It takes courage to embark upon microneedling. This process should be repeated weekly until there are results and then I believe you can pull back. Adding minoxidil to it before and after the microneedling and rubbing it in, might increase the value and accelerate the benefits. With a man I recently helped doing it, I applied Xylocaine gel 40 minutes before the process started to reduce the pain.
2021-02-05 01:54:572021-01-26 17:56:35Immediately after microneedling (photo)
Week 1 on fin. Shedding has decreased from 100-150 hairs/day to approx. 10-30 hairs/day. Scalp itch is almost entirely gone. No sides. Taken every other day. I’m a diffuse thinner, so I’m sitting at a NW1 right now with density being my primary point of concern. I started fin about two months after seeing signs of thinning. What can I expect going forward?
Hi Doctor, your blog is extremely useful. I am an 18 year old Indian who has a hairline like Taylor Lautner when he was 18 years old…
You said in that post that he lost immature hairline rounded corners but otherwise had a juvenile hairline. My question doc is that, is losing the corners a sign of a receded hairline that falls under the category of a maturing hairline or is it still a juvenile hairline. Also, I would also like to point out that few of my friends have also lost there rounded corners. Is this normal. By normal I mean, is it not MPB or is it MPB or is it a maturing hairline or is it a juvenile?
I really hope you answer this question and ward off my worries. Thank you so much! Hope you have a great day!
Actor Taylor Lautner does not have balding. His front corner hair line looks slightly higher now than it did when he was younger. Thus I call this maturing hairline or loss of his juvenile hair line. Not balding.
Finally there is no such thing as “abnormal” MPB. Some people have the genes for Male Pattern Balding and some do not. Everyone has a juvenile hair line when they are in their “juvenile” years. Almost everyone will lose their juvenile hair line as they mature (in age). Some will go on to lose more hair (in their 20s and 30s) if they have the gene for Male Pattern Balding.
Split ends reflect drying and trauma over time. The longer hair ends are the oldest part of the hair shaft and that is why we see the greatest damage at the ends. The trauma is caused by sunlight, blow driers, hot rollers, rubbing too hard, hacking it with dull scissors, back brushing, using a metal comb with fine tines, perming, bleaching or coloring, putting rubber bands around the hair and the use of various hair sprays. The use of good shampoos and conditioners help keep the hair in better shape. Once the cuticle cracks or breaks and the cortex is damaged, only a good hair cut (which removes the damaged hair) will allow you to get the healthy hair look you want. These pictures show the complexity of a hair shaft, with many layers, each of which can be damaged permanently if you don’t take good care of your hair. Look to the right side of the photo and see a still intact hair shaft so you can see if someone had a hair cut and used a good shear to cut this hair a bit shorter, the end will be clean and not irregular.
lol Dr. Rassman,you say that masturbation has no effect on mpb but then how do you explain that when i stop masturbation for 3 days,my hair feels and looks stronger and thicker and the longer i dont masturbat,the better it gets..but when i do masturbate,my hair looks and feels weaker and thinner..you asked for a controlled study,im your controlled study..my father is bald,my brother balded so im geneticaly set for mpb but using certain methods and limiting masturbation to a minimum,i seem to have some control over my genetic mpb..i think someday you will see that we are right
I think you should go back and look up the what a controlled study actually is. I am posting your email because some other men may feel as you do, but there is no evidence for your thesis. Everyone is in control of what they do with their body, like when they choose to use non-approved topicals on their hair or the frequency of masturbation. If you think your hair is better now, congratulations.
Dr. Rassman,
I had a my first procedure done over 1 year ago (1900 grafts) by a reputable surgeon but am extremely disappointed with my results. I have noticeably less hair now than prior to surgery. My doctor said the procedure went fine, but I have lost more native hair than transplanted hair received which is the source of my visible concern. My question – how do I know if this is correct. How can I know that the 1900 grafts survived or if there was in fact a problem with my procedure I am not aware of. I am 49 and have been on Propecia for several years. Have you ever heard of this situation? I feel like I’m in the middle of a nightmare – I have paid a small fortune to fast track my hair loss. I don’t know where to go from here. Please help!
I hear and see situations similar to yours nearly everyday. If you were a young man (under 25) and not on Propecia, I would predict the hair loss as almost a certainty. Hair transplant surgery should take into account a Master Plan to plan for future losses.
You should not have lost native hair at your age (49), as men of this age have hair that rarely reacts with shock loss, particularly as you are on Propecia. Although this is a risk that patients must be made fully aware of before having the surgery, there are too many uncertainties here for me to draw conclusions without examining you myself and see what happened to the transplants you had. Hopefully, you have good before pictures taken for an expert to draw conclusions. You need to have a second opinion.
2007-04-12 14:34:542007-04-12 15:34:57I’m Worse Off Now AFTER My Hair Transplant
Over the last few months I have been worrying about whether I have hair loss. I am an 18 year old male. After stressing out over this, I feel like my hair is getting thinner, especially when I run my fingers through it. I have been noticing a bit more hair over the pillow and in the bathroom. But my parents have said that my hair looks fine. So can I have hair loss, or have started the process of hair loss? And what should I do to treat it?
You should see a doctor and get a proper diagnosis. At 18 years old, there is a possibility that you have genetic hair loss and if that is proven, then appropriate treatments can be taken.
Sometimes you can’t actually see the loss, but you’re still losing hair. A doctor can check your hair bulk to see if you’re thinning.
2013-12-03 12:00:292013-12-02 10:34:55I’m Worrying About My Hair Loss And Now I See Hair On My Pillow
I just had a hair transplant procedure performed on 12-06-11. I was given one of those surgical caps to wear on my head to help shield my scalp, but my scalp was still bleeding a little. I went to sleep with the cap on and woke up the next day trying to remove the cap. I could not remove the front part of the cap because the blood had dried up and become stuck to some of the areas where the grafts had been put in. I tried pulling gently on the cap that was stuck to the area where some of my grafts where placed and managed to pull it off but it came off with a good amount of scab and what I believe to be a single hair follicle.
Now I am worried that I ruined my hair line and the surgeon may not be able to do anything about it. Is it possible to have another hair follicle out in to replace the one that i accidently removed?
A surgical cap should never be worn to cover the grafts, for as you said, this could be a problem.
You should ask your doctor about the loss of grafts. If you only lost one graft, then consider yourself lucky.
What was the plan you had with the surgeon? Did you and he discuss leaving the middle free of grafts? Did you have hair in the middle that is not showing here because of the shave? If you were uniformly bald, I would agree that this is not a good plan. You have a finite amount of donor hair so first I want to know what is your total donor supply estimate and how much of it was use for this surgery? That would allow me to determine what could be done in the future in another hair transplant session. Do you have a Personalized Master Plan with your doctor to address now and future issues of balding? This is critical, of course.
2020-03-06 03:47:492020-03-10 06:42:52I’m worried because the doctor missed half of my scalp (photo)
Dear Doctor,
I am 28 yr old male. I have been losing a few strands of hair here and there for the past couple of years. However, it aggrevated in the past six months or so, with visible thinning of hair on the crown and receding of temples. I consulted a physician and a dermatologist. My reports about anaemia, thyroid function and blood sugar levels are normal. I was informed that I am suffering from genetic male pattern baldness.
I have been prescribed Minoxidil 5%, twice daily, Propecia once daily with Nizoral 1% twice a week. I have been on the above regime for a month. However, I have observed dramatic hair loss in the past month. I am loosing about 300 hair everyday. The most worrying part is that there are times when I loose a bunch of two to three hairs with a single white bulb at the bottom.
I am told that the use of Minoxidil can cause such increased hair loss. From your vast experience, can you confirm if such increased hair loss is common in the first month of treatment?
Also, assuming that this increased hair loss is pursuant to initial reaction to Minoxidil – will the hair lost in the past month grow back to their original length and thickness or is the best case scenario that only small thin miniature hair will replace them?
Thanks
I’ve had some emails over the years of reporting on this site from people asking about minoxidil shedding. I’ve written about it here.
I can’t say for sure how long it’ll persist or if those shed hairs will regrow, but it seems to be a temporary thing that lasts about a month in those that see this initial shedding and the hairs usually do return.
