Month: January 2023

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Hair Loss in Young African American Man

Dr. Rassman;

As hard as this may seem to believe (especially for me), I am a 20 year old African American male who started losing my frontal hairline at the young age of 18. I am a sophmore in college and only started losing hair a few months after my first year. I am foolishly hoping that there is some other unknown cause to my early hairloss besides MPB (i.e.-I wore tight cornrow braids for a year, have heavy dandruff, and am also a heavy marijuana smoker) but I know this is unlikely. I have not had any tests done. I am wondering what my best options are considering that I am a college student with low income. I do not want to only stop hairloss, I really need to re-grow the hair I already lost. I am well into a Norwood class type III and have been for about a year now. I also cannot shave my head completely bald because of dark spots on my scalp and the weird shape of my dome. My situation is devastating due to my age and lack of money. I feel that NHI is really the most sincere and genuine hair transplant program and would be the most truthful and accurate with any advice they could offer. Thank you in advance for your time, patience, and assistance.

Robbed of Youth

Returning lost hair may be impractical for genetic hair loss. If you had your hair in tight braids when you were young, what you may be experiencing is some impact of traction alopecia modified by the genetic process. Whatever the cause, you do need to be examined by a competent doctor to make a diagnosis. The drug Propecia can return hair that has been lost, usually not as much in the front as elsewhere on the scalp. This is a prescription item, so again you need to be seen by a good doctor. A good Dermatologist should be able to do this. We have offices in California and and an affliated office in New York, so if you can get to one of our offices, we would be happy to examine you. Otherwise, look for a doctor in your area at ISHRS.org. You are too young for transplants, so be sure that no one does a hair transplant on you and stay away from anyone that pressures you to do surgery.

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Hair Loss in UK

Everything in the following article is not completely accurate, but worth reading if just to get another cultural variation to discussing hair loss. In reference to comments in this piece about Elton John’s hair transplants, I believe that he does wear a hair system (wig) and did not have a successful outcome for hair transplants as he received them in the early days when the technology was deforming. They call him a toupee wearer, but also say that his transplant was effective. I guess it could be weaved into his hair system to keep it on his head, thereby being effective in that way. Aesthetically though, it can’t be good.


2006-05-09 09:14:02Hair Loss in UK

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Hair Loss in the Mature Man

Reader Tom asks…

My hairline has been receding for a number of years, I am now 62 and recently had a heart attack. It seems to me that the hair loss has accelerated since that trauma. My hair now has sort of a trough down the middle that was not there before, but it was thinning. My question is, Can a heart attack cause acceleration of hair loss and can hair replacement techniques be employed to reverse it? Thank You

Hi Tom, thanks for writing.

There are generally four causes of hair loss in men. Genetic inheritance and male hormones are the two most important. Time and stress are the other two. Typically, genetic hair loss occurs well before 35 years of age, and in most people it slows down with time. There are some older men who start showing the hair loss over the age of 45, although this is more the exception to the rule. Don Ameche, a popular film actor in the 1930s and 40s, was a hairy sex idol even at the age of 50, but was bald at the age of 75 when he had a prominent role in the movie Cocoon. So, he had an ‘expression’ of his genetic balding late in life. Your heart attack certainly brought on ‘STRESS’ and with a delayed genetic expression, probably precipitated your hair loss. I have seen this in illness or even divorce, both of which are heavy stress induced initiators for hair loss in the genetically prone man.

As your hair loss is recent, I would probably recommend that you go on the drug Propecia, because continued hair loss is possible. This drug may slow or stop the progression of the hair loss and it might even reverse it. If it does not do the trick, then a hair transplant works wonderfully.

Hope this answers your question.


2005-05-05 09:10:14Hair Loss in the Mature Man

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Hair Loss in the Crown — Genetics or Dreadlocks?

Hey, I’m 22 and worried about hair loss. I noticed my hair thinning out in the crown area when I had dreadlocks, which I have since cut off after seeing a dermatologist. I don’t experience a great deal of hair loss, but the crown area has thinned out a bit and is more noticeable in bright lights.

I have purchased minoxodil (which the dermatologist said was optional) but am yet to start using it as I wanted to watch my progress in case if I didn’t actually need it. Advice?

I don’t know anything about your hair loss history, but early crown hair loss is typical of male pattern baldness, which means it may be caused by your genetics. The loss you’re seeing could be unrelated to the dreadlocks. Then again, the dreadlocks wouldn’t be helping the situation, as you’re running the risk of developing traction alopecia.

Minoxidil does work for some in the crown, but I’ve found that Propecia for young men with early loss (particularly in the crown) works even better. Both Propecia and minoxidil are optional (they are for treating a cosmetic issue, not to save your life), but if you want to save your hair, the option you’ll want to try becomes clear. I assume you want to treat your thinning crown, or you wouldn’t have written to the BaldingBlog.

So if your dermatologist saw early crown loss, I’m a little surprised you weren’t prescribed Propecia… though again, I’m not your doctor and don’t know about your hair loss history. Perhaps there’s something else that I’m not aware of at play.

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Hair Loss in Teenage Female

I am an active 17 year old high school cheerleader and my hair which used to be thick, is now falling out and becoming thin, like my mother, my grandmother and two of my aunts. They tell me it is in the family, but not when they were my age. What should I do? If I go to a doctor, how do I find one?

Genetic causes of hair loss in a 17 year old female, is unusual. You were correct to ask your female relatives at what age the condition first appeared with them. I would first have a good doctor see you and look for medical causes of hair loss (there are many). The following problems are amongst those that should be considered: anemia, thyroid disease, connective tissue disease, various gynecological conditions and emotional stress. It is also important to review the use of medications that can cause hair loss, such as oral contraceptives, beta-blockers, Vitamin A, thyroid drugs, coumadin and prednisone if you are taking any of these. Many other medications can also contribute to hair loss so if you are taking any drugs of any type, then that should be looked into as well. The following laboratory tests may be useful if underlying problems are suspected: CBC, Chem Screen, ANA, T4, TSH, STS, Androstenedione, DHEA-Sulfate, Total and Free Testosterone.

It is possible that a medical condition may be the cause of your hair loss, so before you jump to conclusions that you are following your female relatives’ fate, I would have you checked out for these conditions. Also, please read my previous blog entry, Female Hair Loss.

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Hair Loss in Children

I just found an article on the subject of hair loss in children which may have interest to my readers. See yesterday’s question from the young girl with possible genetic hair loss. This article is a bit technical but it does address the problem.

Androgenetic Alopecia in Children: report of 20 cases by Tosti A, Iorizzo M, Piraccini BM.
Research performed at: Department of Dermatology, University of Bologna,
Via Massarenti 1, 40138 Bologna, Italy. tosti@med.unibo.it

SUMMARY: Androgenetic alopecia (AGA) is the most common type of hair loss in adults. Although there are differences in the age at onset, the disease starts after puberty when enough testosterone is available to be transformed into dihydrotestosterone. We report 20 prepubertal children with AGA, 12 girls and eight boys, age range 6-10 years, observed over the last 4 years. All had normal physical development. Clinical examination showed hair loss with thinning and widening of the central parting of the scalp, both in boys and girls. In eight cases frontal accentuation and breach of frontal hairline were also present. The clinical diagnosis was confirmed by pull test, trichogram and dermoscopy in all cases, and by scalp biopsy performed in six cases. There was a strong family history of AGA in all patients. The onset of AGA is not expected to be seen in prepubertal patients without abnormal androgen levels. A common feature observed in our series of children with AGA was a strong genetic predisposition to the disease. Although the pathogenesis remains speculative, endocrine evaluation and a strict follow-up are strongly recommended.

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Hair Loss History – Dr. Scott’s Electric Hair Brush

I’m always receiving emails about weird hair loss products that claim to do things they can’t possibly do. I’m sure most of you know this isn’t a new phenomenon, and so I decided to search for some historical hair loss “cures”. Turns out, the scams that exist today aren’t that much different from the quackery of 100 years ago.

In the late 19th century, Dr. George A. Scott was an advertiser of brushes for teeth, skin, and hair that claimed to cure everything from hair loss to headaches. I found a couple of ads for his Electric Hair Brush with some outrageous and ridiculous assertions that I thought the readers of this site would get a kick out of. But first, I wanted to learn more about the man behind the “inventions” and about the actual brush itself. For that, I turned to a fantastically informative site called American Artifacts.

From the American Artifacts site —

Dr. Scott’s Electric Hair Brush. One of the more famous quack devices of the 1880’s, advertised in Harpers Weekly and other popular magazines. Dr. Scott’s 1881 patent claimed merely several magnets embedded in a plastic material and a mold for holding the bristles, which are also embedded in the hard rubber. There is the usual crack across the handle – the metal rods embedded in the thermoplastic material and running the entire length of the brush prevent the handles from breaking. Marked “No 5” and “Dr. Scott’s Electric” on the underside of the handle, and “The Germ of all Life is Electricity”.

The image above is one advertisement I came across from 1882. There’s a larger and more detailed version available here.


2011-01-20 16:35:05Hair Loss History – Dr. Scott’s Electric Hair Brush

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I have hair loss all over my head, even the sides and back, can I transplant it?

If you are local to my office in California, visit me so that I can perform a miniaturization analysis of your hair throughout the front, top, crown, back and sides. IF you have miniaturization on the sides and back, then you may have Diffuse Unpatterned Alopecia, something we published about in 1996. This is a difficult problem to have as you are then not a hair transplant candidate. I wrote about how people can find out for themselves in a post https://newhair.com/digital-microscope-examine-hair-balding/ where I stated: “Amazon has started to sell a Digital microscope with magnification up to 500 times normal. This allows a person like any reasonable balding person, to examine his own hair and look for miniaturization. I need to give you all some help on how to do this. First purchase a digital microscope on Amazon ($16.95), then look up on Amazon Digital Microscope (the one I purchased can be found here: https://amzn.to/28Tktzf. Look it up to your computer and then you can place it on your scalp and examine your own hair. You don’t have to be a doctor with a good digital microscope in your hand.”

You can send me photos of what you get from this instrument and I will be happy to review them for you if you are not local. Write to me at: wrassman@newhair.com

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Hair Loss from Zoloft, Surmontil, Xanax, or Temesta?

Dear Dr. Rassman

I am 33 and suffered from depression and anxiety attacks over a period of years and took numerous antidepressants including Zoloft and Surmontil. In addition I took sedatives such as Xanax and Temesta. During that time I did not notice any hairloss, even though I experienced a huge amount of stress. I am on the way to recovery now and stopped taking the antidepressants over 6 months ago and am weaning myself off the Xanax. For the last 6 months I have been experiencing mild hair loss, especially noticeable on the front hairline. Gaps are appearing in the hairline, which was normally full. I wash my hair about 4 times a week and comb my hair when washing it. In total I notice about 20-30 hairs on my hands and comb every time, which I never did before. I have no family history on either side of baldness. I have the following questions:

1) Is it possible that I could be experience temporary hair loss as a result of a history of using antidepressants and huge stress, and am having something of a delayed reaction? If so when can I expect hair to start growing back, if at all?

2) Does hair generally become thinner and recede in any case with age?

3) How can the loss of 50-100 hairs a day be normal? It seems like such a huge amount. Even given that new hairs are growing, that is around 30,000 hairs a year.

Thanks for any advice.

Kind Regards

Stress and antidepressent medications can cause hair loss. In some people, the hair shafts become finer (rather than coarser) and develop less densities of the hairs themselves with age. Most people lose about 100 hairs per day and they grow back about the same number of hairs each day.

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Hair Loss from Wigs

Hi,

I am a 52 year old African American female, who has had the struggle of being bald most of my life. When I was 12 I had a severe case of chicken pox, and left me scarred all over. Fortunately, I recoved with the skin, but the disease left large bald spots all over my scalp. I have worn wigs .. seems like forever.

The problem is no one has ever been able to help me through the years, and the wigs that I always wore, are taking out the remaining hair I have left on my head.

Is there someone I can see, to help me with this problem. I have used medications, hair weaves, etc to no avail.

Thanks

Wearing a wig for many years can cause further hair loss as a result of the traction caused by the wigs. Traction Alopecia is common in wig wearers, those who wear turbins, and even in those women who pulled their hair into tight pony tails. Send your photos or if you are planning a trip to Los Angeles, visit my office so that I could better evaluate your situation. There are a few questions I need to answer, but can’t do so until I can see your hair loss. These questions include: What is your donor supply like? Is there enough hair for redistribution with hair transplants?


2006-01-18 07:08:44Hair Loss from Wigs