Category: Hair Loss Causes

Two years ago I was getting my hair thinned out by my stylist because it was to thick. Two years later at age 37 my hair is considerably thinner. The thinning is more prevalent on the left top side of my head. The initial thinning was drastic and took place within a couple of months. Should I expect for this to continue at such a fast pace or will it slow down. My mother’s side of the family has little issues with hair loss while my father’s side does. Beside genetics what possible causes would be responsible for this to happen in the timeline it has?

First, I would want to map out your hair to see if this is symmetrical balding. At times, genetic hair loss is asymmetrical and will show miniaturization in the areas most impacted. Get to see a good doctor for an assessment. I can not help you over the Internet and would need to see you myself.

I want t know why I have random bald spots on my face. I always had a healthy beard, and for the past two or three months the areas have increased not dereased. What is possibly causing this, and how can I fix the problem? I miss my beard.

There are many things that can cause hair loss like you describe, including ringworm (a fungus), alopecia areata (an autoimmune disease), etc. See a good dermatologist for a diagnosis.

i’m a sikh guy with long hair. i m suffering with traction alopecia. my religion doesn’t allow me to cut my hair. but my doctor is suggesting to have a head shave, which i dont want to do. do i have any other option?

right now i don’t wear my hair under turban. i left it open or sometimes in pony tail.

Traction alopecia reflects pulling on the hair. Long hair under a turban would do that, so as you are keeping your hair outside the turban, then that hair will not be pulled and the insult that is causing the hair loss will have been obviated. Shaving your head might keep the traction off your scalp, but as your hair regrows, the problem will reappear. A ponytail can also lead to the same fate, depending on the tightness and how much pulling is going on. Really, your only option to prevent this is to not produce traction on your hair.

The photo at right shows a Sikh man in a turban — Balbir Singh Seechewal, one of Time Magazine’s Heroes of the Environment for 2008. I don’t know if he has traction alopecia and don’t mean to insinuate such, but I wanted to provide a photo with the post that shows readers that might not be familiar with the Sikh culture.

Does sweating after applying rogaine affect its effectiveness? I generally sweat on the top of my head on hot days so I’m worried that it will affect this treatment.

It should not be a problem. If you’re concerned, get a fan or open a window if there’s a cool breeze or stay cool some other way to limit your sweating. I’ve answered a similar question that you may find helpful here.

I bumped the back of my head about two months ago. Since then I still have a bump and a bald spot the size of a band aid where the bump is. What could cause this?

You could have put that hair into its sleep phase and if that is the case, it will come back in 6 months from the time the injury occurred. If you cut the scalp, a scar could form that may not have hair in it. You should see a dermatologist if the bump is persistent, as 2 months seems awfully long for a mild head bump. Usually swelling will go away within days or even as long as a couple weeks… but months?

hey! recently ive noticed when i towel dry my hair the top of my head is very very itchy. The itchiness isn not in the donor area, just the top, but recently my hair seems to be thinning out everywhere. Is itchiness associated with mpb or do you think something else is causing this? Do mpb patients often complain of itching? Thanks!

Some people with MPB do complain of itching, but having an itch does not mean that you are balding as many people have some mild scalp itch, even me, without balding.

Men usually lose hair first in the temporal area, second in the crown, and third, in the vertex or top of the scalp. This is due to the concentration of sweat glands that carry DHT in these areas. So if one where to continuously be flushing sweat daily out of these particular sweat glands with cardiovascular activity fallowed directly by a thorough clean with out giving the sweat time to re saturate itself, why couldn’t that at least help to reduce the concentration of dht? If you could please give brief description on why this would or would not work, that would be great Thanks

I don’t know where you get your information on the cause or the ‘order’ for hair loss. Some men lose hair only in the crown, some only in the hairline — and for those that go completely bald, it can start in the crown or front. There’s no strict order that the body follows. I believe the cause is related strictly to the genetics and flushing it as you suggested will not do much for you.

I’m not balding yet, as far as i can tell, but i’ve noticed that after a night of heavy drinking i wake up and have shed an unusual amount of hairs on my pillow. I know alcohol has effects on your veins and blood flow and i was wondering if there was a correlation?

I doubt that a bout of drinking will cause hair loss unless you are pulling on your hair or moving restlessly in bed while drunk.

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Just watched the episode of Jon & Kate +8 for the second time, as it was re-run on TLC. The procedure was in March 2008 and Dr. Rassman had said Jon would be returning in eight months for another 2000 graft procedure. Is Jon planning on returning for a second? If so, is the next procedure going to focus more on the crown? Finally, do you have any updated pictures as he is pretty far along at this point.

Thank you and look forward to hearing from you.

For those that don’t know what this show is, check out this post: Hair Transplant on Jon and Kate Plus 8. We have spoken with the family and Jon is thrilled with the results in the frontal area. I believe he will be back here sometime early in the coming year for hair transplants in his crown. I do not have updated photos to post, but will have some when I see him in the coming months and can take pictures in my office.

The only photo I’ve seen of Jon Gosselin recently has been in the pages of People magazine, and the photo was unfortunately too tiny to see how his grafts grew in. It should be noted that the photo on the right is an older press photo and doesn’t show his hair transplant results.

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Dear Doctor. I have been reading on pubmed that IGF-1 has a strong influence on hair and follicular health and growth. I have read that research indicates IGF-1 stimulation has increased hair count and hair weight. Capsacin, applied topically in 0.01 percent concentration for 5 months, increased hair counts in over 60% of the participants. This information is as of 2008, so it is current. What are your thoughts on this subject and do you think the combination of 5% minoxidil and 0.01% capsacin would be of benefit? Thanks!

When I eat hot chili peppers they make my mouth burn, which is caused by the capsaicin in the pepper. Yet rubbing chili peppers on one’s head won’t stop testosterone from converting to DHT (and the DHT is what causes genetic hair loss in men). I would think it might make their hair fall out rather than regrow it, but I really do not have enough knowledge about this. If you send me the reference, it might help me research the quality of the study better.

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