procedures are quicker and simpler to perform than follicular unit hair transplantation from the hair transplant surgeon's perspective. The standard hair transplant procedure is also often more profitable for the clinic since it requires less staff time, training, resources, and skill. However, the results are generally suboptimal for the patient.

Respecting the Follicular Unit

Each follicular unit is surrounded by small glands, blood vessels, nerves, and a connective tissue sac making it a tiny self contained unit.

If these follicular units are damaged during removal or dissection, the hair may grow poorly.

Therefore it is important to cut only in the loose tissue between the follicular units to keep each follicular unit intact and avoid damaging it.

Truly a "Full Head of Hair in 30 Seconds?"

Of all the hair loss concealers available, like topical powder applications or "sprinkle solutions," Toppik is amongst the most popular. What's more, of all the "shaker" options currently available to hair loss suffering men and women, Toppik is one of the most recognized and trusted.

Since its inception, Toppik has been featured in various media outlets, including Time magazine, the Oprah Winfrey show, Fox News, NBC, and Eyewitness news. Throughout this media exposure and positive word of mouth, this hair loss product has been utilized by an estimated 3 million balding men and women worldwide.  So what makes Toppik so popular? How does it work? How does it compare to other types of concealers? Most importantly, what are real consumers saying about Toppik and where can interested parties purchase this popular concealer?

Toppik Hair Loss Concealer: What is it, and how does it work?

Toppik, like many other concealers available today, is a topical powder application. The powder formula is comprised of a series of charged, keratin-based, "hair binding fibers" that, when sprinkled on thinning hair, tightly adhere to individual hair strands. With each "shake" of the Toppik product, thousands of these particles are applied to the head and bind to hair shafts via opposing electrical activity (much like the way magnetized material attracts metal).

By tightly binding to hair shafts in such significant numbers, Toppik naturally recreates the appearance of a thick, dense head of hair.  According to the makers of Toppik, the bond created by the hair shaft and keratin particle is so strong that it will withstand wind, rain and perspiration, and will continue to naturally thicken and volumize the hair until "washed out" by shampoo. Additionally, because Toppik is available in a variety of different tones, the product is able to precisely match any hair color/texture and still remain completely undetectable.

What Benefits Does Toppik Offer Over Other Concealers?

Although Toppik is popular and well known within the hair restoration community, hair loss sufferers should still ask one crucial question: what benefits does Toppik offer over other, similar concealers? According to the manufactures, Toppik offers a variety of benefits that other, comparable products simply cannot match. First, Toppik's keratin fibers are completely safe, organic, all natural, and utilize electric energy to adhere to hair fibers with unmatched efficacy.

Next, not only is Toppik available in a variety of colors, but these tones can also be "mixed" to match any color and can even cover gray hair and new growth from hair transplant surgery.  Toppik colors include black, dark brown, medium brown, light brown, medium blonde, blonde, auburn, gray and white.

Furthermore, Toppik can be used in conjunction with other hair styling products (though the powder needs to be applied to dry scalp, and styling products should be applied before usage), will not "rub off" on clothing or pillows, can be safely utilized with other hair restoration products and medications,  will not clog pores or dry out the scalp, is equally effective in balding men and women, and is easily applied via the shaking method or by applying the popular "spray applicator" to the shaker apparatus.

Why is Toppik so Popular in the Hair Loss Community?

Because of its innovative design, positive "track record," ease of use, and effective nature, Toppik has developed a trusted reputation and large fan base in the hair restoration community. Hair loss sufferers not only trust the history behind the Toppik brand, but appreciate the product's single use longevity and lasting strength of the fiber-hair shaft bond. The fact that the product is effective for male and female hair loss sufferers and can be easily used with other styling and hair restoration products makes Toppik an even better option for any individual considering a topical concealer.

What Real Consumers are Saying About Toppik?

To see what real hair loss suffering men and women are saying and to read helpful tips about applying Toppik in a variety of situations and in conjunction with other hair loss treatments, visit our Hair Loss Forum and Social Community.  You can also read our product review by visiting "Product Review: Nanogen Versus Toppik".

Hair has always been an important symbol of status throughout history. Whether it signified social, financial, gender, or professional status, hair has come to be considered a sign of success. And this idea appears to go all the way back to the cavemen.

 A few years ago, the frozen body of a man on the Austrian-Italian border was discovered by scientists. Upon examining the clothing and weapons found on the specimen, they were astounded to find that the body was from the Neolithic Age, making him more than 5,000 years old. They had previously thought that the body was only a few years old, based on his trimmed beard and short hairstyle. So even during prehistoric times hair care was in practice.

Even 4,000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians were searching for a hair loss cure. One “cure” used around 1500 B.C. in Egypt called for reciting a magic spell to the sun god and then swallowing a mixture of onions, iron, red lead, honey and alabaster.

Around 1100 B.C. in ancient Egypt it was popular to rub the fats of various animals onto the scalp, including those of the lions, hippopotamuses, crocodiles, ibex, serpents and geese.

Another recipe for growing hair prepared for the King of Upper and Lower Egypt included toes of a dog, refuse of dates, and a hoof of an ass. Of course, these “cures” failed to re-grow hair.

But with baldness regarded as shameful in ancient Egypt, men and women were willing to put such things on their head in the hope they would work. During these times it was believed that baldness stood for the public announcement of a man’s loss of virility.

The Gospel on hair loss

Yes, hair loss is even mentioned in the Bible. According to this Old Testament passage God does not condone ridiculing the bald.

Kings 2: 23 “From there Elisha went to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. "Go on up, you baldhead!" they said "go on up, you baldhead!" He turned round, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths. And he went on to Mount Carmel and from there returned to Samaria.”

As a hair loss sufferer you can take solace in knowing that today you have treatments for hair loss only dreamed of by the Kings of ancient Egypt and the emperors of Rome.

Hair loss and attempts to stop or reverse it have been around for centuries.

How mankind has treated hair loss over time.