Category: Hair Loss Causes

Hello docs! Thanks for an interesting site.
I’ve been wondering: Will finasteride have any effect in use when someone has passed the age of – lets say 50 or 60, if one at that age has a full head of hair, or is only slightly thinning? I mean – is thinning at that age also related to dht miniaturization or is there a different mechanism then at work, just the ‘age cause’, but without the dht playing any crucial part? Or is mostly all thinning, whatever age (also diffuse thinning) caused by the effect of dht.

Propecia is a medication that is prescribed by your doctor for the treatment of androgenic alopecia. You can be 20 years or 70 years old as long as you were diagnosed with male pattern balding or androgenic alopecia. The doctor should be able to prescribe the medication for you. The key to determine when the drug Propecia (finasteride) might have value, is the presence of recent hair loss. I’ve had patients who start the medication at between 50-70 years of age who recently lost hair as a result of a delayed appearance of some undiagnosed hair loss pattern that took that long to makes its appearance. When there is recent hair loss, the results can still be good, even for a 70 year old.

I have thinning at the crown and can cover up with a concealer quite nicely. I was wondering how effective would a permanent concealer like SMP compare to say Toppik? It seems SMP would be much less of a hassle but would it look comparable?

Scalp Micropigment is a permanent concealer similar to the temporary concealer like Toppik or Dermmatch. SMP goes on the scalp but Toppik and Dermmatch also goes on both the scalp and on the hair. Toppik and Dermmatch will make you hair “feel” thicker. SMP will not. But the overall coverage and cosmetic value will be about the same. SMP is permanent and it will not rub off on your hands or pillow. If you want to see people who have had SMP to cover the top, just visit our monthly Open House Events.

Taken from MPR Daily Dose: “Previous research has suggested that regular aspirin use may lower the risk of certain cancers like pancreatic and colorectal cancer, but it could take as many as three years for this beneficial effect. An Annals of Oncology review of the effect of aspirin for site-specific cancer incidence, mortality, and cardiovascular events found that the effects of aspirin on cancer were not evident until at least three years after aspirin initiation. Some of the benefits were even sustained for several years after cessation in long-term users. Higher doses of aspirin did not appear to lead to additional benefits, nor were differences between low and standard doses observed. Individuals 50–65 years of age with average risk who took aspirin for 10 years saw a relative reduction in risk of 7% for women and 9% for men in the number of cancer, myocardial infarction, or stroke events over a 15-year period and an overall 4% relative reduction in all-cause mortality over a 20-year period. Additional research is needed for optimal dosage and duration of use and identification of individuals at greater risk of excess bleeding (the most important harm linked to aspirin use).“

I have been taking daily Aspirin for over 25 years. No cancer yet!

Over and over again, we see the value of Aspirin for such diseases as heart disease which is protective against a heart attack, prevention of cancer and here the prevention of stroke. I am amazed how few people pay attention to this simple use of one pill per day. This is not rocket science, it is just common sense.

I am suffering from hairfall problems for over one year…recently I suffered from chicken pox, after which my hairfall problem aggravated…kindly suggest some for how long the hairfall will continue after chicken pox??

I doubt chicken pox caused the hair loss (hairfall). Certainly medical illness and stress can cause hair loss, but after the stressful event that caused your hair loss pattern to appear, I would expect some stabilization of your hair loss pattern after a year. If you are male, the most common cause of hair loss is genetic androgenic alopecia and the stress of chicken pox may accelerate your genetic pattern.

Hello Dr. Rassman,

I was wondering whether you thought that there was any merit in the following theory which explores the relationship between hair loss and progesterone/cortisol levels.

Thanks and keep up the good work!

Theories that reflect excess free radical damage are abundant. We really do not know enough about the free radical impact on hair. I would ask why some hair is impacted and not other hair. If the genetic issues that relate to defects in the formation of the hairs is explained by the missing progenitor cell theory, maybe there is more logic in the application of the theory. It makes for interesting reading and I would let the readership make up their own minds (read here: http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fcell.2014.00010/full).

I have a lot of thick dark hair on the nape area of my neck. If I were to have a large strip procedure, could I then have the nape hair planted via fue into the strip scar so I could wear my hair short?

You can do this, but you will have to wait until the scar forms and heals (6+ months). If you are worried about wearing your hair short and scarring, why not just do the FUE procedure instead of the strip as that will obviate a linear scar? Keep in mind that neck hair does not behave like scalp hair as it is not permanent in many men as they get older. Anatomically, the neck starts below the skull, so if your feel the scalp and the skull beneath, and then move down, the nape of the neck is encountered without the skull underneath it, just muscle. As I said above, ask your doctor about doing an FUE for the entire hair transplant.

I’ve tried taking Fin twice now and both times have developed chest pain, I wonder if this is coincidence or an actual side effect. Unfortunately I live abroad in a rural village, and don’t have access to medical care.

The first time I took 1.25mg each day for about 2 weeks, and then stopped because of the chest pain. The second time, about 3 months later, I took .625mg every other day, and developed pain after a week (4 doses).

The pain can appear at any point on my ribcage, most usually along the outside of my sternum where the pectoral connects. Commonly under my pec, just inside of my nipple as well.

I’m wondering if this could be the onset of gyno, although I haven’t experienced any nipple sensitivity or pain.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that I go to the gym 4x/week and am taking a generic version of Fin produced from a pharmacy in Costa Rica.

What you are describing is very unusual and I don’t have the luxury of examining you in person or taking a detailed medical history. You need to talk with a doctor as the cause of your chest pain may be something more serious than a simple side effect of a drug. Finasteride can cause gynecomastia in rare cases but that should not cause chest pain.

This blog is great for answering questions always and thank you for that. Im a 30 year old male with thick hair wavy hair. I slicked back my hair the other day and saw that theres a part were it looks thinning. I went to the dermatologist and he told me that its a part that I’ve always have had and sometimes the parts look like there thinning because the hair going in different directions. Is this true what my dermatologist told me? He is one of the top in the state to let you know how good he is. I also took pictures with my iphone and parted my hair to look if the diameters are different in the hair from others I saw some that were diameter of hair thinner looking and most were not.. I told him and showed him and he said this was completely normal on non-balding man and that I was stressing out about nothing. Does taking pictures with iphone close up prove that if you see some hairs different form others you have miniaturization or could it be normal? Is it more accurate to do it with a digital microscope ? He told me I had no signs of male pattern baldness or thinning and I have a full head a hair. I was happy with the visit. I also told him about the Haircheck device and he said that he heard that device can be accurate but it could be normal even if you had a small amount different from the back donor hair like 6% could be normal for a non-balding man too. What percentage would be normal for a non-balding man with the hair check device from the donor hair to the hair in the front region? Thank you so much for always reading as many emails as you can and I hope to hear back from you soon! You can post this on your blog too.

You can always take photos with any good camera to see if there is a change in hair but that would be very subjective on how you take the photo and over a relatively short period of time, it may not have much value. Things like combing style, hair length, the lighting, the style or part of hair, the angle, etc. are significant variables that ten to confuse an objective viewer. We try to objectively quantify potential true thinning with the Hair Check device which will give a clear measurement when compared with the donor area, Microscopic devices to determine the degree of minaturization for comparison purposes, with analysis also helps region by region. These measurement are also variable and about 10% difference is within the margin of error but as the areas are very small, finding the same spot over and over again over months is not reasonable to document change. I don’t think most people would care about 1 to 2 % change in hair density or hair bulk. What meaning would it really have when no one can see it?

Finally when you part your hair, you will naturally see scalp when the contrast between your hair color and your skin color is high (e.g black on white). This present in normal, non-balding adults when you comb your hair. Many people comb their hair to take advantage of the natural part and if they are balding, exploit comb-overs to hide thinning. Yes, your dermatologist is correct, that a subtle change in hair growth direction usually shows the scalp.

Thanks for donating your time to this great site! I have been taking proscar for ages side affect free but lately I’ve noticed a few. I’m also in my 40’s now too mind you. Question is, how long would I have to stop to see them possibly go away? Also if you say a month or something, would that be enough time for me to start a catch up hair loss phase? Please let me know your opinion. I really appreciate it

This is something you need to bring up to your primary doctor or the doctor who prescribed you the medication. Side effects you are attributing to the medication may be something totally different and you may have other health related issue. If it is a sexual side effect, many men in their 40’s have sexually related issues just due to age itself – as high as 40% of men who are not on Propecia (finasteride).

Hi Doctor thanks for the great website. I’m currently still trying to pinpoint where the mature hairline exists.

Would you say the ex president George W. Bush, actor Matthew Mcconaughey (post wig/ transplant) and actor Jim Carrey have mature hairlines, this is of course without a personal examination by you. I’m sorry to ask you about celebrities but they are the only people I can really compare my hairline to without being creepy and staring at strangers hair.

I have seen in photos of Matthew Mcconaughey which showed a frontal balding pattern. Whatever he did, it reflects something that is difficult to analyze. Hollywood can create wonderful hairlines in movies and on TV that can completely obscure the absence of a hairline. Another possibility is a really bad photo that is not the most flattering. I actually met Matthew Mcconaughey in person and I can tell you he has not had a hair transplant. While I’ve never met the former president or Jim Cary, I would guess that neither of them had a hair transplant. Jim Cary has a Class 3 pattern on the Norwood scale.

Ronald Regan and Bill Clinton both had juvenile hair lines.

You can search my BaldingBlog (see upper right) for “juvenile hair line” to read about the numerous posts I’ve written. You can also look at this POST. Generally, it is easiest to see the highest crease on the forehead to determine if the hairline is mature or receding. That requires the cooperation of the person being photographed or can be seen if the person being photographed was excited enough to lift his eyebrows up.