I am a African American woman and i was chemical burn by relaxer about 7 yeas ago. I do not know how and if you can help me with me living in the Caribbean. I was thinking of getting toppik but will that work on my African hair? please help
Yes. I know many African American men who came into our office to get a consult with us and when they are using Toppik, it seems to work well. I don’t see why it wouldn’t work in the same way for women. Give it a try!
Dear Dr. Rassman
For a quite a lot of time I had been looking for information regarding hair diameter and its relation with hair loss (I know hair diameter can be used for diagnosis), my question is if thicker hair producing follicles need more time of exposure to dht to give the appearence of hair loss. In other words is thicker hair a a delayer/protective factor for baldness?
People with coarse hair may not show the reduction of hair shaft thickness that those with fine hair would, but DHT will impact the hair equally (regardless of hair character) once the genetic pattern is expressed.
You spoke about the cardiac problems that could be associated with oral minoxidil in the podcast. Does Topical Minoxidil (5% or 10%) have any adverse cardiac effects associated with short or long term use?
Yes, the higher the dose or topical, the more the absorption and the greater the risk of cardiac side effects. More is not always better.
2020-05-25 04:00:212020-05-24 19:38:03Does Topical Minoxidil (5% or 10%) Have Any Adverse Cardiac Effects?
hey dr. william.
I’m a 20 year old male who have chanced upon your blog only yesterday and i must say that i’ve learnt pretty much and benefited as far as i could from it. I became less paranoid upon reading on archives speaking of victims losing hundreds and even thousands of hair daily or over a few days. Currently, my problem has persisted over 6 months, well to my friends, this might seem over-reacting and a self-proclaimed problem. But i do have a few burning highlights and concerns as follow:
- my hair is naturally very fine for a male counterpart, does that make me more susceptible to hair loss expecially i’m only starting to keep my hair long?
- i have yet focus so much on my hair loss more than 7 months ago but only when i started to grow more hair, am i overreacting? i see a little bunch of hair -of about 10-15 each time i finish showering and about 10 after i dry my hair and maybe 5 after combing my hair. Are these considered normal?
- last but not the least of paramount importance would be, do i have to lose alot of hair to become bald, or another way of asking would be, if i do not have bunches and bunches of hair dropping, does that mean that i’m safe from balding? I’m safe from genetics influences as far as my paternal great grand father.
Note: i do have oil scalp, contributing to oily hair. What do you suggest dr. william?
I really appreciate your effort and time in giving my message a serious thought and god knows how many have you saved! Keep on going dr. william and i’m looking forward to your reply?:)
You should see a good doctor and develop a Master Plan for yourself. In that, you need to have your hair mapped out for miniaturization. It may even be that you are not genetically losing hair — wouldn’t that be nice to know?
2 questions:
- when showering using warm water and finishing off with ice cold, will the cold water stun/stock hair growth or enhance it?
- Can pimples where one has had a transplant be popped?
2008-01-24 09:32:362008-01-22 11:29:27Does Warm Water Followed by Ice Cold Water Shock Hair Growth?
My question relates to wind exposure. I’ve read on this blog (and elsewhere) that there is no correlation between exposure to high wind gusts and hair loss.
However, I’ve also read here that most of the hairs shed daily “blow out in the wind,” and from showering, styling, etc.
I live in Chicago where I have been exposed to wind gusts in excess of 30 mph. Can this cause hair loss or would I only be losing what was already bound to be lost?
Thanks Doc!
Wind does not cause hair loss other than the fact it may blow away falling hair. Hair loss in men in most cases is due to genetic male pattern balding. Hair loss occurs in a pattern (thus the term). If your theory of the windy city (Chicago) is true, you would see more bald men and women in Chicago. I don’t believe Donald Trump is from Chicago.
My paternal grandfather went bald in his 40-50s, one of my uncles in their late 30s and the other one in his 40s. My dad on the other hand was a NW 7 by 32. A lot of people here say mpb comes from your maternal side but that doesnt always seem to be the case(my maternal grandfather went bald in his 60s). Im currently a NW2 maybe less idk, which isnt bad I wanted to know if there are any high chances i keep my hair until at least my 30s because i dont really mind being bald after than that but being bald so early sucks.
Your uncles and grandparents just tell you if the balding genes are in your family line. Then you have to determine who you might take after.
2020-03-18 04:00:252020-03-18 09:15:31Can I get balding from Paternal Grandfather and Uncles?
i have read the finasteride studies for alopecia. in the pre-clinical study, 0.25mg of finasteride was shown to reduce DHT at the same rate as 1mg. when the clinical studies were done, the dosage used was 1mg. less than that was never looked at with regard to actual clinical outcome. what is your opinion on extrapolating this info to clinically use 0.25mg per day? the purpose of this would be to get efficacy and reduce potential longer term complications. thanks.
I spoke with Dr. David Whiting, an expert on Propecia, some time ago and he informed me that finasteride 1mg and greater has equal value. A dose of 0.5mg is 80 percent as effective and a dose of 0.25 is less effective again. There is value at the lower dose, but if there are no side effects, taking less than the best optimal dose has no basis.
I’ve answered a similar question here — 0.2mg of Finasteride is Almost As Effective as 1mg?
Hi, I was wondering if the hair you add on is real hair, does it grow normally just like normal hair does? How long will the surgery take? How expensive is it? Accroding to your pictures, I’m at stage two of baldness, I’m currently using procerin, but the hair still falls, not as much though, I know the problem will continue and eventually I’ll go bald. I want to add on about an inch of hair down to my forehead all the way to the corners. I want to know what’s the cost of the surgery, your response will be greatly appreciated.
A hair transplant takes hair from the back of your head and moves it to where you need it (hairline, top, or crown). So yes, it grows just like normal hair, because it is normal hair. Pricing varies per doctor, and procedure length is measured in hours (depends on how many grafts you need transplanted). Our pricing can be found here — NHI – Fees and Financing.
Your brief description of hair loss is alarming because you state you have a Norwood class 2 hair pattern. What you may perceive as a hair loss problem may be that you are transitioning to a mature hairline, which is not a sign of balding.
In a previous question you said propecia doesn’t work for DUPA. Isn’t DUPA miniaturization of the follicle we see in Aga and FPB. I have seen that most cases of FPB also has some degree of thinning on the whole head, back and sides. I thought it had already been proven that dht caused miniaturization of the follicle. If not DHT then what are the other causes of hair miniaturizing? Actual miniaturization and not just hair falling out like TE or AA. Miniturization of anykind has been said to be the hallmark on diagnosing all AGA. Could it be that it does work at the same percentage as it does in mpb but because we see so much less cases of DUPA and by the time it shows you need to be at the point of 40-50% loss. Is it more a game of not being able to catch up after such loss.
I believe there are some misconceptions here I would like to clear up.
Male Pattern Balding is a genetic condition in men. In other words if a man was born with the gene(s) for MPB, he will have a hair loss in a certain predictable “pattern” (thus the term Male Pattern Balding). Scientist have found if a man has the gene for MPB, a hormone called dihydrotestosterone (DHT) is partially responsible for his hair loss. If a man does not have the MPB gene, DHT will not cause hair loss. Propecia is a drug that block the DHT action and it works in men who have the genes for MPB.
Propecia will not work for DUPA or Female Pattern Balding because hair loss is not a related to DHT and it is not related to the gene for male pattern balding. DUPA (Diffuse Un-Patterned Alopecia) is similar to generalized hair loss in women and as such is not impacted by the drug Propecia (finasteride).
Miniaturization is just a phenomenon seen in the hair loss process. You will see miniaturization in naturally shedding of hair in a non balding person in some of the hairs at the end of their normal cycle. A non balding person will have up to 20% of miniaturized hair (many of them actually vellus hairs that are small, very short hairs found in each follicular unit in all people). Hairs go through natural cyclex of growth and shedding (anagen, catagen, telogen). A person with MPB will likely have more than 20% of miniaturization in a specific pattern around his scalp. A person with DUPA will likely have much more than 20% of miniaturization all over the scalp in a non specific pattern (thus the term Diffuse Un-Patterned Alopecia).
