Category: Drugs

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Hair Loss InformationWhen Will I See Propecia Benefits… and Does Showering Cause Hair Loss? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

hi dr Rassman,

i have a few questions i havent seen an answer to on here,

  1. how long does it take to see results from propecia? is 6 months the normal time it takes or can it take longer?
  2. when do u think cloning will be made available to the public? ( i know there is no way to tell)
  3. i used to spray rogain 5% on my hairline, however around 2 weeks back i switched and started using a dropper which probably meant im putting on my minoxidil than when i was using a
    sprayer, the areas i have been applying it to have thinned out, could this be because im using more minox now with the dropper?
  4. Does showering everyday cause or worsen hairloss? what temperature is best?

thanks

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Shower knob

  1. For Propecia results, I’d say 6-12 months. Benefits could be just halting the hair loss, not necessarily regrowth… so keep that in mind when you’re looking at results.
  2. Getting hair cloning to be effective and reliable is the first step. Making it available to the public is quite another. Maybe it’ll be ready in another decade or so, but nobody knows. I’m not sure how you haven’t seen me answer a question about hair cloning before. I’ve probably written the same thing over a dozen times already.
  3. Why did you switch from the Rogaine sprayer to the dropper? It could be that you’re not covering the same area. Using more minoxidil in the area shouldn’t cause hair loss, but using less might.
  4. Showering daily won’t cause hair loss, though if you’ve already got weak hair on its way out, be gentle to your hair when shampooing. Actually, you should be gentle regardless. Use whatever temperature is comfortable.

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I’m 18 Years Old and Can’t Cope with My Hair Loss – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I went to the dermatologist this week to confirm that I had male pattern baldness, which he did confirm. I am only 18 years old, and since I am so young, I am not dealing with this very well. I cannot find much information on people close to my age balding, so I assume it is relatively rare. I am currently on 1mg of propecia a day and will start rogaine shortly. I just do not know how I am going to cope with this. I am so young, and it feels like balding will hinder my social life. I haven’t hung out with friends since I realized I was going bald. I don’t know how they will react of if they will treat me differently. I don’t know how I am ever going to get a girlfriend now. Do you have any advice on how someone as young as me can cope with the feeling that my life has been devastated?

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Most of the young men I treat, like yourself, get great response from Propecia (finasteride) and do not show any balding when picked up early. I have even seen men of your age reverse the balding process. Make sure that what you are seeing is not the maturing hairline, because the drug will not reverse this. Speak with your parents and the doctor who prescribed Propecia. This isn’t a death sentence and you do have options. You should be commended for the courage to start the correct treatment early and I’m hoping you will be spared the balding problem for years.

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Is Finasteride Suddenly Giving Me Hives? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Dear Doctor, I have been taking 1mg propecia for almost 5 months and have noticed an improvement to my hair. However, just a few days ago hives began breaking out on my legs and arms as a side effect. Would reducing the dosage by half by splitting the pill reduce the effectiveness of the drug? Thank you very much.

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It could be from the medication, but it could be unrelated. If you are really having an allergic reaction you need to stop the medication. What other causes could you have? See your doctor and let him/her investigate what is happening to you. It is better than having me blindly make your diagnosis via the internet without an exam or medical history.

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Can I Take Finasteride with Coffee? – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

CoffeeDear Dr. Rassman,

I take finasteride (1/4 Proscar pill)daily first thing in the morning with a glass of water on an empty stomach. However, shortly afterwards, I start to sip on my morning cup of coffee to get my caffeine fix going. I typically don’t EAT anything until at least an hour or so after taking finasteride.

Are you aware of any interference coffee/caffeine would have with the absorption/digestion of finasteride?

Thanks for your time and assistance

You can drink coffee (hot, cold, iced, warm), tea, milk, water, juice, and even Green Eggs and Ham. It won’t change the effectiveness of the finasteride you’re taking. The only food or drink I know of that you shouldn’t take with finasteride is grapefruit and grapefruit juice (see here).

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I Had Shock Loss, So If I Start Propecia Now Will I Lose Even More? – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Dear Doctor,
i have undergone hair transplant 3 months back,and i had a Shock loss and i had lost tremendous amount of hair so much so that i could literally see my scalp starting from my hairline all the way up to the vertex. I have started using minoxidil 5% for the past 2 and a half months and have started getting my hair back.

My question here is that if i start using Finasteride now along with minoxidil (which i am currently using) will i have hair shedding again (as mentioned on various forums about hairloss on 11th and 16th week when using finasteride?)

please please kindly request your kind help as i am confused about starting finasteride and having hair shedding AGAIN. thanking you in anticipation

Shame on your doctor who should have insisted on you taking finasteride before the surgery to avoid the shock loss. You probably will not grow it back, but the hair transplant you had should offset some of the problem. Time will tell, as you’re still some time away before your transplant grows in. If you have another hair transplant within a few years, it will probably not happen again (no guarantees though), but going into such a surgery without finasteride on board will not be in your interests.

Let’s just hope that the shedding is over. Some people experience the finasteride shedding, though many do not. I can not predict what will happen to you as I do not know what you looked like before the surgery, how many grafts you had done, and I must know your age (the younger you are, the more at risk you will be).

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Long Term Benefits from Rogaine? – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

i know that many people have written to you about how after a few years they start to see their hair thinning even though they take propecia daily..Ur response has always been that the drug doesnt prevent hair loss but only slows it down and after a period of time genetics will win out over the drug and you will start to see hair loss.. You also say that you shouldnt stop taking propecia otherwise the hair loss will be much more..i think you refer to it as catch up hair loss..

But one thing i havent seen here is people writing in to say that after using rogaine for several years they are now seeing hair loss..I get the impression that the long term effects from rogaine are much much better then the long term results from propecia. Of those people who are no longer benefiting from propecia how many of them are also using rogaine? I bet not many!

I myself use both rogaine and propecia and things are pretty stable..It may very well be that the propecia isnt working but the slack has been picked up by the rogaine..I would never know. The one basic difference between the 2 is one is something you take internally and the other is something you use externally. Could you tell me ur thoughts about this? I would imagine another reason that rogaine is probably doing a better job long term is that phizer switched from a liquid to a foam for better penetration into the scalp as well..

Yes, there’s no medication that will stop hair loss forever. And yes, if you take both Rogaine (minoxidil) and Propecia (finasteride) at the same time you may never know which medication is doing the trick, though perhaps both are doing their own unique thing to treat your hair loss. Many of my patients do use both medications together, though some only use one or the other. I don’t have any polling data that shows what percentage of Propecia users also use Rogaine, so your guess is as good as mine. Just as with Propecia though, if you stop using Rogaine you’d also be subject to the catch-up hair loss.

I suspect there’s not a wide discussion about long-term Rogaine use, because it is available without a doctor’s prescription and it is not a hot topic like Propecia. I also don’t have data on long term benefits of Rogaine compared to those of Propecia, as it either isn’t available or just isn’t something that’s been presented to me (if anyone has it, please feel free to send it my way). The drugs have more differences than just oral vs topical, as Propecia actually blocks DHT (one of the causes of hair loss), whereas the reason for Rogaine’s hair growth isn’t known.

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My Crown is Responding Well to Propecia, But My Hairline Is Going Fast – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hello Dr.

I’d like to start by saying that your blog has been such a great source of info and i thank you and your team for that . I’m a 35 year old man and i take propecia daily , I’ve only been on it since last November and i have no side effects so i plan to continue.

I fully understand that propecia rarely has a impact in the frontal area but , i hoped that it would at least slow the loss. My crown seems to be responding fairly well. Lately noticed my frontal area getting worse . I wake up in the morning missing more hair than i had the night before . Is it normal for this to happen at such a rapid pace and in such large amounts?

Thanks for your time .

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I think you answered your own question. Yes, it is normal for you to continue losing hair in the front hairline as Propecia will not restore it in most cases. Propecia mainly works on the crown/top areas, rarely in the frontal area… and that goes for regrowth and stopping the hair loss. Obviously if you’re a good responder to Propecia in the crown area, you should continue taking the medication for as long as you want to keep that hair. For the front area you may consider a hair transplant surgery, but unfortunately there is no drug out there that can restore the hairline.

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Resveratrol, Curcumin, and Hair Loss – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hello, i am slightly confused, i read how resveratrol can increase test levels, is this true and would it worsen my hairloss?

But i also recently read a contradictory study on the combination of resvaratrol with curcumin, which is claimed to help with hairloss. Do you think this is a posibility? An italian company were seeking a patent on a pill that contained these two .

Also i take finasteride, can the res/cur, affect the absorption of fin? I take fin in the morning.

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Red grapesHere’s what I just learned from Wikipedia —
Resveratrol is a chemical produced naturally by several plants (including red grapes). As suggested, it gives the heart beneficial qualities of red wine. Curcumin is found in Indian spice turmeric, which is a member of the ginger family.

So in essence (let’s cut out all the nebulous scientific names), you want to know if natural extracts from grape and ginger can be beneficial to your hair. There are THOUSANDS of these natural concoctions people have tried to help with hair loss throughout history. I really do not know if it will work, but in the end it becomes a “buyer beware” market and your experience with how your body responds is the final answer you need for you. In my opinion, I doubt it will have an impact on your hair, but more so on your wallet and time. I don’t know anything about the study you’re referencing, so I can’t really give you any insight into their findings.

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Is Dimethicone in Shampoo Preventing Minoxidil Scalp Penetration? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I just had an epiphany regarding why minoxidil may not work for the majority of men. I would like your expert opinion on this. I think I may have just discovered something.

I have been using minoxidil for about a year along with an herbal shampoo containing all natural ingredients. I recently switched to a fancy shampoo that has many other ingredients, including dimethicone and various other ingredients that are commonly used in most shampoos to improve texture and increase thickness.

I noticed, after using this newer shampoo, that when I applied the minoxidil, it beaded up on my scalp. I immediately realized that dimethicone is a form of silicone. After reading the label of the shampoo and the matching conditioner, I noticed that they also contained other silicone-based ingredients. The ingredients are used in almost all shampoos and conditioners to coat the hairs, to add shine and improve the texture, etc.

As you may know, silicone is also the primary ingredient in auto polish, car wax and many other similar products. Silicone adds a layer of protection to surfaces and protects them. It causes water to bead up on a car’s paint, etc. This is why I noticed, I’m sure, the minoxidil beading up on my scalp after using the shampoo and conditioner containing the dimethicone. If silicone can cause water to bead up on a car’s paint, I’m sure it can also cause minoxidil to bead up on one’s scalp. It certainly appears to have that effect. If it’s beading up, I’m sure it isn’t properly penetrating. No penetration = no results!

So … here is my epiphany. We all know that minoxidil does NOT work for the majority of men. And if it does, it usually only works minimally. Now, since the majority of shampoos and conditioners contain dimethicone and similar ingredients, which prevent or hinders the penetration of minoxidil, couldn’t this be the reason why most men do not respond to minoxidil? Furthermore, there is a small percentage of men known as “responders.” These are men who respond very well to minoxidil. Maybe the reason they respond so well is something so simple that it has been overlooked, i.e., they are simply the ones using dimethicone/silicone-free hair products allowing the minoxidil to actually penetrate and do its job unhindered.

What do you think? Has this been addresssed before? If not, do you think my “theory” has any merit? I really think it does. Let me know what you think.

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It is an interesting theory, but the dimethicone in the shampoo should not block the absorption of minoxidil, unless perhaps you leave the shampoo on your scalp without rinsing. You should apply minoxidil after you wash off any shampoo and conditioner and the scalp is warm from the hot shower you take, with the scalp pores open. That is when the absorption occurs.