Category: Hair Loss Causes

The HAIRCHECK instrument measures hair bulk. Follicles that stop growing do not add to the hair bulk on your head. Everyone with genetic balding will show patterns of reduced hair bulk when this is measured. I answered this in past tense. If you are asking me about the future, I don’t have any way to predict it. If you have genetic balding, then it is almost a guarantee that you will see more and more of it as you get older. see photos here on use of HAIRCHECK instrument: https://baldingblog.com/2017/01/10/value-haircheck-bulk-measurements-two-patients-seen-today/

“I seemed to respond well to rogaine and I’m wondering how long my hair will stay where it is now? I’m very nervous about using fin because of possible sides but am considering adding Nizoral a couple times a week as well. If I responded well to Rogain and continue with regular application do you think I will keep the results long term? Also, is Nizoral worth adding in a couple times? I appreciate all the help a ton!”

Nizoral is an anti-fungal agent and effective for the treatment of seborrheic dermatitis caused by a fungus. It may have some hair benefits with people who have hair loss but the mechanism is not clear if it does.

My early hair loss makes all this exceedingly difficult for me as my situation is with women. I’m already a 22 year old kissless virgin, though I’ve been working very hard lately to change that. I get dates from time to time but it goes nowhere. Part of this is me panicking, in a sense of feeling like I’m running out of time (I’m 22), because, once I’m bald I know things will be significantly more difficult with women MY AGE. I know, generally speaking, that women don’t care as much when you get into your 30s and over, but without sounding like a douche, I want to be able to experience girls closer to my age, and I don’t want to have to wait that long. Even though, by then I’d be a virgin well into my 30s. That means I’d be screwed anyways. I may go back to school and this would be a distraction for me, but the problem will still be there when I meet a woman.

Much about hair loss is not what’s on your head but what’s inside your head. Women perceive insecurity and insecurity is not sexy or attractive. You may perceive this as a hair problem, but look at a lot of guys your age or slightly older who have girlfriends and I’l bet that some may have early recession or even more hair loss and still get dates. You need to recognize who you are, what is your value as a human being. Speak with your parents or older friends and open up with them and I am sure you will find out that what is happening to your hair is not your big problem. You might even seek a therapist who can work through your own personality development. I know that men in their late teens and early 20s, have not fully developed the pre-frontal part of the brain, the part that is central to the personality you develop and the relationships you will develop as you get older. Play it cool and you may be surprised when you meet a girl at school, that the meeting and the relationship will flow more easily. To manage your insecurity you must recognize your value and that will project to the women you meet. The older you get, even if you lose more hair, you will see your relationship with the world around you different.

I have been on Finasteride for 4 years and my hair didn’t really change much. I did, however stop the drug for the past two months, but am back on now. 1) could my hair have changed in those two months? 2) what pattern do I appear to be? 3) a reputable IAHRS surgeon consulted me and recommended 1200 graft FUE , what are your opinions on that?

If you trust your doctor then go with it!
The Internet is not a place to receive a second opinion.
If you would like a second opinion it is best to consult with another doctor in person.

Photo(s) are not a good way to determine if you are balding or if you “need” surgery for the following reasons:

1) There is no way to know your history in detail. This involves a dialogue between a doctor and patient. A consultation usually involves 30 minutes or more.
2) There is no way to examine your hair under a microscope to understand how much miniaturization you may have (to plan for a possible surgery). What will you do if you have further recession or balding after the surgery? Are you prepared to have another surgery to fill in the gaps? You need a Master Plan.
3) Photos do not convey your understanding or expectation of a hair transplant surgery. Someone with your hair loss may be happy with 1200 grafts. Another person with the exact same hair loss may not be happy with 1200 grafts.
4) Photos do not convey your goals. Someone with your hair loss may want a drastically low hair line where 1200 may not be enough. Another person with the exact same hair loss may want a very conservative hair line where 1200 may be too much.
5) FUE or Follicular Unit Extraction is just a harvesting technique. It has nothing to do with the end result. In fact FUE may give you a suboptimal result over a FUT (Strip) surgery. Did your doctor tell you this?
6) etc

I visited your office last year in august and I was told that I most likely did not have “balding” just that my I had low hair density. This is contrary to a what another office told me. Quite frankly I trusted your doctor more, and he advised that since I was already been taking propecia to continue it if I wanted to be safe. Well I did continue it but have only been taking .25mg 3 times a week for over a year now and my hair has remained the same. In your opinion do you believe that .25mg 3 times a week would actually do enough to maintain my hair as it has if I was truly suffering from balding? I want to come off completely because I do suffer from some side effects but am afraid that if I do I will lose hair density.

If one doctor says you are not likely balding and another doctor says you are (and may need surgery) it is definitely a confusing situation. You may consider visiting a third doctor for another opinion. You may also consider the motivation behind any recommendation. If we told you that you were not balding, we must have used the HAIRCECK instrument to measure your hair bulk which is a very accurate way to determine if you are balding. If we did not use it, come back and let us do so.

With respect to Propecia, the recommended dose is one pill (finasteride 1mg) a day. Taking 0.25mg three times a week is not a typical way to take Propecia. Some people do take 0.5mg or 0.2mg daily. The key is taking the medication on a daily basis. It is important to note that you should contact your doctor if you want specific guidance.

Prenatal exposure to pot is associated with differences in the thickness of the brain, particularly in the frontal brain, in preadolescent children. This was a study done with MRIS. This was written by Hanan El Marroun, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, the Netherlands and published online June 15 in Biological Psychiatry.

Children aged 6 to 8 years were invited into the MRI component of the program and the mothers use of cannabis exposure during pregnancy was measured with maternal self-report asking questions for each each trimester of the pregnancy. 113 nonexposed children; 96 children whose mothers smoked only tobacco during pregnancy; and 54 children whose mothers were studied during the pregnancy.

When comparing exposed to non-exposed children, those exposed to cannabis had “thicker frontal cortices, specifically, a thicker superior frontal area of the left hemisphere… and a thicker frontal pole of the right hemisphere” This part of the brain, the prefrontal cortex, supports functions such as the ability to suppress responses and thoughts, attention, higher-order motor control, and working memory.

The New York Times “reported a study published in BJU International found that the sperm of male smokers was “damaged in ways that could reduce the chance of fertilization and might also lead to health problems in the baby.” The researchers found that the “DNA in smokers’ sperm was fragmented, probably because of oxidative stress from the cadmium and nicotine in cigarette smoke,” which has been associated with increased risk of genetic problems and childhood cancer. They also found nonintact acrosomes and changes in seminal plasma, both of which “might impair fertilization.”

It is clear that if you want to avoid a stroke or heart attack in your life time, there are some simple steps you can take which have proven statistically significant. These are simply: (1) treat high blood pressure if you have it, (2) stop smoking if you smoke, (3) treat your cholesterol if it is high with statins and diet also keep your red meat down in your diet, (4) regular exercises on a daily basis to keep fit, (5) keep your weight in normal ranges for your age, (6) take one baby aspirin each day which has value not only for prevention of cardiac and stroke events, but also prevention of many forms of cancer.

The formula is easy and you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand these 6 simple things to keep you healthy.

This is an excerpt from the FDA website from 2010 on finasteride (https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2011/020788s018lbl.pdf). Dr. Ed Epstein, from the Bosley Medical Group is a urologist by training and has kept up on the latest information on the impact or lack of impact of the drug finasteride on risks for an unborn fetus. “I am not aware of new studies on amounts of finasteride in semen or vaginal absorption data” that reflect increased risks for fetal abnormalities induced by finasteride other than what is written in the FDA white paper referenced above.

Some doctors are concerned that patients who go on finasteride should get semen analysis to keep track of semen levels in case these level dropped while a patient was on the drug finasteride. Dr. Epstein said: “Concerning getting semen analysis on child bearing age men starting finasteride, I totally disagree. Typically a male infertility workup is suggested after one year of unprotected intercourse. The subgroup of men who have low sperm counts on finasteride are those with preexisting conditions and appear to respond to discontinuation of finasteride.”

In other words, he feels that a young man should not worry about either low semen counts caused by finasteride, but that they could always stop the drug and if there was a causal relationship, it would reverse. He also suggested than men with low sperm counts while on finasteride, probably had it before they started the drug and should get any low sperm count evaluated by an expert.
The FDA while paper referenced above showed that studies on semen in sperm were either not present or when present were so low as it not cause a risk to a pregnant woman or a woman who is expecting to become pregnant. “Semen levels have been measured in 35 men taking finasteride 1 mg/day for 6 weeks. In 60% (21 of 35) of the samples, finasteride levels were undetectable (<0.2 ng/mL). The mean finasteride level was 0.26 ng/mL and the highest level measured was 1.52 ng/mL. Using the highest semen level measured and assuming 100% absorption from a 5-mL ejaculate per day, human exposure through vaginal absorption would be up to 7.6 ng per day, which is 750 times lower than the exposure from the no-effect dose for developmental abnormalities in Rhesus monkeys and 650-fold less than the dose of finasteride (5 ?g) that had no effect on circulating DHT levels in men”