Author: Dr. William Rassman

Hi doc. I read in a leading fitness magazine that the sports supplement creatine increases DHT levels by up to 56%! In fact they think this may be why it works so well! Does this mean it will seriously accelerate my hair loss? Pretty much every guy who hits the gym takes this stuff, so we need to know! Thanks.

Creatine is known to increase hair loss in some, possibly by driving up the DHT levels. The last research I recall reading about it noted that in 3 weeks of use among 20 athletes, DHT levels were raised. That study was obviously very tiny and further research should’ve been done. Bodybuilders may also add steroids with the creatine, which is just compounding the problem.

Is it worth taking? Only you know the answer to that question.

Hello,

Firstly I’d like to thank you for this excellent and informative blog – there are so many other sites that confuse or alarm or try to sell useless products.

I’d like to know where male pattern balding usually starts. I have been looking at my scalp for signs of balding – I have no receding at the temples or the front (apart from having an adult hairline), nor do I have any thinning at the back of the crown – the other usual place you see early signs of balding (at least in everyone I have looked at). However, if I part my hair down the middle it looks like the parting is quite wide at the area in front of the point of the skull. Like early stages of thinning directly in the middle of the top of my head. This seems an unusual place to begin – I haven’t seen this on anyone else.

Incidentally this is the exact place where I put a lot of pulling pressure during my yoga practise – there is a ‘bridge posture’ that puts the whole weight of my body pulling on my hair at this point. Could this be some form of traction alopecia?

What do you think? Have you ever seen any balding like this before? There is very little balding in my family (father and his father full heads of hair, same with both brothers). Only my uncle on my father’s side and my mother’s father have any balding, both in different patterns, and both late on in life.

Thank you in advance.

You should see a doctor. Good bulk measurements can identify genetic hair loss early in the process. Traction alopecia caused by a ‘pulling’ of the hair from such activities as you described is also a possible cause for hair loss.

I have seen men start their hair loss process where you report your loss is, so the answer to the question is that a really good examination of your hair and scalp is necessary. There’s simply no way I can tell via the internet if traction or genetics is causing your loss.

Traction alopecia may produce some broken hairs with blunt ends, some new growth with tapered ends, some broken mid-shaft, or some uneven stubble — and a doctor with good optical instruments can see this on an examination of your balding area. There is no substitute for a good doctor’s examination.