This is a comment we received to a post from last week — Settling In to a Hair Loss Pattern:
“and even the balding patients who start as a class 5 may not go much further”
I am a little confused about this comment, does not everyone who start balding start at a class 2 which progresses towards a 3, then 4 and so on. how can a person start at class 5 if they already have a considerable amount of hair loss as class 5?
Sorry about that. I thought it was pretty clear. In the post you’re referencing, I said the “Norwood chart is not to be seen as a progression of hair loss chart, but rather the final patterns seen in a large male population.” Here’s what I meant…
When you bald, a pattern will develop and at times it may look like those patterns on the Norwood chart. If it isn’t visibly evident, the loss may show with a microscopic exam of your hair at various areas on your scalp. This is what we call the miniaturization study.
A patient can just start thinning all over the scalp like a class 5 or a 6 from the beginning of his hair loss process. It doesn’t have to go Norwood 2, then 3, then 4, and so on. A microscopic assessment of your hair (miniaturization study) will show much more than what your naked eye sees in the early stages of hair loss.
We typically lose 100 scalp hairs each day… and most of that loss may occur when you are outside with the wind blowing through your hair doing your everyday activities. We are born with approximately 100,000 hairs on our scalp. While you may be losing 100 scalp hairs a day, your body is also growing 100 scalp hairs that you cannot see to keep things on a balance.
You are very observant. These color changes in the scalp reflect sun damage, and one way to protect your skin is by using a good SPF sunscreen when you’re outdoors. It is unrelated to hair loss, but it makes sense that you’d notice these spots in an area of the scalp where there isn’t hair (like your frontal hairline).
Propecia (finasteride) might be a possibility, but without seeing you I can’t make that recommendation. It’s a prescription medication and one of the two hair loss medications approved by the FDA. You’re not guaranteed to regrow your hairline with Propecia, but hopefully it could slow the loss. The earlier you start the medication into your hair loss process, the better.
Thanks
Maybe you are right, but we live in a capitalist society. I’m not going to make excuses for it. These are for-profit companies and they spend millions (if not billions) of dollars on research and tests to develop new products and new drugs. Some drugs fail, some succeed. When one succeeds, it makes up for all the R&D and failures that still had to be paid for.
Topical “cover-up” products like Toppik or DermMatch do not cause hair loss, nor would it cause an increase in loss. Male pattern hair loss is from genes. You’re using these products so it’s likely you’ve got genetic hair loss… and that loss is progressing.