Category: Hair Loss Causes

Hey, thank you for keeping this blog – it’s a great help! I’m an 18 year old male with a little bit of paranoia (nobody else thinks I’m losing hair). I’ve been reading about miniaturization. I noticed that some of the hair that comes out when I’m washing my head is finer than other hair. I have no idea if this is normal or not – what do you think?

It is normal to lose around 100 hairs every day as new ones grow in. If you have product in your hair (hair spray, gel, wax, etc), it may keep some of those hairs trapped until you shower, and then appear to have a bunch of hairs coming out at once… when in reality, it was just your normal daily hair cycling.

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Hi Doc,
Im 24 and have seen my very thick had of hair become very depleted and thin in the past month- six weeks. It seems very strange that my hair would thin so quickly, largely in the front and the temples, but not reduced to those areas. Prior to noticing this hair loss I had my wisdom teeth removed, with complications forcing me to take percacet and T3 as painkillers as well as an antibiotic. Could these be linked to my hair loss? How can i reverse these effects?

I have seen the hair loss process start (or become more noticeable) after a major surgery, but most of the time, it can also be coincidence. I doubt that a wisdom teeth extraction or T3 painkillers would cause hair loss, but possibly the stress involved precipitated the hair loss you were destined to have somewhere down the road? I couldn’t say for sure.

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i woke up today, and noticed i had a whitey yellowish blackhead on my hairline, and of course i had to pick it, and when i did i noticed it was attached to the root of a hair, a little blood came out and the actual follicle now looks red, what is this condition? and will the hair grow from that follicle again?

This is a bizarre question. We all have blackheads once in a while and they are no big deal. I doubt that you will lose the hair in the long term, but what is the value (or lack of value) of one hair?

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Hi, i admitantly had a bit of a dig at the answers on this site being a little generic, repetitive and indirect in my opinion. So i have a question of my own. How accurate is the following information? This information makes sense to me. Thanks i appreciate it.

The mother has two ‘Xs’ and will always give her kid an ‘X’. The father has one ‘X’ and a ‘Y’ and will give the kid one or the other. The father, therefore, determines the sex of the child. If he gives you ‘X’ then you’re ‘XX’-a GIRL, if he gives you ‘Y’ then you’re ‘XY’-a BOY.

“X-linked” disorders are defects in one of the thousands of genes found on the ‘X’ chromosome. These disorders can range from severe mental retardation to more harmless things like color blindness or PATTERN BALDNESS. The reason that males are more susceptible to an X-linked disorder is that when mom gives her son an ‘X’ carrying the defective gene, dad gives the son a ‘Y’, which cannot back up the defective ‘X’. Women seldom get these disorders since the chances of getting two bad ‘Xs’ for the exact same gene are quite slim.

So as far as whose fault it is, blame both parents-Mom for giving it to you, and dad for not backing you up.

Now another point should be made about where to look for the bald ‘X’ in a mother’s family. You have to look at EITHER the (1) mother’s father OR (2) her brothers:

(1) Grandpa has the bald ‘X’ (and is bald) and passed it to your mom/her sisters-who give it to half of their sons. (remember mom’s brothers would only get the ‘Y’ and would not be bald in this case).
(2) Grandpa has a good ‘X’, but Grandma has bald ‘X’/good ‘X’ and gives a 50/50 ratio to kids, so half of mom’s brothers are bald.

If you are grandson of all this, then in scenario (1) you have 50% chance at baldness, scenario (2), a 25% chance.

Both (1) AND (2) are possible in the same family, but would be rare and might lead to bald women in the family (depending on other factors such as testosterone levels)

I am not a geneticist. I am a physician. And the genetic argument as you pose is a simplified understanding of high school biology or college biology 101 at best.

The inherited traits are far more complex than X or Y chromosomes. While it is true that the father’s XY chromosome determines the sex of the unborn child, the balding gene is not in the Y chromosome. There are things called expression that distort our understanding of the genetics. Actually, no one really knows. That is why you cannot and will not find the answer… yet.

Hi, I am a 22 year old male. Since the last 2,5-3 years I slowly see my hairline reseeding in my temples, and also thinning over my complete head. But I have read on the internet that the hairs on the back of your head and on the sides are immune for the DHT-hormone. So I was wondering why I see those area’s also thinning?

Thanks

You need to see a good doctor who can do miniaturization mapping to determine what is going on. It is not usual to see thinning all over your head like you describe, but without an examination, I’d just be making guesses as to what could be going on.

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I know this may seem like a really insignificant question, but it’s been a looming one none the less:

If you cut a 5mg finasteride into 4 equal pieces you would have 1.25 mg of finasteride correct? Why, then, is a 1/4 size of 5mg smaller than a 1mg Propecia pill? Especially taking into consideration theres more finasteride in a 1/4 piece.

Thanks for taking a moment to answer such a ridiculous question.

Pills have fillers and the drug companies determine how to make it and what type of fillers there are. These fillers are called excipients (see Wikipedia, and basically make it easier for consumers to handle the pill.

From what I’ve read, the excipients in Propecia are: lactose monohydrate 110.4 mg, microcrystalline cellulose, pregelatinized starch, sodium starch glycolate, docusate sodium, magnesium stearate, talc, hypromellose, hydroxypropyl cellulose, titanium dioxide (color E171), yellow and red ferric oxide (color E172).

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I’m a 25 year old male and my frontal hairline began receding rapidly about 9 months ago. From reading your blog and my own observations I assumed it was male pattern baldness kicking in earlier than I would have liked.

I have now seen two doctors (One family doctor and one dermatologist) who have both told me that It would grow back by itself as they both said it was due to stress (About a year ago my dad passed away right after I moved to a new city and I had to start a new job the day after the service). The family doctor briefly looked over my hair and the dermatologist asked me my family history (No balding on my mom’s side, and my dad started balding in his early 40s) and did a pull test (No miniturization test)

The problem I’m having is that from reading your blog it seems like they’re both incorrect. There is obviously miniturization at my hairlines which to my understanding means there its is MPB which could have been triggered by the event.

Does my hair growing back by itself like they both said sound at all realistic? Should I try yet another doctor?

Thanks for your time.

I agree with you that a mapping of your scalp for miniaturization will make the diagnosis for you. The pull test that your dermatologist did will check out conditions like telogen effluvium (see article at eMedicine), which if positive might indicate that the process will reverse, but people with genetic hair loss will not have a positive hair pull test. See another doctor who can make the correct diagnosis for you.

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Will low carb diets (or no carb diets for that matter) cause hairloss in males with MPB?

Unless you are not meeting your daily nutritional needs, a low carb diet will likely cause weight loss, not hair loss.