Category: Hair Loss Causes

Hi

I have always had a high forehead and a slight receeding hairline since I was young. I am now 21 and for the last year and a half or so I have experienced miniturisation in the front and at the temples. I have been to my doctor who told me that I have miniturisation there.

I wanted to ask you some quick questions

1.) Is it therefore likely I will later miniturise in other areas and progress to a much worse Norwood scale?

2.) I recently went through a very stressful period where i think my hair loss increased. Is this likely to ever grow back (presuming I use Rogaine etc) or does hair loss through stress cause a permament loss?

3. Is tin good for hair loss?

Many thanks

Hair loss is a progressive process so the answer to #1 is yes, more areas will occur as you get older. There are four causes of hair loss (1) genes, (2) hormones, (3) stress and (4) time. Stress accelerates genetic hair loss in young men and may not reverse with drugs like minoxidil or Propecia. The earlier you start them, the better to prevent future loss. I never heard of tin helping hair loss.

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Does an increase in DHT cause hair shedding or does it just cause miniaturization for those who are prone? I understand its normal to loose about 100 hairs a day, but does the DHT increase the shedding to abnormally high levels including hairs that are not miniaturized already?

The process of genetic balding is produced by DHT (Dihydrotestosterone). If there was no DHT, balding would not occur. The way to prove this is to remove the testicles. If genetic balding had not already started, it would certainly not start after removing the testicles. This has been shown classically when one of two identical twins had his testicles removed. The balding occurred only in the twin with testicles.

There are two ways in which balding occurs. You could go from normal thickness hair to miniaturized hair with progressive miniaturization as the hair shaft loses more and more of its thickness over time. Alternatively, the hair can go into its normal sleep cycle and never come out of it. You might look at this second way as normal thickness hair falling out.

My 11 year old daughter recently began losing big clumps of her upper eyelashes. I have heard that hypothyroidism can cause this, but she is very small for her age and has none of the other symptoms. What else could cause this sudden loss of lashes?

Get her evaluated for medical problems such as thyroid disease, anemia …..

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Hello, I’m 33 years old and I was born five months premature, I was placed into the incubator (not sure if it’s the right word) and they forgot me too long and I was burned on both sides of my head. Now, on the left side the hair grown but on the right side never and I have a hole that I have to hide with my hair. That of course means, I can’t have it too short… Is there a natural way in order to make that hair comeback ? Something that would make the dead roots to comeback to life and let the hair grow… Thank you very much.

There is hope for people like you, but it is not in bringing back the hair. There is reconstructive surgery that works well. The use of scalp expanders in the hands of experts have created miracles in people with burns, avulsing injuries, electrical burns that cause loss of large sections of scalp, tumors and birth defects of all types, etc..

Dear Dr. Rassman:

I have been suffering for approx. six months with a bacteria in my scalp. I have been to a dermatologist and he gave me antibiotics for two months. It gets better then it comes back. My scalp breaks out and I am losing my hair a lot and it is very thinned out. The scalp is very itchy. I have been also using Scalpisin. It only gives me temporary relief (one to two hours only. My hair has been thinning and I have to have my hair up all of the time. I feel a crawling sensation too. Since my scalp is so itchy, I sometimes have to scratch. I wash my hands to avoid a rash of breaking out on my face.
Please help me.

I would need to examine you to put the pictures together. We all have bacteria on the scalp and that is normal. What is not normal is what you are telling me about. Recurrent infections could be caused by aggressive pathologic bacteria and this can be cultured and with a good culture, it can be better understood.

I’ve recently read that prolactin can potentially cause hair loss. Do levels have to be exceptionally high for this to occur, or can even moderately high levels contribute to thinning hair?

An abnormally high level of prolactin (hyperprolactinemia) is a condition characterized by elevated serum levels of the hormone prolactin in non-pregnant individuals. Hyperprolactinemia may cause progressive pattern hair loss due to an indirect effect on increasing free testosterone level.