Category: Age

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Desperate for Hair that Looks Real – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I’ve been losing my hair since i was 19 and now i’m 23. I’m pretty much at a strong norwood 3. I tried alot of things, but nothing has helped. My mom’s dad was bald and the rest of his family too. Basically don’t know what to do. I’ve read that i’m too young to get a transplant and have not made a move on it. Im also afraid to get one cause of the scars. I really don’t know what to do. It has pretty much ruined my life. I use to have girlfriends all the time now have not had one since 20. Pretty much so desperate i would sell my mustang just to pay for a transplant but i don’t know if i should if results don’t look real and if there is scars involved.

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First, be careful with statements like “I would sell my mustang just to pay for a transplant,” because many unscrupulous people will take your money and sell you hair. Realistic expectations, reasonable predictions based upon a good solid examination of your hair and hair loss distribution with good microscopic examination of the scalp, a good doctor with great integrity and lots of good experience, and some comparative shopping will tell you much about what you can do. Read my book, available online in PDF format here, or get one sent to you free. Visit my offices if you are in California. Natural results with a hair transplant are not difficult to obtain, but first you must know where you stand and what your long term ‘Master Plan’ should be before you jump to a hair transplant.

I know that if you do not feel good about yourself, if you do not have the self-esteem you want, then having a normal life becomes more difficult. A hair transplant may or may not solve these problems. The main reason we generally discourage men of your age in getting a hair transplant is that (1) you may not be able to determine when the hair loss will stop, (2) you may not be mature enough to understand both the financial and social remifications of the transplant process, and (3) you may not be able to get the realistic expectations that fit with your hair metrics (hair density, contrast in colors, character of the hair, laxity of the scalp, etc..). In effect, will you have enough hair supply to follow your hair loss to meet your expectations? Get a good doctor and develop a Master Plan with him/her. Then and only then, can you deal with the decision of “Should I or shouldn’t I?”

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Hair Loss InformationPredicting Hair Loss – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hey Doc,
I got a question for you. Im 26 years old with no definitive loss yet although i do have the mature hairline. My question is has do with genetics. What is the likelyhood that a male will either take after their father or mothers father in terms of Male Baldness, is it almost 100% that you will take after one or both of them or could you concievably not follow either one’s baldness pattern and instead follow inherit MPB pattern as that to your cousins, uncles, great uncles, grandfathers.

This is the reason i ask my father started to bald by the time he hit age 25 and was completely bald by around 35, my mothers father started balding in his late teens and was completely bald by 30 yet here i am at 26 with no apparent loss. With this family history i always figured i had no chance to keep my hair because both my father and mothers father have excessive MPB, so i assumed by the time i graduated High School, i would have some sort of loss.

Also the reason i ask is because generally many of the male family members on both sides (father and mother’s side) namely uncles and cousins have fairly good hair, is it possible i was fortunate enough to escape the MPB gene from 2 of the closest male members (dad, mothers father) and somehow instead inherited the hair of the more distant male relatives?

IN you encounters as a derm, do you think most males take after either their father or mothers father, or is it common for a male to not follow either one of their patterns and instead have a hairloss pattern that of a more distant relative.

Thanks for your response

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Basically, we can take after either parent or neither parent. We can inherit genes and not have them expressed, yet pass the balding genes to our children or future grandchildren. I tell all of my patients that the best way to know, is to have a good microscopic examination of your scalp periodically. By the age of 27, you should have an idea of what your possible hair loss pattern is. In your particular situation, the appearance of a mature hair line has no significance for your balding pattern. It is possible that your pattern may have skipped generations or was inherited from others in the family that do not express the gene.

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Thinning Hair Since Age 14 – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Dr. Rassman,
I’m 20 yrs old and i have been losing my hair since i was 14. I’ve noticed my temples are receding quite rapidly and on top of that, my scalp is looking more thin. I have a brother whos 3 yrs older than me and hes been losing his hair as well since he was a teen except his temples aren’t receding as bad as mines. My Father is 45 and his hair looks natural for his age even tho hes its becoming more thin.

i have never tried any hair lost products and i’m at the point where i want to do something right now before its all gone. If you can please give me advice on what to do or recomend me doctors in the L.A. area that can help, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank You Very Much.

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You need to be examined by a doctor who will look for a variety of conditions, including:

  1. Male pattern genetic hair loss (shows miniaturization in a defined pattern and sounds like what you may have)
  2. Alopecia, including a variety of other inherited forms that are not traditional male patterned balding

Only an expert doctor in this field can make the diagnosis. With the gravity of this in a young man, I would suggest that getting the best medical advice is what should drive you at this time. I can not make a diagnosis without examining you, but I would love to see you in one of my offices. There will be no charge for the examination.

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Transplants in the Baldest Men – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I am very, very bald and 60 years old. I am having a hard time believing that you can really help me. Please let me know why I should believe that this enormous bald area on my head can really be covered with hair.

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Some people with advanced balding, low hair densities and high contrast (black hair and white skin), can not get great coverage with a hair transplant. On the other hand, if you have lower contrast between your hair and skin color, higher densities, good character hair, and a loose scalp, you might be surprised at what you could achieve by the artful distribution of hair in the hands of a good hair transplant surgeon (see below for an example). There is real art in making less hair look like more hair and that is just one of the reasons why you need to shop around. Come to one of our open house events and you will be able to examine these patients yourself and make your own judgments. If you have a wife, female relative or friend whose judgment you trust, bring them too, as women have more discriminating views on what they see than men.

This patient is in his mid 60’s and had multiple procedures, totalling 6,036 follicular unit grafts transplanted. “Before” is on the left, “after” is on the right.



More photos of the above patient on the NHI site: Patient ZU

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Hair Loss InformationBalding in Young Man and Shampoos – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

i am 21 yrs old, and am experiencing receding hairline. in no means am i bald, but i suspect i will be in a few yrs time. for now, i have been using propecia daily. i just wanted ur opinion on what products i should use for hair care-shampoo and gel. for shampoo, so far i have been using pantene pro v, and instead of gel i use coconut oil everyday. are these products ok to use, or is there something better u would suggest? also, is it ok to shampoo and style my hair daily, or is that bad for u hair? please let me know. thanks dr.

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For MPB (Male Pattern Balding) Propecia is the best way to prevent or retard its progression. With regard to the various shampoos, none that I know of has proven to be a greater value than others, when it comes to hair loss. I generally tell patients to use what they like, what works for them, to experiment with many until you find the right match and to follow the recommendations of the product manufacturers for dry or oily hair. Frequent shampooing does not hurt, but aggressive massaging during shampooing and rough brushing will cause fragile hair to break easily. I personally like the smell of coconut shampoos and use them often!

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Balding By Age and Race – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I have seen documented incidences of pattern baldness, they suggest 20% suffer in their 20’s, 30% in their 30’s, 40% in 40’s, and 50% in their 50’s and so on usually with age. But it seems these calculations are taken including all races such as asians, black american indian, hispanic specifically mexican man all of which have much lower incidents of male baldness.

I am a white man and it seems to me many white man experience some loss when they hit age 40, do you have any idea what the numbers would be if it was strictly white males and not other race.

These would be my guesses if just taking into account white males :

30% suffer in their 20’s, 40% suffer in 30’s, 60% suffer in their 40’s, 65-70% suffer by they reach their 50’s. And if a man doesnt experience any male baldness when they are in their mid 50’s near 60, in most cases these are the males that die with most of their hair.

Maybe my projections are inaccurate but i rarely see a white man with a full head of hair in their 60’s, 70’s. On average, i would say by age 70 8 out of 10 men suffer MPB. WIth the remaining 20% after age 70 escaping the god awful disease we know as MPB.

What do you think?

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Breakdown of racial variations by age and degree of hair loss is not well documented. There are suggestions that Caucasians may have more hair loss than non-Caucasians. As a person ages, the first appearance of hair loss lessens in severity. If you reach 40 without any evidence of hair loss, chances are you are not going to bald. With that said, actor Don Ameche had a full head of hair at 50, but he had a nearly complete Norwood Class 6 pattern balding pattern by the time he appeared in the movie “Cocoon” in his mid-70s. So, there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to balding by race. There has been interest recently in obtaining better documentation of this by geography (i.e. race) and studies may be coming in the future. Of interest, the American Indian (those that came from the Alaska migration) do not have balding at all. This makes the American Indian unique for racial groups. There is no explanation of this.

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Hair Loss InformationMy Son Is Balding at 19 – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I am the mother of an 19 year old son, who is now experiencing the effects of heritary male pattern baldness. My father was bald, and my son’s biological father is bald. In fact baldness on both sides of the family goes back for several generations. Poor kid; he is really distressed about this. I tried to explain to my son that just because he is loosing some hair on the frontal area does not mean that girls will not be interested in him. Of course he always says, “That is such a MOM answer!” My new husband and I live in Utah and our communication with my son is mostly over the phone to California where he lives attending college. We told him to go see a Pharmacist but I am sure they will just recommend some over-the-counter cream like Rogaine. Also he likes to work out and has been drinking these shakes to help him bulk up. Are those bad adding to premature baldness as well? What do you recommend? Should he contact is primary care physician? Should he see someone in the Santa Clara, CA area? Please help.

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Sometimes these ‘shakes’ have steroids in them and they can accelerate balding in people who use them. He needs to be seen by a specialist. I have an office in San Jose so ask him to make an appointment with me personally, and I will try to diagnose him and address the problem. The longer he waits to get to the root of the problem, the more hair he will lose. To set up a free consultation, please call 800-NEW-HAIR or fill out our online info request form and we’ll contact him to setup an appointment.

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Hair Loss InformationHair Loss from Illness – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hi Dr. Rassman.

I was hoping to get your honest opinion.

I’m a 23 year old male, in the best health of my life. I work out 6 days a week, and have a healthy diet. But my hair troubles me a lot.

I have a normal hairline, but thin hair, resembling a Norwood 5. My father was bald (norwood 7), and growing up, i kind of expected to go bald eventually. My dad started to lose his hair around 35-40. I have an elder brother who’s 30, and has a full head of hair.

I first noticed the slightest amount of thinning shortly after my 19th birthday. I was in college, and everybody (boys and girls) complained of losing hair, so i thought nothing of it. But the thinning proceeded, till about 2 years ago, when i suffered from a severe stomach infection. unfortunately my university was in a small town in india, so proper treatement wasn’t available. I somehow managed to finish the semester, and return home for treatement. I was diagnosed with systemic edema of the alimentary canal, and had gastritis, oesophagitis, deodenitis, etc. I also had a H. pylori infection. Till then, i was experiencing massive hair loss. I was shedding like a dog on a couch. My pillow and bed used to be literally covered with hair. Thing is, some days into my treatement, my hair stopped falling off. My haemoglobin is slightly low, which my gastroenterologist supposes is due to retarded iron absorbtion due to my stomach condition. However, 10 months later, my haemoglobin is still 12.8, and MCV of 51, and MCH of 51. Not much of a change since then.

I thought my hair would grow back once i got better, but this has turned out not to be the case. Personally, I’m confused as to what i’m suffering from. Is it androgenic, since my hairline is intact? I do have norwood 5 style loss, but it is thinning, not totally gone.

I think 23 is too young for my level of baldness. Maybe at 40, but not 23. I have been seeing a homeopath about this matter for the last 8 months, and haven’t noticed any difference. I’m not even sure if minoxidil will help me.

What do i do?

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It sounds like you had a series of health problems and you also have genetic male pattern loss. Heath problems (just from stress) can accelerate the genetic balding pattern. When the hair is lost from genetic causes in men, it rarely comes back, even if the health problems are ‘fixed’. This is not always the case with women’s genetic hair loss. The key is to go on the drug Propecia (finasteride), as that is your best option to stop hair loss and delay it’s restart. Some men at your age may get regrowth of the hair. There is no down side to this treatment. In the United States it requires a prescription.

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Young and Balding? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

doctor, im 21 yrs old and have been experiencing thinning of the hair and a receding hairline recently. i am in no means bald, but suspect my hair loss is becoming rapid. how do i go about choosing the right treatment product for myself? i need something that will not just cure hair loss in the vertex area on top of scalp, but also help with thinning of hair. since there are so many products available from rogaine/revivogen/propecia etc., what would u recommend. please let me know. thanks.

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Sometimes, hair loss occurs in very young people. First, get a good doctor to diagnose you and if you are into genetic hair loss, get good baselines to determine the rate of balding. There are scientific tools that will do this, something we do all of the time in our office. Not many drugs work well for hair loss in young men, though the best of them is the drug Propecia, which (assuming that you have genetic hair loss) hopefully will slow down or stop the hair loss.

I can not stress the importance of not being your own doctor because you are an amateur and the consequence of failing to get prompt, efficient, and effective treatment is permanent loss of your hair. It may happen anyway if you are balding at 21, but please get yourself examined by a competent doctor who will quantify the rate of miniaturization in your balding area and give you a diagnosis. It is important to get good baselines because when you start on the drug Propecia, you will have to find out if it is working and by how much. I would hold off on Rogaine until a good baseline is in hand and the rate of hair loss is documented.

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Hair Loss InformationIs a Hair Transplant The Only Answer? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

im 21, but have been going bald since sixteen. i hate it cause im so young and have no confidence. i used drugs to solve it but nothing happened. is a hair transplant the only answer? sick of seeing all these ways of growing hair back, as in using tablets

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At 21, you are young to be balding, especially since this has been going on since you were 16. However, you are certainly not alone; see the Age postings in this blog for some of the other questions (and my responses) from men your age. I would suggest that first you have a complete physical to rule out any underlying medical conditions that could be causing the hair loss. Once that is done, your next step would be to see a doctor who specializes in hair loss. Be ready to discuss with them your medical history, what hair loss treatments you have tried and for how long, what effect they have had, and what is your family history of balding.

A hair transplant may be appropriate at your age if your future genetic balding pattern can be determined. A good, ethical hair transplant surgeon will be able to tell you whether surgery is an option, or if Propecia alone would be beneficial at this stage in your balding. Do not rush into surgery without a clear understanding of what your future balding pattern may be.