Author: Dr. William Rassman

I noticed your recent post about protein powders and how they have no effect on DHT and hair loss. I’ve seen some posts on your site, but I feel that exercise and supplements (other than steroids which obviously impact hair loss) have not been adequately addressed.

For example, many studies indicate that creatine increases testosterone and DHT. Also, generally speaking, exercising increases testosterone levels. Therefore, wouldn’t exercise and working out increase DHT and therefore hair loss? Also, maybe we can get a more straight forward answer on certain common supplements such as Creatine and Glucosamine. Thanks

I do not believe that working out will increase hair loss, but the straight forward answer is that we don’t know for sure. If you search the web, many talk about creatine and how it may relate to increased DHT, and ultimately hair loss. I do not know of any well constructed, reliable, or definitive studies about it, though.

In the world of genetic male pattern hair loss, the keyword is genetic. I suppose there are extraneous things you can do or take (anabolic steroids – a drug/hormone – not a supplement) to make the genetic trait worse or accelerate it. But in the end, even if you don’t do anything, but you have the genes for it, you will lose hair.

If taking creatine or glucosamine or other supplements worries you, then consider not taking them. Prioritize your goals. If you are taking these supplements to enhance your workout and gain muscle etc, nothing beats actually working out (an extra day per week or an extra 10 minutes in the gym is better than any supplements in my personal opinion).

You said in en earlier archive, “You can have very high levels of DHT, but as long as your hair is not sensitive to DHT, Propecia will have little effect on the normal hairs.” My question is what causes hairs to thin where its not male pattern like a mustache, sideburns or a beard. Both my doctor and dermatologist, prescribed for me to take propecia or Rogaine but I haven’t any signs of male pattern baldness. The hairs on my mustache have become very thin, brown and a little white. 4 years ago the hairs were denser and black. I am a 26 year old male with African/Caucasian decent.

You are correct that MPB and DHT do not impact the facial hair. We see changes with age in many people, although you are young for thinning of facial hair. At this point, I do not have the answer to your problem. I would love to examine your beard and measure the thickness of different hairs from different parts of the face. That would give me more insights into your problem.

Many men who have frontal hair loss will also develop crown loss. This is called a Class 3 Vertex presentation of hair loss. If you are under 25, you might find that it will progress further.

I have already lost more than half the hairs on the top of my head. I have been reading on your blog, that it is normal to lose up to 100 hairs a day. However, given my current state of hair loss, does the number of “normal” hairs to lose decrease? In other words, since I have lost half the hairs on my head already, should I only be concerned now if I lose more than 50 hairs a day?? I ask this question largely because I am about to start taking Propecia and I want to guage an idea of what kind of benefits I can hope for. Thank you!

While it is normal to lose 100 hairs a day, there should be 100 other hairs growing at other parts of your head to replace the lost hairs. It is just difficult to find the growing hairs and easy to see the falling hairs. If you are bald and have lost 50% of the hair population, then you will cycle about 50 hairs per day, not 100, and that is what you will see on your pillow (if all of the hair loss was at night when you slept).

If you have considerably thinned and are still losing hair (100 or 50 or 20 hairs a day), you may have hair loss that is genetic in nature (male pattern hair loss). If this is the case and you are worried about this, you may consider having your scalp hair mapped for miniaturization to see the pattern and state of your hair health.