Category: Age

I always had a very heavy head of hair and thick eyebrows until about two monts ago. one eyebrow is gone and the other is gone in places. the hair on the top of my head is getting very thin i am 75 years my father died after his 93rd birthday and he had a full head of hair as did my mother. what could be causing this?

Be sure that you are healthy and do not have some early manifestation of some progressing medical problem. Sometimes, hair loss is an early sign of something going wrong. If I assume that it is not a medical problem, then Propecia may work to stop the process, if the hair loss is genetic with very late on-set balding. I have seen this late on-set balding in some 60 and 70 year old men, although it is very rare to commence at your age.

Dear Dr. Rassman,
I am a twenty-seven year old man, and I began to lose my hair at age 15. I went to several doctors when I was younger but they all told me the hair loss was male pattern baldness and not the result of any health problem. I am already as bald as my father, who is thirty years older than me.
When someone begins to lose hair at the age I began to lose mine, will the baldness progress until all of my hair is gone? Will I ever be able to use a hair transplant system? And what the heck would cause my male pattern baldnes to start so early anyway?
Thanks.

Androgenic hair loss or male pattern hair loss starts as males enter puberty, as their testosterone levels increase, bringing on voice changes and pubic hair and other male sex characteristics. Although it is usuual to start the genetic process at 15, the DHT is clearly working on young men of that age. There is an issue of ‘gene expression’, which means that the trigger for the gene may have started early on you. Unfortunately, some men have the gene that causes male pattern hair loss to trigger earlier, while others do not see this until later in life. For example, Don Ameche, a popular old-time movie star in the 1930s and 40s known for his perfect hairline and good looks, started to bald after the age of 50 (late onset trigger for gene expression) and was almost completely bald when he was in his mid 70s (and starred in the movie Cocoon in 1985).

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Hello doctor,
I am a 19 year old freshman at university. The transition seemed like a decent one. I didn’t feel like I was experiencing too much stress during the first month. However during the end of first simester when essays and midterms were coming up I started sleeping less, my face was covered with large zits that would not surface and then leave marks (some of which I still have 2-4 months later). During this period which started about 5 months ago, I was on an emotional rollercoaster too. I had almost no time to see my friends. My social life was quickly becoming extinct. I had no self-esteem because of my new-developed acne problem. It was bad. I think I have started to get the hang of the stress, now that winter is almost over everything seems a lot easier to deal with. But what I have been noticing for the last 2 months is a lot of thinning at the hairline. It was not so bad about a month ago but now my scalp is becomeing VERY visible to the point where I cannot use all the hair I have at the front to cover somewhat “balding” areas. There are no patches persay. It is ver diffuse, but also very noticable. I have had at least 3 people commnt on it. It is beggining to scare me. I have always had fine hair but my scalp has never been visible before. I started taking Vitamin B Complex about 2 months ago for the stress, and am now taking this product called samson’s secret which is full of nutrients that nurish the hair for about 5 weeks.
My question is, does this sound like a temporary thing such as telogen effluvium? And if so when should I be expecting to notice my hair back to normal? Also I am worried because final exams are coming up next month along with more essays worth an even larger percentage of my mark. I am doing amazing but that only makes my expectations of myself even higher, causing me to stress out lest I mess up and the GPA I have worked so hard to achieve and maintain falls. Does this mean that I am only setting myself up for more hairloss and a vicious cycle that will make it extremely hard for the hair to grow back?

I realize this is a rather long post, thank you so much for your time.

Stress definitely plays a part in hair loss. However if you have a component of genetic male pattern hair loss , hair will not grow back. If this become a big problem for you, you may consider making an appointment with a hair transplant surgeon who can map your scalp hair for miniaturization pattern and formulate a Master Plan for future hair loss.

You have many issues, and some of these things like self-esteem are inside your head as much as outside. For example, when I turned 60 four years ago, the changes in my body should have taken my self-esteem down to low levels, but I somehow managed to focus on the good things in my life. I have said many times, you are the director, writer and actor in your ‘life story’, so write it the way you want it to be. Direct it to work out that way (if hair loss is the issue then tackle it correctly). Act like the man you want to be and get your grades up, for that is clearly in your power. The world will not march to a down tune, only to an upbeat one.