Category: Hair Diseases

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Hair Loss InformationHair Cooling Can Prevent Chemotherapy Induced Hair Loss – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I’m worried about losing my hair from chemotherapy. Obviously treating the cancer is the most important thing but can I avoid going bald? I read some stuff about cooling the scalp. What can you tell me about that? Thanks

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Hair loss from chemotherapy is a common problem with certain drugs used to treat a variety of cancers. Recent reports show that systems like the Paxman Hair Loss Prevention System can prevent chemotherapy induced alopecia. It doesn’t work for everyone going through chemo, but cold cap systems like this have shown some success. You can learn more about it here.

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Hair Loss InformationBump Appeared On the Scalp After Chemo Treatments – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

My patient had adenocarcinoma of the colon and now has adenocarcinoma in the right colon. She has completed 6 of her 8 chemotherapy treatments. She had a bump that appeared on the top of her head in the last month. It does not itch, hurt or produce any symptoms.She picks it but nothing comes out. Suddenly appeared. Differentials for this diagnosis?

Thank you

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You sound like a doctor asking this question. There could be some inflammation following the hair loss from chemo, but I would want to know what the bump looks and feels like, its size, and the presence of any lymph nodes in the neck, etc.

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Hair Loss InformationMy Psoriasis Transferred with My Transplanted Hair – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I just underwent a transplant 2 weeks ago. Regarding your post on Psoriasis i would have to respectfully disagree. I get have really bad psoriasis in the back of my head (donor area) and it definitely transferred to the recipient area, even so much as to go a little bit on my upper forehead just below where the grafts were placed. On day 7 post op i took a normal shower and with my fingertips rubs all the scabs off. Should i be worried that I could have harmed my potential new grafts? Also please let me know how you would treat this?

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If you transferred psoriasis, you would be the first patient I heard of that had experienced this. Rubbing scabs off always worries me, but it will not damage the grafts if it was not done roughly. Your psoriasis should be treated by your doctor, not me over the internet.

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Hair Loss InformationHepatitis B Vaccine and Hair Loss? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I just started the Hep B vaccine and am experiencing hair loss at 54. Will it grow back?? I’m very concerned because of my age.

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All health care workers receive hepatitis B vaccine, yet health care workers are not at any increased risk for hair loss. What you may be experiencing may be coincidental or very rare.

I did find this quote from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases: “There have been rare reports of hair loss after hepatitis B vaccination, with the majority of individuals regrowing their hair (Wise, 1997). Studies are in progress to better quantify the possible slight risk of hair loss.”

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Syphilitic Alopecia – Balding Blog

How do you distinguish between Syphillytic Alopecia and DUPA Androgenic alopecia? I’m probably experiencing Andro Alopecia diffusely around my entire head but I just want to make sure. Is Syphillytic alopecia treatable? How do you test for it?

Thanks

In a very basic sense, physicians diagnose patients by taking a history and examining the patient face to face. In more recent years with the advent of the Internet, many self diagnose and run into conflicting information and/or scare themselves with wild diagnoses.

If you think you have syphilitic alopecia, diffuse unpatterned alopecia (DUPA), androgenic alopecia (AGA), or any other form of alopecia, a good start is a visit to your doctor. And if you do believe you have syphilitic alopecia, I’d think hair loss would be the last among your list of concerns, since other symptoms of syphilis would be hard to ignore. Tests are available to diagnose syphilis.




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Balding Forum - Hair Loss Discussion

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Hair Loss InformationIn the News – Former Hair Model Now Has Alopecia Areata – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Snippet from the article:

We are a culture obsessed with hair: From the big and small screens to the pages of fashion magazines, it seems no woman’s look is complete without a perfectly-coifed ‘do – and that poses a serious hurdle for aspiring actress Georgia Van Cuylenburg. Van Cuylenburg is bald.

Like 5 million others in the U.S., Van Cuylenburg suffers from alopecia areata. The disease results in sudden and often unpredictable hair loss on the scalp and often across the rest of the body. It is cyclical in nature and has no known cause or cure.

For the effervescent Van Cuylenburg, it is particularly ironic because she used to be hair model.

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Read the rest — Hair Model’s Worst Nightmare: Going Bald

This is the story of a young woman’s journey after she suddenly found herself losing most of her hair from alopecia areata.

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Hair Loss InformationPudendal Neuropathy and Propecia – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I read on one post that Propecia caused someone to have pudendal neuropathy which caused both sensory and motor dysfunction in the genital tissues. Is this a Post-Finasteride-Syndrome? Is pudendal neuropathy a side effect?

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The term “neuropathy” means damage to a nerve… so “pudendal neuropathy” is damage to the pudendal nerve. I cannot imagine how Propecia can cause damage to this specific nerve. Damage to the nerve is usually from mechanical injury (bike riding, falling on your buttocks, etc) or inflammatory issues (infection) or chronic medical conditions that damage your nerve, such as diabetes or multiple sclerosis. Propecia is a drug that that partially blocks the conversion of testosterone to DHT. If someone is going to claim that there is some special DHT relationship to a pudendal nerve, we might as well be blaming Propecia for our economy or the color of the sky.

Stating that a drug (Propecia) caused a neuropathy to the pudendal nerve is questionable, because there is no difference in the pudendal nerve to a nerve that innervates your thumb. The pudendal nerve is one of many nerves in your pelvic area (for both men and women) and one segment of it innervates your penis or clitoris. I believe many readers may have heard of sciatica when doctors refer to certain back pain caused by the sciatic nerve. The pudendal nerve is a distal branch of a sciatic nerve. Patients with back problems or pelvic area problems/trauma/tumor/etc can have pudendal nerve issues. Pudendal nerve damage can cause erection problems, but it will also cause perineal numbness or pain (see here).

If there is an erection issue, the most simple test is a nocturnal penile tumescence (NPT) test. Imagine a roll of stamps wrapped around a flaccid penis and taped. If you get an erection, the stamps will stretch and break at the perforations. I assume there are better devices out there and better tests, but this test can sometimes be a good starting point to help delineate if erectile issues are psychological or physical. Normally, men will have involuntary erections during sleep (aka “morning wood”). It would be interesting to see if the 70 or so men that reported permanent erection problems can achieve nocturnal (involuntary) erections and if they ever underwent these tests, But from my reading I believe the erection issues were self-reported and no subjective testing was performed.

In matters of medical health, the Internet is not a place to self diagnose medical conditions or become armchair physicians. But alas, it is what many readers will continue to do and the urban legends will propagate.

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Prostatitis and Hair Loss? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hello Dr Rassman,

I am a 29 year old male who recently noticed that my crown was thinning. My hairdresser confirmed that she only noticed the thinning very recently. Over the last year I have also been battling a severe and stubborn case of what the urologist told me was prostatitis.

Are these two problems linked. I have read that a swollen prostate will produce more DHT then a regular size one. Is that accurate?

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I would doubt that prostatitis will increase DHT, as the prostate itself has nothing to do with DHT production. DHT is a metabolic derivative of testosterone which is made in the testicles, not the prostate. The prostate is a target organ that is impacted by DHT and that is why blocking this DHT with finasteride or dutasteride will reduce the enlarged size.

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Hashimoto’s Disease and Female Hair Loss – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

my daughter was diagnosed with Hashimotos in 1998. she has been suffering hair loss since then and it is now quite serious. She went to a dermatologist who told her that her hair loss was genetic and unrelated to the Hashimotos. That is hard for me to believe. She is very resistant to getting further help so I don’t know what to do to do and where to send her. She is at Stanford and there is a Dermatology Clinic with a specialty in hair loss but I keep thinking the problem is the autoimmune disease. Can you give me some advise about what to do.

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While having a diagnosis certainly helps with finding a treatment, for women’s hair loss there is no definitive treatment. If you treat the thyroid disease the thinning may slow down, but it is unlikely that after treatment the loss will reverse. I have never seen it revert back to the original fullness. Even for genetic women’s hair loss (just like men’s genetic hair loss) there is no cure. If the hair loss issue is from an autoimmune disease, there is really no cure either and many doctors are suggesting that genetic hair loss may actually be an autoimmune process, not uniquely genetic alone.

At best, you can treat the Hashimoto’s disease and the hair loss may slow down. I am sorry for the bluntness, but at this time there is no medical cure for genetic hair loss in men or women… and unfortunately, we seem to know far less about treating female hair loss than we do with male hair loss.

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Hair Loss InformationI Have DUPA and Need a Specialist in Toronto – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Dear Dr Rassman,

I just wanted to thank you for all the inspirational information you have provided for men and women that suffer from hair loss. I currently suffer from DUPA and I’m very concerned that I will not have the necessary donor hair in order to do a hair transplant.

I was wondering if you could let me know which doctors in the Toronto, Ontario Canada area provide miniaturization testing.

I have seen several dermatoloigists and transplant surgeons. However, my diagnosis from all of them have been a mixed bag: some say I suffer from telogen effluvium others say I have MPB. My blood work is normal. My hair loss is not just limited to the crown area but I am thinning from the sides and back of my hair severly at a tremendous pace!

Any help and/or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I just need a straight answer in order to make an informative decision in regards to the necessary treatment options for hair loss.

Thank you again for your exceptional work and in keeping members advised of hair loss treatment options.

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The straight answer is that there is no cure for diffuse unpatterned alopecia (DUPA), assuming that this is your correct diagnosis. I would recommend that you obtain a solid diagnosis of DUPA first (as it seems you may be self diagnosing this).

For a list of doctors in your area, you can try the physician search at ISHRS.org. I don’t have any personal recommendations in that area. Ask these doctors if they perform bulk analysis with the HairCheck instrument and miniaturization testing before you go and visit them.