Category: Hair Diseases

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Propecia with Hyperthyroid – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Good day Sir, I would like to ask if you can recommend propecia to me, despite of having hyperthyroid and heart problem.thanks and god bless

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I would doubt that there is a problem with Propecia use, providing that you have dealt successfully with the treatment of your thyroid problem. You need to see a doctor and have a full examination of your scalp. Confirmation of the diagnosis is critical before I would write a prescription.

As thyroid problems are a common cause of hair loss, I think this is an informative page for those intertested in learning more about thyroid disease: Hyperthyroidism.

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Lyme Disease and Hair Loss – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I have had Lyme disease and taken massive quantities of antibiotics. I am also 57 and taking a small amount of estradiol. I also recently (over a six month period) lost 12 pounds on a diet prescribed by my endocrinologist which eliminated foods I was allergic to (wheat and dairy). my hair has been falling out for about four months now. I thought it was due to the antibiotics, but I quit them three weeks ago and the hair loss is as bad as ever, particularly when I wash my hair-a handful! I am down to half my normal head of hair (and have also lost it on other parts of my body). Do you know of a good Alopecia doctor in Los Angeles who could help me. And, of course, what are your thoughts?

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I am in Los Angeles, so I’d like you to please pay me a visit. I can add other doctors to the mix that have the specialties to deal with some of the problems we identify. It sounds like many of the elements you discussed can contribute to your hair loss. Medications, hormones, weight loss, and some types of allergies all are known factors that by themselves can produce hair loss, but first, you need to have a good, caring doctor who will look at you as a person first, and with a desired head of hair second. I might not be the right one for the entire management, but certainly I am good to have on the team.

Call my office at 800-NEW-HAIR to set up an appointment with me. The consultation is free.

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Patchy Hair Loss and Alopecia Areata – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I have patches of hair coming out on my head. It looks like someone hit me with a shot gun and every place the buckshot went, I lost a patch of hair around it. It started a couple of years ago and then stopped, but did not get better. What should I do? Will a hair transplant fix this?

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It sounds like you have Alopecia Areata. This is an autoimmune disease that has genetic origins. You need to see a dermatologist. Hair transplants usually fail to grow in the patches of hair loss if the disease is active. Visit the National Alopecia Areata Foundation website for more information.

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Hair Loss InformationBirth Control Pills Causing Hair Loss? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hi! I’m 21 years old and female. In feb 2004 I started taking birth control pills, and 3 months after starting them, i started losing hair. Then after 7 months of using them i stopped, because my hair was falling out in clumps. No I have been off more than a year and i still dont see any improvement. Doctors have made bloodtests, and they were OK! Hair loss is diffuse all over and they have a little white tip at the end. In my family no one has hair problems, not even my two grandfathers or my father! Is it normal to lose hair for such a long time ? i truly believe i am going to bald soon :(
Thank you for your time!

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Please see my previous post about Depo-Provera which answers the question about birth control pills and hair loss. Unfortunately, some women with hormone changes can precipitate female genetic hair loss and once it has started, it may not be reversed ‘if it was to be in her cards’. About 30% of women over 50 are affected by this genetic process. Although we can reasonably accept hair loss as normal in men, women have a unique type of suffering because it is another ‘attack’ on their feminity in a society that is heavily hair conscious and weighted to beauty and youth. When a young women get genetic hair loss prematurely (I fully realize that it is always premature for a woman of any age), then it is the worst type of insult that flaunts aging very painfully. What the male and female genetic hair loss is, is the ‘miniaturization’ of the hair (the thin hair that becomes even thinner as the process advances), but the location of this miniaturization is different in women than in men. Men have it develop in patterns (front to back) while women generally have it all over the head: front, top, back and sides. Some women will retain the frontal 1/2 inch of hair as healthy, even with the process of miniaturization everywhere else.

When you discussed that your tests are completely normal, I would raise the issues of Thyroid and pituitary function, as well as the absence of circulating angrogens, amongst other causes. Some doctors talk about chronic effluviums or the presence of diffuse alopecia areata (you need to have a dermatologist evaluate this).

Minoxidil does work on some women, often better than men. Some men have a diffuse patterned hair loss like women (about 1-2% of men) but some of these men are helped by Propecia (about half) while that drug has not been determined to be safe for women and even when experimentally given to women by a handful of doctors, few if any benefits were observed.

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Triangular Alopecia – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Dear Doctor Rassman,
I am 20 years old. I want to know something more about triangular alopecia. My temples are receded about 1.5 inch. I have also genetic hair loss in bitemporal area and also in vertex (or at least it is what the doctors said). My father has lost also all of his temple hair including the hairline and the top, but nobody else in my family lost his temples hair, even though everybody has genetic hair loss. In addition I want to say that my temple hair is changed. Above the ear it is thicker than before but with less hair count, curly (it was not) and with a slower growth. Can it be part of genetic hair loss or it is genetic and something else in the same time? I have tried many doctors in Vienna, but I was not satisfied. When I ask about Propecia thay said: “It is not for you, it is for old men”. There is a clinic, Moser Medical, with some doctor of ISHRS but from the emails that I sent to them, they seemed more commercial than helpful. Can you tell me something about my condition? Thank you for your time and for this website.

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Triangular alopecia is a condition of hair loss which impacts the anterior temple area on either or on both sides. It may not be a complete loss of the temple hair, at times showing an atypica or asymetrical pattern, even to the point where a little residual tuft may be present on one side and no problem on the other side. It can affect either men or women and it is not necessarily part of the genetic balding process we commonly see, which produces balding in other parts of the scalp. It is probably another inherited process and hair transplantation is the best approach to treating it.

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Avodart for Androgenic Alopecia? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Dr Rassman

Do you know for certain if GSK has dropped the idea of continuing Avodart studies for androgenic alopecia?

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I can not speak for Glaxo Smith Kline, a pharmacuetical company, as to their official or unofficial plans for the drug Avodart. They manufacture Avodart for prostate disease as the most powerful and most effective DHT blocker. In theory, it should work better than Propecia, but without a committment by this drug company to bring it to market as a hair loss drug, the FDA will not allow it to be sold for hair loss.

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Hair Loss 1 Year After Pregnancy – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I am 32 years old & had my 3rd child 1 year ago, in August. Approximately 4 years ago I was treated for multiple symptoms of malnutrition from losing too much weight too fast. Ridges in my fingernails, major hairloss, hardened areas under the skin on my face & finally an MRI was ordered for an orange sized induration on my hip- it was negative. I got the issue under control & resolved all of these problems. I gained nearly 100lbs with my last child & now a year later my hair has begun to fall out at an alarming rate. I am not dieting & have slowly lost some weight from the pregnancy but in a healthy way. I take no hormones or birth control & I am not on any other meds. I am also in nursing school clinicals which I started 5 days after the baby came. Would I be more likely to suffer hair loss, having a history of it, than I would normally be, related to stress or diet? With it being a little over a year since the birth, I didn’t attribute it to post-baby hairloss, could it be? Thanks for any advice you may have.

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You have many variables here which are hard to put together. You clearly recognize that hair loss can occur with pregnancy along with malnutrition. You also recognize that pregnancy hair loss often reverses after a year or sometimes two. I would ask for many tests to rule in or out a series of medical conditions such as thyroid disease, which does start post-pregnancy in some women. The relationship with these hormonal diseases can also cause hair loss, particularly when combined with the genetic predisposition for female genetic hair loss.

Be sure that you are evaluated by a good generalist doctor first, then get your hair graded for miniaturization and patterned hair loss. These may fit together to point or narrow down the possible diagnosis. Start with a good, well-trusted doctor who cares about your overall well being.

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Hair Loss InformationMedications for Diffuse Unpatterned Alopecia – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hello. I am 24 year old male, who believes I am suffering from diffuse unpatterned alopecia. My hair is thinning evenly over the top and the side of my head to from the classic horseshoe pattern of a Norwood class VII. I have been taking Propecia since January and i do not believe its working as the thinning has progressed. My dermatologist did not seem to concerned and told me to continue taking it for the full year before asking for any other options. Are there any other effective options available? I have read about Avodart and minoxidil, or the possibily of a chemical imbalance, but I do not know if they are effective for this condition.

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I believe that DUPA can be reversed with Propecia. I see this in about half of the patients who are taking it. For those like you, it may be worthwhile, after trying Propecia for a year, to consider Avodart, but I have said many things about this drug which you should review.

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Female AndroGenetic Alopecia (AGA) – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Is it normal to drop between 30-50 strands of hair when washing if you have female AGA and using 5% minoxidil for 3 months already?

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The average person will lose about 100-150 hairs per day and replace that same number with new hair growth. I believe the proper question is: After 3 months of Minoxidil 5%, should I see results? The answer to this question is that if Minoxidil was to work on your hair loss problem, you should see a positive effect in this 3 month time-frame. Three months is the minimal time needed to get an effect of Minoxidil for losing hair but the impact on the visible effects may not be seen for up to a year or more.