Month: January 2023

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Iron Levels and Hair Loss

Dr Rassman,

I am a 27-year-old female who has experienced a gradual overall thinning for the past 10 years. It is now fairly severe. I have always had low iron levels and saw a hematologist for over a year. My ferritin levels have hovered between 14-35, despite taking a 325mg ferrous gluconate supplement daily.

My ferritin is currently 14 and my hematologist says that since the laboratory test range is 10-150, my levels aren’t so bad; that it would take anemia to cause hair loss. My B12 is also in the low range – 325 on the 200-1200 normal zone. I feel that I must not be absorbing iron if the levels haven’t changed despite taking a supplement and I am frustrated by wasting more time without being able to rule this out as a source of the thinning. My two younger brothers have male pattern baldness but I am loathe to accept genetics are to blame for me too…

My question is: how low do iron levels have to be to be considered a legitimate cause for hair loss? And how soon would regrowth occur after normal levels are restored?

Thanks so much for your time.

Anemia is a very broad topic to tackle. There are many causes of anemia, like microcytic anemia and macrocytic anemia. Microcytic anemia is caused by iron deficiency, thalassemia, and various chronic disease. Macrocytic anemia is caused by folate and B12 deficiency. There is no cut off level of iron that one can define as the starting point for hair loss. Ferritin & Vitamin B12 deficiencies may produce hair loss and anemia and they may accompany other vitamin deficiencies including the entire B group [Vitamin B1 (thiamin),Vitamin B2 (riboflavin), Vitamin B3 (niacin), Pantothenic acid, Biotin, Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), Folic acid (folate), Vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin)].

Have you tried to take iron with vitamin-C? Sometimes that may help to increase absorption of iron. Liver and red meat have high iron levels. Your doctor may have evaluated your GI tract for mal-absorption problems leading to some malnutrition or other vitamins and nutrient deficiencies, each which may contribute to hair loss. If the normal level of iron is restored, it may take a few months before you can see noticeable regrowth of hairs.


2006-02-06 11:09:49Iron Levels and Hair Loss

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Iron Deficiency, Birth Control, Hair Loss

Is it true that iron deficiency in women can cause hair loss that may appear to be AGA? If so, does supplementation actually help?

Also, do you know if oral birth control pills (Ortho-tricycline lo) can cause progressive hair loss while on them. I am not refering to hair loss after discontinuing but progressive loss over time.

Iron deficiency with or without anemia has been reported as a cause of hair loss. Hair loss seen in iron deficient patients is typically more diffuse. In patients who are prone to male pattern baldness, iron deficiency can speed up the hair loss process.

Birth control pills or medications that manipulate the estrogen balance can cause hair loss as well. Although any medication containing estrogen may cause hair loss, the opposite also occurs and in some situations estrogen may be protective. Excessive hair loss (telogen effluvium) could be often seen in withdrawal from estrogen, or in postpartum phase and can last about a year after the baby is born.


2006-11-29 15:40:09Iron Deficiency, Birth Control, Hair Loss

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I’m 22, and I don’t understand why you don’t think I should get a transplant to fix my hairline now.

The reason a man under 25 should not have a hair transplant is because the hair loss patterns just starts appearing by the age of 25-26. So, for example, if you recede 1/2 inch of your frontal hairline at 20, got it transplanted, then by 21 you lost another 1/2 inch behind the transplant and then had to get it transplanted again, and then by 22, you lost another 1/2 of the hair behind the two transplants plus loss in your crown, then you would want to transplant in the frontal hairline and possibly the crown again and so on. By 25, your crown balding may have expanded and if you don’t transplant it, you will have hair in the center of the crown with a bald area surrounding it. Sooner or later, you would run out of money if you were not rich or run out of donor hair (even if you were rich) and be stuck half transplanted with no recourse and nothing to do. If your doctor is sloppy, he would deplete all of your donor hair. I have, in my 27 year career in doing hair transplants, many men caught in this trap, because the doctors make the money (often a lot of money) as they deplete the victim’s donor supply with repeated surgeries on the promise that this next surgery will be their last.

I am certain, that at 22, if your hairline is actively receding, that your future hair loss can’t yet be predicted. That is why I like to develop a Master Plan with my patients so that I can keep them with hair on their head as they continue to bald without depleting their donor supply or promising the impossible. If you were my son, I would not do it any differently. I would do a HAIRCHECK test, treat your balding with the non-surgical options, and then when you got to be 25, discuss a plan with you and what we can do together to keep you hairy and feeling better about yourself.

FUT Questions from tressless

 


2018-12-03 15:34:40I’m 22, and I don’t understand why you don’t think I should get a transplant to fix my hairline now.

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Inversion Therapy

Inversion Therapy: What is your view of this i.e hanging upside down for a few minutes each day to increase blood flow to the scalp. Any benefits to slowing hairloss or re-growth ?

Thanks

The theory of baldness being due to lack of blood is outdated now. In fact there is no evidence to prove the scalp blood supply in balding people is less than in non-balding people, but when the balding happens, the blood supply goes down as a response to the hair being lost. Hair has a very high metabolic rate, so when it dies off from genetic balding, there is no real need for the blood supply that once bathed the hair follicles.

One of my patients actually had this type of therapy for 6 months, haning from his feel for a few hours each day. Guess what? No news is not good news! It did not work!


2007-03-27 13:53:46Inversion Therapy

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Interviewing Dr. Rassman, Part 1 (Video)

We put together a short video series for this site that showcases a little of the history of the innovations made at the New Hair Institute in the field of hair transplantation. This video does have some potentially graphic images of an FUE procedure (grafts being removed, there is a little bit of blood) — so please be warned if you’ve got a weak stomach.

I hope you enjoy part 1 of 3 below:


2006-05-04 15:52:57Interviewing Dr. Rassman, Part 1 (Video)

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Interview with Dr Rassman in Time Magazine

Snippet from article:

Hair loss affects more than 50 million Americans, 20 million of them women. With numbers like that, it’s not surprising that the people behind the bestselling Dummies Books series have taken note. Their comprehensive new book, Hair Loss & Replacement for Dummies, authored by four medical experts on hair loss, has just been published by Wiley. TIME senior reporter Andrea Sachs spoke with one of the authors, hair-transplant surgeon Dr. William Rassman in Los Angeles.

TimeHey, that’s me!

Read my new interview with Time Magazine at their website — Time.com. I’m glad I got the chance to get some publicity for my new book, Hair Loss & Replacement for Dummies (which you can buy online or in stores now *cough cough*). The interview was just posted on Time’s site, so feel free to post your thoughts about it here (after you read it, of course).

Read: Time.com Interview