Hello Dr. Rassman
I think you blog is a very wonderful thing, and most of all its like a release for anyone who is having difficulty with their hair-loss as it shows that they are not alone. I have been studying doctors, new so-called cures and intercytex therapy for about two years now. I understand why we become so aggravated with Hair-loss and I believe its our society that has put us in this small ugly box if we become bald. I have come to the conclusion that your the most qualified doctor among your piers, however due to pricing needs I have chosen Dr. Ron Shapiro, although he himself has said that your highly regarded as the best. Can you recommend Shapiro as a more then a suitable doctor?
Why is a receding hairline so immune to any forms of medicine?
It is rare that I’ll give any kind of recommendation, but yes, Dr Ron Shapiro in the Minneapolis area is a very good hair transplant surgeon. He was one of the first doctors I trained.
With regard to your question on the frontal hairline, it is important to note that most men do not know that they are balding until the frontal recession or thinning is detected. By the time it is recognized, the hair loss is too far gone to be brought back by drugs. The first stage for most men is denial and that may take years so treatment is often delayed during this period. When treatment for balding is finally started, the frontal loss is well along the balding path, possibly too late to reverse. Medication does work in the hairline, but I believe the hair loss has to be treated earlier.
What does this all mean for the future of hair cloning / multiplication? Well, that remains to be seen. This is exciting stuff and I hope the additional funds will bring this technology to the next level. As for when/if it’ll make it to market — well, I couldn’t say. Follica just came on the scene in late 2006 and I’d expect many years to come before anything of substance came out, if at all. Not to be a pessimist, but we’ve seen a number of failed attempts at these types of methods over the years. Lots of questions remain, and this is still the very, very early stages.
I would not suggest that you take both medications at the same time — as both are prescription medications, you should be discussing that with your doctor. That being said… no, they won’t cancel each other out. These medications work roughly the same way on the mechanism for hair loss. There is a suggestion that dutasteride is a bit more powerful than finasteride, but there are more side effects and the dose in dutasteride to get a better DHT block is high (2.5 mg/day). There are reports that these higher doses may cause infertility in some men and we do not know if this is reversible. At this time, dutasteride is not FDA approved for the treatment of hair loss. For more on dutasteride, see past posts