Category: Hair Loss Causes

Snippet from the article:

Men going thin on top may be more likely to have heart problems than their friends with a full head of hair, according to researchers in Japan.

Their study of nearly 37,000 people, published in the online journal BMJ Open, said balding men were 32% more likely to have coronary heart disease.

However, the researchers said the risks were less than for smoking or obesity. The British Heart Foundation said men should focus on their waistline, not their hairline.

Read the rest — Male baldness ‘indicates heart risk’

This paper was actually based on meta-analysis of more than 850 existing observational studies, and it found that vertex balding (not frontal hairline balding) lead to an increased heart disease risk.

Whether there is anything to it, I couldn’t say… but coincidentally (or not), I had someone ask me just last week if having a hair transplant into his crown would reduce his risk for coronary disease.

i have always have had a full beard- past year i am losing facial hair- i am getting bald patches and lines of missing hair on my cheeks and chin-what is this? is there anything to cure this? i would appreciate any suggestions.-thank you

You need to see a good dermatologist, as such bald patches may reflect conditions such as alopecia areata. It’s possible this could be stress related, or an allergy, or something else altogether.

I can not say much more without seeing you myself… but even if you saw me in my Los Angeles office, I would still want the opinion of a dermatologist.

Dear Dr

There has been a lot of interest in the UK about intermittent fasting where an individual eats normally for 5 days a week and then fasts for two (not on consecutive days). There was a BBC horizon programme where it was shown to reduce IGH-1 (growth hormone) and improve insulin sensitivity. It is claimed that when a body goes into fasting mode the body starts to repair itself better by repairing cells rather than producing more cells. It was suggested that this may be beneficial to age related diseases, cancer etc.

Do you think this would slow down the pace of hairloss if insulin sensitivity improved and/or IGH-1 was reduced? Has research been done on this approach? Your thoughts would be appreciated

Genetic hair loss is not a disease. Balding is a genetic trait, like your height, body build, hair color, the way you look, etc. Even if this ‘fasting’ has value (which I would doubt), it will not change your genetics. Significant fasting can actually accelerate hair loss. You are what you are and although your patterned balding can be modified with drugs or transplants, your balding pattern is fixed in your genetics.

hello doctor,
i wore a bandana everyday for 2 hrs at the gym for about 3 months. i just was not comfortable wearing something so tight on my head so i stopped and haven’t worn it since. 6 months later i feel like i am loosing strands of my hair when i wash it and that my hair at the front of my head has gotten thinner than it used to be. is it possible that wearing a bandana for such a short period can result in hair damage?? If so, what can i do to fix this? thanks!

Wearing bandanas or hats (even all day) does not cause male pattern baldness. Unless you are wearing something that is very tight so that it is constantly causing friction and traction to your hair, it would not matter. If the hair loss was caused by the tight pulling, we call it traction alopecia. In your case though, I would highly doubt that what you’re seeing is related to your limited bandana use.

I just saw this video and thought you guys might get a kick out of it. It’s only a couple minutes long and explains hair loss and genetics in a very simple way.

Link: YouTube – Science of Hair Loss/Balding

Thanks for sending this. I’ve embedded the video below:

Dr.Rassman

Is there any way to accurately determine if you are going to be a person with very slow hair loss or a person with fast hair loss?

The reason I ask this is because I went to school with a guy who had slight recession in his temple area but wasn’t really that noticeable. It lasted like that for years and then all of a sudden it picked up and became very noticeable, and then slowed down now (I think) that he is in his early 30’s. Thanks

A good hair doctor can measure the rate of (a) miniaturization of your hair in different areas of your scalp and (b) the changes in hair bulk over time. I use these two approaches to make the diagnosis, and when I put a person on a drug like finasteride, I can see if I was successful at stopping the balding process. It would make little sense to me to use these instruments to follow the loss of hair and the rate of loss without treatment, but it would give you an idea on the speed of your hair loss over time.

Doctor how common is hairloss from stress in men? Im just talking about daily typical stress? how severe does the stress have to be to accelerate genetic balding in men in your opinion?

Stress, if it is not well managed, can accelerate hair loss in those who are genetically prone to balding, but for most men it is genetics that are the cause. I don’t know at what severity your stress levels need to be before the loss is accelerated, as stress is difficult to measure across the board. Each person is different and will react to stress differently.

There are other conditions that cause hair loss that can be stressed induced, such as alopecia areata (there is a genetic link with it), telogen effluvium, and other autoimmune diseases. If you’re concerned that your stress is accelerating your loss, see a doctor about getting your stress under control. Chances are though, if you’re a man that is seeing hair loss, your genes are playing a larger role in the speed at which you’re thinning.