Category: Hair Loss Causes

I’m 43 years of age. I just quit drinking 6 months ago, my liver was in bad shape to the point my doctor didn’t think I was going to make it. Since then I changed my diet, abstained from using alcohol and anything else that might be hard on my liver. Blood tests that I’ve got recently show my liver to be functioning normal. My health according to my doctor is good. All symptoms like extreme bloating, sight loss due to water leakage from blood vessels, and anxiety attacks, which was the reason why I started to drink in the first place, have gone. The problem I have is that I’m losing hair in large amounts. I NEVER had any noticeable hair loss before and this started 3 months after all my symptoms of alcohol abuse were gone. I still smoke (trying to quit). I take vitamin supplements. my diet is good. what can cause this? Stress?

Diet and an adequate daily intake of vitamins are often a problem with alcoholics, and as you appear to have started to address these issues, it will hopefully become better in the long term. This is a complex problem in that you may have genetic factors in addition to what has impacted your general nutritional issues in the past.

A good examination by a competent hair doctor will show the degree of miniaturization and balding you may have, the status of your donor hair as compared with the areas of loss, and the presence or absence of a telogen effluvium can be evaluated. The long term impact of your past drinking history may still have ramifications for you. I can not help you more directly without examining you.

Could the obesity be contributing to the baldness? Has anyone noticed that some obese people tend to have lots of wiry body hair in places other than the chest such as the back, shoulders, and arms. And overweight women tend to grow lots of facial hair.. perhaps the same hormones increasing body hair increases the risk of baldness??? Just a thought..

It is a good thought, but it is not completely correct. Genetic factors cause hair loss. Hair loss is not related to obesity or vice versa. However, I believe there are genetic factors that contribute to obesity (unrelated to hair loss).

Overweight women who have facial hair reflect a term called hirsutism, which you can learn more about here. It is related to hormonal imbalance and an increased amount of androgens in the blood stream.

Hi,

My brother is in his early 20’s and has begun losing his hair. He has had inherited hair from my mum’s side of the family, lighter and thinner since he was born. My mum’s side, it is common for the males to bald early. I on the other hand have always had thick and really dark hair from my fathers side of the family. My fathers side does not begin to thin until in their 40’s.

I’m curious as to if I will bald early as well, or is it less likely to happen until later because I have always had my fathers hair.

I do not know for sure when you’ll go bald. It is commonly thought that genetic balding tends to be inherited from the mother’s side, but this is not a definite rule. You cannot predict hair loss on mother/father/family history alone. You can expect nearly a 50/50 chance of inheriting from one side or the other, like a roll of the dice. It might actually be 52/48 in favor of the mother’s side, but it is close enough to not rule the father’s side out completely.

Hey,

Your blog is very helpful has recently ive been concerned about my hair. I’m 18, and ive always had a Norwood #2 hairline, its never been a straight hairline. I have thick hair, but its very light, hairdressers etc always say its so thick. I realise this doesnt mean your not going bald. But when I look under light in my bathroom, pretty strong light, or just look at my hair under any reasonably strong light, i can see my scalp in a line that zig zags slightly from my crown to my hairline, but when it reaches my hairline its thin in a patch. You cant see it when its not exposed to strong light really, maybe the odd weak spot. I dont really notice that many hairs, but now that I’m paranoid about going bald i notice just about every hair i lose. My father has black hair unlike mine, and his hairline is pretty similar to mine, my grandfather on my mothers side, and my uncle are the only ones that displayed signs of male pattern baldness, but they didn’t get it till they were well into their 40s/50s.

So my question is, is it common for people with fair hair to see their scalp when under strong light, or sun light. Or can MPB be the reason for this?

Male pattern balding could be a cause for what you’re seeing, but what you’re describing is something commonly seen under harsh, direct, or bright lights. Lighting can make any hair appear to be thinner than it is, and if your hair is fine, the problem would even be more prominent.

I wouldn’t be too concerned about this, but if you see a doctor for it be sure to have your scalp mapped for miniaturization so you can actually have a metric to go back and look at in a follow-up visit.

Hi, for the last ten months I’ve been having diffuse hair loss all over my scalp. Both top and sides of my head. My hair line has not receded. Within these ten months, I would say that I’ve lost about 60% or more of my total hair. All of the hairs have the small white bulb at the end. I’ve gone to a dermatologist and he suggested that it might be TE or MPB. I then went to an endocrinologist and had some blood work done. I came out having slight hyperthyroidism and I show many of the symptoms.

It seems that my hair loss has continued the same. I have slight hair regrowth but it tends to fall and my hairs still have the white bulb at the end. this problem began in june ’09 and I had been under a great stress two months prior. I am now 19. I have been on methimazole for about a month now and I am really anxious to try propecia. Do you believe this to be TE or MPB? Thank You.

I really don’t know what you’re seeing, so I can not recommend anything without checking out the hair loss for myself. I need to make a diagnosis and to see the distribution of your hair loss.

Since you’re not too far from my Los Angeles office, I’d like to suggest coming in for a free consultation. You can call my office at 310-553-9113 (or 800-NEW-HAIR) to set up the appointment.

Hello,

I have a question regarding hairlines. Does the similarity of hairlines bewteen family members serve as a tool in determing the possiblity of MPB? Or does hairline similarity have nothing to do with MPB? Thanks.

Since the balding gene can come from either side of the family, you couldn’t make a determination about hair loss just by looking at hairlines. It’s not that simple, but if you have started to bald at 25 years old and someone in your family says, “Wow, your hair looks like mine at 25 years old!“, then it would be safe to assume that your pattern might follow his pattern both in scope and in timing. So, ask around and speak to the men in your family.

I’ve received quite a few emails in the past day or so about the news of a hair loss gene finding that was announced. Thanks to all the readers that sent in links.

Here’s a snippet from one of the articles:

Researchers have found a gene mutation which leads to thinning hair and which can even start taking effect in childhood. The gene, APCDD1, causes hair follicles to shrink, leading to thinner hair. Now the team at Columbia university hope the findings could help discover new ways to treat the condition.

The condition leading to thinning hair is known as hereditary hypotrichosis simplex and the researchers believe they have pinpointed the gene behind it. However the scientists the cause of the more common male pattern baldness, which affects most men at some point in their lives, remains elusive.

Read the rest of this article at Telegraph UK. And here’s a couple other news links about this — CNN and WebMD.

I wasn’t involved in the research so there’s not much I can add beyond what these articles have already mentioned. It is an interesting finding and I am pleased that there is ongoing scientific research into the cause and the genes for hair loss. Unfortunately, as Dr Angela Christiano (lead author of the research) notes, “The gene we discovered for hereditary hypotrichosis does not explain the complex process of male pattern baldness.”

One thing I am particularly happy to read about is that they discuss the miniaturization of the hair follicle, which is a process that needs to be quantified as a miniaturization study when diagnosing balding patterns (as we have stressed here on this site for many years).