Day: January 1, 2023

Note that the Alopecia Areata is impacting not only his scalp hair, but his beard and neck hair as well.

I’m a 22-year-old male who has experienced mass hair shed recently. It started in June and has lasted until now. Aside from seeing around 100 hairs in the shower regularly, and having my hair fall out easily when styling, I notice that it doesn’t have the same poof in the front that I usually style it with. I’ve also noticed that it is much flatter when wet, and more fluffy and light when its dry. Although the amount of hair shed is tapering down, my hair has not regained its natural shape. Hairs have fallen diffusely, but I’ve noticed it more on the top and front of my head. Every hair that falls is thick, and there’s been absolutely no temple recession. I’ve seen 1 GP, 1 derm on 2 different occasions with 2 months in between, and 1 hair transplant surgeon who have all definitely stated there is no miniaturization on my scalp and diagnosed me with Telogen Effluvium. I’ve been waiting for my hair to regain its density, although I know it is not back yet. My dad has a full head of hair at a NW2, my brother has a juvenile hairline at 28, my paternal grandpa had a NW 3 when he died at 85, and my maternal grandpa has a NW7 at the age of 90 (stated balding late 30’s). My questions is: how long until I am back to normal? You may be concerned with MPB in this situation, and so was I at first, but each diagnosis I was given stated that it is 100% not that.

In men, most of the time the hair loss it is genetic, not telogen effluvium. Men’s don’t have to show miniaturization. They still can shed from genetic hair loss. We don’t know why. Be prepared for the worst case. At 22, consider the drug Finasteride as an approach worth discussing with your doctor.

Raloxifen is an estrogen compound that can help feminize women when they lose their ovarian function. It may also help women, who are post-menopausal, grow or stop hair loss. Taking this medication for a male is an extreme thing to do. Not good!

DOES raloxifen cause hair thinning ? from tressless

I am away in Ireland this week and saw the rain come down hard for a short while. One person at the hotel commented that it ‘was raining cats and dogs’ out there. At it turns out, this phrase reflects a unique situation in Ireland in the days when everyone had a thatch roof (made of straw packed tightly together to keep the rain out, the picture below shows a thatched roof made of straw).

The history of this phrase goes back to the days when most people had thatched roofs and in the winter, when the houses got cold, the dogs and cats would find their way into the thatched roof, digging themselves a hole to keep warm. As the roofs got older and started to leak because of heavy rains, the dogs and cats still crawled into their holes, and the roofs eventually gave way. The dogs and cats fell from their holes in the thatched roofs, falling into the house…. hence the term ‘it’s raining cats and dogs’.

In the 1400-1600s, the poor people of Ireland would sell their urine by peeing in a pot and bringing the pot of urine to the local tannery where they would get a few pennies for it. These people were know to be ‘piss poor‘. Urine was used to prepare the hides of cattle to make leather. Some people were so poor, they ‘did not have a pot to piss in‘ hence the phrase reflected the poorest of the poor. We have adopted the same phrase today to reflect a sense of poverty.

The third phrase we learned from the Irish ‘By Hook or By Crook‘, really reflects two towns between Waterford and Wexford (actual names of towns). A particular road forked and one way took you to the town of Hook and the other road took you to the town of Crook. If you were a determined traveler (or in the case of the English General Oliver Cromwell whose mission was to concur the Irish with an army of 3000 troops in 1649) you could get to whichever town you wanted and he was determined to concur these towns by whatever road it took to do it. The phrase has come to mean that people who are determined to achieve their goals, will do it ‘By Hook or By Crook’

Isn’t language wonderful. I am writing this in Ireland. Have a wonderful 4th of July.

Greetings,
I just learned that my husband had been diagnosed as a child with cancer in one of his testicles. He underwent radiation and had lost hair on his head. Could this radiation have caused some permanent hair loss on his head? He is bald at the crown.
Thank you for you time

It is not clear if he received radiation to the head. Assuming that his radiation was more in the groin, then I doubt that it is producing hair loss. He needs to get a working diagnosis with mapping of his scalp for miniaturization. Treating the balding crown has some good solutions for him but first he needs to get a working diagnosis.

I didn’t have benefits from it. My hair just got worse while on it. The texture got more wispy, my temples receded some, and the shape changed as I lost density from the initial shed. I think some of this may have been due to sometimes skipping a dose and also having a 2 week break in the middle of my 6 months on the drug. I understand that, but I just want to know what my chances are at simply getting my hair back to what it was before starting the drug that I didn’t get benefits from.

Not everyone responds to finasteride. You may not be a responder; however, if you are going to take it, stay on a regular routine and do it for at least a full year.

I’ve been taking finasteride for over a decade. While it slowed my hair loss, it’s now at the point where I’m no longer happy with what I have, especially in the crown area. I was side effects free for the most part early on, but over time and distinctly this last year, the mental fog became noticeable and my libido has also taken a pretty big hit to the point of being a problem. It’s time to throw in the towel and buzz shave. So for those who have quit themselves or looked into it, is there an ideal way to come off the drug? Is cold turkey fine or should I space out doses to every other day to every third etc? I use Proscar split into 4ths but have been off for about 10 days due to prescription running out. I am getting some aches in the junk as a result.

If you stop the finasteride now, after 10 years, you will not only lose all of the gains you had over 10 years but all of the hair you would have lost in that same time period. Maybe your libido is lower because you are aging, not from the finasteride. Stopping it for 3 weeks might give you that answer.