Author: Dr. William Rassman

Is there any way whatsoever to determine whether a person will at some point in their lives suffer from male pattern baldness, and if so, would this not eliminate the problem of transplanting people too young (say if they have a naturally high/ uneven hairline etc)

There is a test called HairDX that will tell you if you have the gene (70% accurate), but it won’t tell you when that gene will be expressed… or if it will be expressed at all. So on a predictive basis, the answer is unfortunately no. But if you want to know if you are balding (possibly just a little) then you should see a doctor who is experienced in hair analysis for miniaturization and hair bulk, which this will tell you if the balding process has started in you.

Many young men with a balding dad or uncle or brother are expecting hair loss to happen to them, and these are the patients I can help by telling them what, if anything, is going on in their head. If you have an average hair thickness, you might not see thinning until the hair loss is at 50% of the original density. Coarser haired men will often not detect loss even at 60-70% of their original density and blond men may not detect hair loss or thinning to 80-90% of the hair due to the low contrast between hair and skin color.

Snippet from the article:

A hat may no longer be the only answer for baldness. Researchers at Yale University have found new clues to the causes of hair loss in the fatty skin cells of mice.

Studying cells from the fatty layer, the researchers found that signals from these fat cells were needed to stimulate the stem cells at the base of hair follicles, which are dormant in baldness. These cells could help scientists identify how to treat hair loss in humans.

“The fat cells are important for hair growth. If they’re not there, the hair won’t grow,” said Valerie Horsley, the lead author of the study.

Horsley said her team will now work on identifying the cells in humans that do the same thing.

Read the rest — Going Bald? The Fault May Lie in Your Cells

It’s another mice study, but it’s at least a place to start. As the article points out, hopefully it’ll lead to new discoveries not only for hair loss, but wound healing and skin tumors.

In response to a recent post about stress hair loss vs genetic causes:

Dr Rassman,

What if it’s both? Then does it take one year still to see atleast a little reqrowth? You say a year, but in other posts you have said 6-12 months. Are you talking about how long it takes to first start growing, or how long it will take for the hairs to reach their previous length? Thanks

These numbers of 6 or 12 months are in the ballpark of what we see. It’s an educated guess based upon experience over a long time frame. Either number works, but clearly, if you see regrowth in 6 months then you’re on the lower end of the spectrum. Some may see regrowth sooner than others, but there’s no exact date one can mark on the calendar.

If you have stress induced hair loss AND genetic male pattern baldness, the stress might speed up the existing genetic loss. I really have no way to know if there will be regrowth (or how much) after your stress is under control if you have MPB also at play.

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