Category: Hair Loss Causes

You state in this article that distilled water solutions are harmful to grafts during surgery. However, my surgeon’s office told me to rinse my grafted area with distilled water to avoid the impurities found in tap water.

Will this damage the grafts post-surgery?

Distilled water and normal water are harmful to grafts DURING surgery if you are using it to soak and store the grafts that have been cut, but distilled water after the surgery is fine to wash the scalp as part of the cleaning process. Always check with the doctor/surgeon who performed your surgery if you have concerns, as you should have established a good trusting relationship with him/her.

Doctor, how does DHT affect the eyebrows? Im 18, balding, and have noticed that i can pull out 4-5 eyebrow hairs in one small tug. Am I loosing my eyebrows too? Can propecia stop this as well?

Well, for starters you should stop pulling on your eyebrows!

I do not believe DHT affects eyebrows as it does scalp hair. Remember, the main reason for hair loss (male pattern baldness) in only partly about DHT. Yes, DHT is responsible… but the main reason for male pattern hair loss is your GENETICS interacting with DHT. Eyebrow hair is not part of the male balding process, and as such, Propecia will likely not do anything to help your eyebrows.

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Hi i notice my hair is ” kind of ” thin in the crown area. I went to a hair therapist “hair club” and the guy showed me a micrograph of me scalp and on the crown it shows a grey picture with little dark circle surrounding my hair. then he showed me a pinkish picture of the hair in the back without the dark circle. He is saying the dark circle is causing my hair to thin. He keep claiming it is genetic but no one on either side of my family or whoever has thining hair. All i heard from him the whole time the moment i step in the store before any analysis, is that im thining. And toss me those hair loss solution for 3000 a year. I have a feeling he just trying to make me buy his product see that im only 20. I dont wanna judge him but he dont look like a honest guy from how he talks.

PLz give me some advice thx.

I am going to assume he did a miniaturization study and if he did, he should know how to read it. You are young and may have male pattern baldness (MPB), but this question should have been answered by the miniaturization study. I would recommend that you see another physician for a second opinion.

If you are having early thinning in the crown due to MPB, then you would likely be an excellent candidate for Propecia. This is the only FDA approved oral medication for treating hair loss. There are thousands of products out there touting hair restoring capabilities, but outside of the ones that contain minoxidil (marketed as Rogaine), none of them really work. Minoxidil is a non-prescription item and many fancy sounding hair loss treatments you see on store shelves or television infomercials will contain this. Save your money and see your doctor about a prescription of Propecia if you are truly experiencing MPB. Good luck.

Hi Dr. Rassman, I was wondering if you knew the histopathology of non-scarring alopecia in a 21 year old male? My dermatoligist said I had diffuse hair loss and non-scarring alopecia and prescribed me Propecia; I am also taking Rogaine. Additionally, what do you think of spirinolacatane as a topical treatment as an anti-androgen for this type of hair loss?

Thanks

The histopathology of non-scarring alopecia is just as it states — When you look under a microscope of your scalp biopsy there is often cells seen that reflect some autoimmune disorder, but no scarring where there is hair loss. Examples include anagen effluvium, androgenetic alopecia, chemical alopecia, folliculitis (mild), inherited disorders of the hair shaft, telogen effluvium, alopecia areata, and traumatic alopecia.

Of the list above, the most common non-scarring alopecia is genetic balding (otherwise known as androgenic alopecia — AGA; otherwise known as male pattern baldness — MPB). And since your dermatologist prescribed Propecia for your non-scarring alopecia I would guess that your dermatologist thought you had MPB. It probably would’ve been much easier if you were just told that you have male pattern baldness. If you have diffuse unpatterned alopecia (DUPA) then the donor area behind your head would have substantial miniaturization. Speak with your doctor about how he/she arrived at the conclusions.

Finally, spironolactone has anti-androgenic properties, but clinically there is little good evidence that it helps with MPB.

I had IPL on my eyebrows 1 year ago – only 2 sessions. I now only have the medial part of my eyebrow on both sides because she removed too much hair. I was very upset and she assured me they would grow back. They haven’t. Will they eventually?

Essentially, the person that did the hair removal on your eyebrows screwed up and got rid of too much hair. If you haven’t seen any regrowth after a year, it is likely that they may not grow back on their own. If they do not grow back, hair transplants into the eyebrow will work well. For those curious about IPL, see the intense pulsed light listing at Wikipedia.

How long can MPB take?

My hair kind of leapt into a widow’s peak during 2003/04 and is now considerably thinner than it has ever been in my life. So this is about 5 years maximum – i thought MPB took on average 15 years or more?

What happened?

Once you know you have male pattern baldness (MPB), it remains a progressive process until the day you die, but in reality most people slow down the loss in their late 30s or 40s. There are always exceptions to the rule, but most people are destined to develop a pattern and that pattern is not always a class 6 or 7 pattern (see Norwood Chart below). They may stop at a class 3… but of course, each person is different.

 

Hey, i’m just writing in response to a question that has been recently answered about DHT. I recall you said that just because that you’re hairy, oily skin (skin) and i’m assuming any other DHT physical signs, cited as byproducts of DHT, don’t indefinitely mean that you have alot of DHT. I guess I dont follow that notion, could you please elaborate. I only ask out of curiosity, considering any site that talks about DHT, describes these attributes as a indictive of DHT. Granted, I know that some of the “symptoms” listed definitely have alot to do with genetic blueprints. But, most men start to get hairy in their 20′s like the case of my father and others I know of. Then they started to bald around them. I’d hypothetically assume that since they didn’t have enough DHT to fill in their blueprints at the time. I know DHT only has physical characteristics if you’re genetic blueprint follows, but when you’re blueprint does and the DHT feeds it, wouldn’t that be indicative of DHT?

DHT causes many secondary sex characteristics after puberty, such as hair in different parts of the body (groin, underarms, chest, nose, ear, etc…). I really do not understand your questions. If by genetic blueprint you mean a balding pattern in your family line, then yes, you can inherit it. DHT is a byproduct of testosterone metabolism and all men who make testosterone will make DHT unless they have a genetic defect.