Author: Dr. William Rassman

Dear Doctor Rassman
My question concerns my eyebrows. I shaved them for some reason I cannot even comprehend myself. They never came back. What makes it so much worse is the fact that i am a man. It bothers me more than anything else in my entire life has. It haunts me from when i wake up to when i go to bed. I have two questions i guess.

1. First of all, i don’t know why but i really don’t want to have a eyebrow transplant probably because it is in fact considered plastic surgery and is considered weird by most people i have asked. Also the continual growing could become annoying but i am not ruling it out. If you yourself were in my situation would you in fact have it done? Are most of your patients honestly happy with the results?

2. Second i am 25 years old now and by visiting your site learned of hair cloning. this seems like a much better option obviously but i have yet to understand if it is only for the top of your head or could it be implemented in something like my eyebrows. what i am getting at is if they cloned eyebrow hair would it grow normally (not like head hair)? if it is possible to clone eyebrow hairs then would you wait? probably not from reading your other responses. either way i really want to do something about this.

thank you so much for your time and again what do you think my best option is?

I find it difficult to understand how shaving your eyebrows once would cause them never to grow back. Please see a doctor and get a good diagnosis. Maybe you have other medical issues that may cause the absence of eyebrows (such as alopecia areata).

Eyebrow transplantation is a very reasonable option for many men and women who do not have eyebrows (or have thin brows). Again, please consult with a hair transplant doctor for this. It is not my place to say if you should have surgery or not. This is purely a cosmetic procedure. If you think you will be a happier person for having more eyebrow hairs, then it is your prerogative. If you would like a private consultation, you can call my office (800) NEW-HAIR or (310) 553-9913 to speak to me or Dr. Pak.

At this time, cloning isn’t an option.

Hello, just a question from yet another freaked out 20 year old.

Ok, so neither side of my family has a history of balding. The only stand-out is my brother. He’s going bald, but he had a different father than me. Could his father’s genetics have played a role in his unfortunate fate?

Also, I’ve read that a “mature” hairline is a euphemism for receding hairline. What would you say about this? Thanks for your time.

Hair loss in most men is genetic, and it can come from either the mother’s side or the father’s side (or both).

As for the mature hairline, we have extensively written about what that is ( see here). It is not balding in the traditional sense and it is not a progressive recession of the hairline. Some men see their hairline mature and don’t see any patterned loss beyond that.

When through densitometry you discover diffuse unpatterned miniaturization, even in the donor area in male patients, do you immediately diagnose it as DUPA or do you recommend that they rule out other causes of the miniaturization? If so, which specific tests would you recommend?

I read somewhere that a doctor told someone that low DHEA levels could cause hair miniaturization, is this true? Should someone with these symptoms get their DHEA levels checked?

DUPA (Diffuse Unpatterned Alopecia) requires extensive assessment of the donor area, which will be heavily impacted by miniaturization on such an assessment. It’s not a quick diagnosis.

I can not comment on DHEA levels and its association with DUPA, though I have written about DHEA before here.

Are there any hormonal differences in general between men with male pattern baldness and men without MPB?

We know that in men, testosterone gets converted into dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and it is the 5a-reductase enzyme that converts testosterone to DHT. Some men do not have the genetics markers that cause the DHT to induce the (hair) loss, though. In other words one can have a very high DHT level and never have hair loss (because they do not have the genes for genetic hair loss).

DHT can be inhibited/ reduced with drugs like Propecia (finasteride 1mg). Although women also make testosterone (lesser amounts) the impact of Propecia does not stop or reverse genetic female hair loss as it does in most men. This suggest that women’s hair loss is not related to DHT.

With all that said… I don’t know of any specific hormonal differences between balding and hairy men.

Snippet from the article:

With all but one game decided by one run, every move has counted, meaning extreme physical and mental focus has been required from each member of the Red Sox and Tigers.

“This is probably a reason why I don’t have any hair,” Dustin Pedroia told Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports after Thursday’s tight 4-3 Red Sox win.

Read the rest (only if you’re a sports fan) — Dustin Pedroia Blames Red Sox’ Postseason Success for Hair Loss

Dustin Pedroia’s quote was likely in jest, as he’d been losing hair for quite some time (genetics being the reasonable assumption). Tonight is the start of the World Series, so any quote is likely enough for the sportswriters in Boston to put it in their headline.

Hi Docs,
I’m a white Caucasian man who turned 27 in April. I have been balding for 6 years now. I have no more doubt about that because my frontal hairline receded about 1 inch maybe more (depending on how I pull my hair back more or less) and I have got miniaturized hair on the temples. I would like to know why the dermatologist (head of a dermatology department) keeps denying my baldness and if I am really balding or not.

Well, at the very beginning, I didn’t notice anything. I used to go to the hairdresser once a month. But, at the age of 24 (about 3 years ago) I could see my scalp through my hair witch obviously began thinning. And my hair’s colour wasn’t the same anymore (much clearer than before).

So, one day I decided to have my hair cut very short. That day I realized that my hairline was receding. I could see the temples that I have never had and never seen before. According to the pictures, I’m receding since the age of 21 or 22. At the age of 21 I had a full head of hair and no temples, at the age of 22, I had temples, at the age of 24 I reached the first stage of baldness and now I’m at least at the first or maybe second stage of baldness at only 27.

Well, I can assume that I’m balding and having a similar evolution as my father had (maybe a little slower) except that he started a little earlier. At the age of 18-19, my father reached the first stage of the Norwood-Hamilton scale, at the age of 27, he was at the second stage maybe a little more (almost third), at the age of 32, he was at least NWD 3, by the time he turned 37 he reached the fourth stage and now, he is a 50 years old man and he’s almost 5 (almost bald)!

In my family, my father is the only “real” bald man. My grand father (my dad’s father) is only Norwood 2 at the age of 75, my uncles (my dad’s brothers) are Norwood 1 at 47 and Norwood 2 at 52 and my mother’s father is only Norwood 1 or 1.5 at the age of 68. I have to say also that when I was a kid I had a similar implantation (very low and with no temples at all), the same hair quality (very thick) and the same hair colour (dark) as my mothers’. Now, I keep my hair long and I only cut a little of length when it’s too long and I’m hiding the temples with my hair from the middle of the head.

I have already seen the dermatologist several times and he always denied the truth by saying “You’re not balding.” or “You have got only temples.” or “You have a lot of hair” or “You have got no hair loss.” etc. The last time I have seen the dermatologist (April of 2013) he told me that I had a “very young” implantation and I had no kind of baldness and he asked me how my mother’s brothers were but she has got only sisters !

So, I would like to know if it is possible that the dermatologist is denying my baldness or maybe is not seeing it. Am I really balding or not? (My hairline receded about 1 inch or more in only 6 years. That is what I call the second stage, maybe it is still a first stage).

Thanks for reading. I wish you could answer to my question.

I don’t know what purpose it would serve for your dermatologist to deny your hair loss if you actually had genetic loss. In situations like this, I would that you get another opinion. You can send me some good quality photographs with your eyebrows lifted high so that the wrinkles of your forehead show, and then I can give you the feedback you want and apparently need. Second opinions are always a good idea if you lack the confidence in the opinions you are given.

You would need to call my office at (310) 553-9113 or (800) NEW-HAIR to set up a formal phone or in-person consultation for this. Personal / individual consultations are not given via email or this site.