People die with fear of losing hair during Cancer: Dr. Apoorva Shah
The fear of Cancer is not just the fear of the disease. It is also the fear of losing one’s hair to the treatment. But every disease can conquered with the right treatment on the right time and the concern fear can be eradicated. Trichology is one branch of study which deals with anything and everything as far as hair and scalp diseases is concerned. It helps transplant hair without cut, stitches and shaves. Thus, talking about trichology and the treatment of hair and scalp diseases in cancer, Dr. Apoorva Shah, pioneer in the trichology concept in India and Founder of Richfeel spoke to Wellnessindia.com on the occasion of Richfeel and Nargis Dutt Foundation marking the success of their joint initiative ‘My Hair for Cancer’ in Mumbai.
Please tell us about Trichology study for hair and scalp treatment and what is monalisa system?
Trichology is a super specialisation treatment in hair and scalp. It’s a science of hair and scalp in health and disease. It originated as a profession in 1902. Over the last 120 years there have been 335 trichologists all over the world. Monalisa is a system in Cancer, if a person cannot get his hair back because of radiotherapy, we prepare a system using Swiss lace which gives them complete look of natural hair. The system gives confidence to the person and we offer it free of cost to any Cancer patient.
What are the nuances of hair and scalp treatment under Trichology?
Hair is the barometer of body which indicates good or bad health. Trichology deals with anything and everything as far as hair and scalp diseases are concerned. It could be as simple as hair loss, baldness or as difficult diseases like surceases, seborrheic dermatitis and trichotillomania where a person pulls his own hair. It is simple or complex depending on the problem that the patient has. We treat anything and everything as far as hair and scalp is concerned.
In the case hair loss in Cancer how do you examine the patients?We do the complete sonography of hair and scalp. We test the hair which is called hair tissue morales with which we diagnose the whole nutritional status of the body of the person. Then we transplant the hair without cut, stitches and shave. The treatment is cosmetic and medical both. It’s a care and cure process of treatment as prevention is better than cure.
What is the longevity and sustenance of this treatment?
It depends on the problem as some patients don’t require any medicines at all. They just require good care, proper food, correct diet and need to drink enough water which helps to eradicate 80 percent of the problems. But first, healthy and hygiene lifestyle is more important.
Being a practitioner how do you convey that ‘Cancer is not a death sentence’ to your patients?
People die with the fear of losing hair during Cancer. At the end of the day everything is a disease and every disease can be conquered. The whole idea is to support the patient in whatever way we can. We support the patients in different ways whether it’s spiritually, mentally, emotionally and medically. And this is how we take care of patients especially in Cancer when they lose hair.
In Cancer there are symptoms of the body like losing hair of head, eyebrows and patches on scalp etc.
Why is Cancer catching up fast with small and young age people?
In my 31 years of practice I have treated around 15-20 lakh patients and I am observing that more and more youngsters are getting affected by Cancer. Earlier 35-40 age group of people use to get affected by the disease, but now- a- days 14-22 age group of people fall prey to Cancer. This is happening because fashion and stress have become modern day disorders. Further, the situation is going to be worse as every second Indian has hair problem.
Most importantly there is a need of right diet, right lifestyle and proper sleep to avert hair loss problem. All hair loss cases cannot be related to Cancer.
What are your future plans of Richfeel clinics expansion?
We have 81 clinics all over India. We want to further get into every village and towns of the country to reach out to people. We will take it to 125-150 Richfeel clinics in India and abroad in the next two years. The idea is to give people confidence to make this world a better place to live in.
