Month: January 2023

Hair loss is progressive and this man shows why. He had a hair transplant 15 years ago in the frontal area (marked in the photo as front), and he lost hair behind the hair transplant. He is now 49, so he was 36 when he had his hair transplant. Had he been 25, it is likely that he would have lost it faster than 15 years, and if his final balding pattern was not defined, then he might have lost far more hair at 25. At the age of 36, hair loss usually slows down and the hair loss patterns are more stable.

Hi Doctor,

Great to find a forum that cuts through all the nonsense on balding; this really is a great service. I am a 25yo male with a hairline receding around two inches at one side. On this receding side I have a “cow’s lick,”(not sure of medical definition!) and this seems to be where the majority of the loss is occurring. I am currently on finasteride, and am worried that the loss at one side looks rather odd.
Is a “cow’s lick” particularly prone to loss? Or is this purely coincidence?

All the best!

Asymmetrical hair loss is not uncommon. It would be a coincidence that your cowlick is on the side with the hair loss. You should see and doctor and probably go on appropriate treatment. Lopsided hair loss does not look good for most men.

I’m 22, Male, and have had a ton of stress over the past four or so years. I’ve been slowly losing hair (noticed a bit of loss about two or three years ago I think) on the right side and now a small bit is gone on the left side. Is it possible that this is stress related but NOT indicative of MPB? I mean is is possible that this isn’t just speeding up MPB that I’d get later on regardless? And if it grows back a bit or stops falling, do I need to worry that it is MPB which will continue? Or can I move on and assume whatever was lost, whether it regrows or not, was just due to stress and that there won’t be any more loss? I really need help please. Thanks so much!

As this is very important to you, you should see a doctor like me who can make the diagnosis and using tools such as the HAIRCHECK test (https://baldingblog.com/haircheck-test-how-it-is-done-video/) and try to predict what your future might look like. Then based upon that assessment, a good doctor will build a Master Plan for you to follow. The key is to keep your hair and with today’s medications and hair transplant technology, it is something that you should want for yourself.

I recently read a posting on baldingblog where a women suggested the use of Visine to stop hairloss. I’ve heard of using visine to help sooth razorburn an ingrown hair as I assume it has antiflammatory medication.

I’ve read other places that some people think hairloss is a type of immune response of our body, where DHT causes the structure of the hair follicle to change. At some point our own immune systems reject the changed follicle and attack it, ultimately causing the phenomenon we see as balding. Somewhere else I read that in cases, such as people getting transplants take immune suppressing drugs such as Cyclocsporine, to stop organ rejection, actually noticed hair regrowth.

Going back to the woman who earlier spoke of the Visine treatment that she heard, this woman said that her hairloss got worse after she moved. Speaking from my own experience, I have noticed that certain immune responses happen when one changes environment. For instance, I grew up in New Jersey and never suffered any real allergies or medical problems. When I moved out to California when I was 16, notice an increase in my hyper-histamine.. or histamine positive response. I believe thats what you called it. In particular, I developed an allergic reaction to heat.

Anyhow, its interesting to think that environment may have a small role in a complex immune response that results in hair loss.

Is hairloss a more modern occurrence? I mean, does hairloss occur more in modern society? I remember reading an article recently in Wired that said that when comparing lab mice with sewer rats, the sewer rats had “better” immune systems because of their dirty environment. The immune systems of the lab rats tended to overreact to stimuli. On the other hand, the sewer rats immune systems better defended against real threats while not overreacting to things such as allergens. ( https://www.wired.com/news/wireservice/0,71185-0.html)

Anyway, thx for your blog, Dr Rassman. It’s always interesting and entertaining!

I agree with you that although hair loss is caused by genes, it can be influenced by the environment where chemical products, drugs, malnutrition, and stress can induce the expression of balding genes. Hair loss is not a modern society occurrence. Men have been bald since the beginning of recorded time. Hats and wigs have been around since the earliest records in the history of civilization.

Are we more self conscious with hair loss today? Somehow I doubt that, but we do have better communication (like this blog and the internet in general) to share what is happening to us with others. We do know that autoimmune diseases can cause hair loss by creating antibodies attacking the hair follicles, but that may not mean that hair loss is always an immune modulated disorder. A famous doctor told me once that sooner or later (he predicts) that we will learn that every disease entity will arise from either infection or genetics. At this point though, who really knows?

Is hair loss really that common a side effect of taking NSAIDs? If it is, how long does one need to take them before hair loss occurs?

Hair loss is not a common side effect of taking NSAIDS such as Motrin, Advil, etc. It is so rare, I have not personally met anyone in my 20+ years who came to see me for this complaint.