Alopecia areata is the scientific and medical term for a condition known to the general layman population as hair loss. It is characterized by the rapid and quick onset of round patches of baldness. The specific and definitive causative agent for alopecia areata or hair loss is still unknown, although with some cases, hair loss is known to have been caused by or is associated with certain types of autoimmune diseases. Most of the time (around twenty percent of all the afflicted) however, people who suffer from hair loss and premature baldness often are in good health but do possess a family history of hair loss.

For most people suffering from hair loss, their hair grows back within a year or so without any necessary treatment. For others, further measures may have to be taken and the treatment discussed below is one of the natural remedies attempted by some with a measure of success.

Onion Juice – strange as it may sound, a study in an American dermatological magazine charted the progress and examined the effectiveness of the use of onion juice as a placebo in people suffering from hair loss. Twenty three subjects suffering from hair loss applied onion juice to their scalps twice a day for two months and fifteen control subjects who also suffered from hair loss applied plain, ordinary tap water to their scalps for two months.

The people in the test group began to experience new hair growth within two weeks of treatment. A further two weeks into the test (for a total of four weeks), new hair growth was seen in 17 of the subjects in the test group (73.9%) and in another two weeks (six weeks total) new hair growth was observed in 20 of the test subjects (86.9%). In this study however, hair regrowth was most seen in the males and a total of two people in the control group using tap water experienced hair growth in eight weeks or two months.