Category: Hair Loss Causes

I was wondering if you could tell me if rust or the water pipes in my building could be causing some hair loss? My landlord snaked one of my drains and there was tons of organge disgusting water coming up. I have experienced unknown hair loss over the last few months and all of my blood work is normal. Iam trying to get to the cause of this. The building I live in is old. Any idea if this could be a cause?

One of the major causes of discolored water like you describe is rusty water pipes, but I doubt that it’s drainage that you are putting on your head. I do not know of hair loss side effects for this type of water, but it does produce stains on your sink/tub that are similar to hard water, which is loaded with minerals. If you have hard water, you will see that the shampoo you use does not create suds well. Yet, even hard water will not impact your hair as long as you treat it gently.

I am assuming that you are a male and if that is the case, you should get your hair mapped out for miniaturization to find out if you have genetic hair loss and stop worrying about your rusty pipes being the cause of your thinning hair. At the very least, I’d let the water run until it clear water comes out, because if you’re showering in rust, that’s not very hygienic and your landlord should take care of that for you.

Dr Rassman,

I know that I am in a completely different country, but your website has been extremely useful for when i need some reliable information about hair loss. It would be great if you can answer my question.

I’m a 21 year old Asian male and for the last couple of years i was a Norwood II, but about 6 months ago, I had an extremely stressful University examination period. A month after the exams were over I noticed that the front of my hairline was thinning, and a month after that, my hairline had receded about a cm. From then on I’ve just been obsessing about my hairline, wondering if its just the stress causing the rapid hairline recession, if I’m heading towards Norwood III and wondering if the hair in that area would ever grow back. There is some miniturisation at the front of the hairline and some at the temples.

Any information would be a great help

Thank you.

Without mapping out your hair for miniaturization, I really couldn’t tell you if what you experienced is the normal progression to a mature hairline or just early balding. I’m hoping you’ve already read this post about the mature hairline, but you need an honest doctor to give you an opinion that can only be rendered after an examination.

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Two months ago my thick eyebrows started to fall out rapidly after I applied some castor oil to them for 2 weeks. Yet, at the same time new ones started growing out. A doctor determined seborrhoeic dermatitis so I started using ketoconazole shampoo. The shampoo only makes the eyebrow flaking worse and I noticed my face became much more oily. My condition worsens if my skin becomes particularly oily and improves when it’s drier. I’m not sure if it’s connected to the weather or diet somehow. I’m thinking of returning back to my basic dandruff shampoo because I can’t see any long-term improvement.

Can you give me some advice? Thank you

Castor oil is a trick many women use to make the eyebrows appear thicker and eyelashes grow longer, but I’ve read some unverified claims on the web that it can cause eyelash loss. The same may be true for eyebrows. I don’t know all of the beauty secrets out there, and this was new to me.

Did your doctor recommend you start using the ketoconazole shampoo? Was it over-the-counter (1% ketoconazole) or the prescription strength (2%)? Regardless, if you’re not seeing improvement from that shampoo (and it’s making your face oilier), I’d think you’d want to switch shampoos. Without examining you I can not tell what you have. I’d rely on your doctor at another visit. Sorry it’s not much advice, but you’re in a physician’s care that has the benefit of being able to examine you in person and form a medical history, something I can’t do based on one email.

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Dear Doctor

I would like to ask some questions about stress and hair loss. I know from reading your blog that stress can contribute to hair loss, well what kind of stress do you mean here? is it the normal daily stress that a person may suffer? or is the a kind of heavy or emotional stress? does it have to last for a couple of weeks or months in order to accelerate hair loss? i mean what if a person gets heavy stress that lasts only for 2 or 3 days, would it still contribute to hair loss??

I wish you can answer my questions soon. Thank you

We all have normal stress in our lives. The stress I generally mean with respect to hair loss is major stress — physical or emotional — such as a major illness where you are in the hospital for several weeks/months or major stress of extreme depression for several months where it starts to impact your physical health. Some people do not handle stress well, so many college age men lose their hair from the stresses of college. Also keep in mind heavy stress will also manifest with other health issues aside from just hair loss. Knowing that you are balding can cause more stress, which will accelerate the balding process. Sometime, it seems some men can’t win.

Heavy stress for a few days or few weeks should not cause hair loss. Remember, the most common cause of hair loss in men is genetic balding.

Hello
male/20/GA/caucasian
i have very thick hair and rich hair. but about two months ago i got a buzz cut (my hair at that time must have been about three inches or more). the barber did it very quickly though. there was no blood or irritation at the time. however when my hair started growing back a few weeks later i noticed a few irregular small patches and patterns on my scalp, on which there was no hair. i don’t see any scar marks either, it’s just that after the haircut i have not seen hair there after that haircut. do you think hair will regrow in those patches eventually?

If you have patches of bald areas after the close clipping and your scalp was not damaged by your stylist (you would’ve felt it), these patches may have just been revealed by the clipping, not caused by it. You should see a doctor for a diagnosis or send me photos, and maybe I can help (reference this post when sending).

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Hi doctor Rassman! I am a male 18 years old and don’t have any signs of hairloss as of now. I have thick coarse long hair (To My Shoulders in BAck)

My question is:

You say the “average person” loses 100 strands of hair per day, but for someone like me with very thick coarse hair, would that mean that i could shed more than someone with “average” or thin hair? I may be obsessed but I count hair strands evryday from morning til night and always end up between the sixty to eighty range. but i probably miss “some” throughout the day but the count is always consistent.

Thank you i really hope you are able to answer this question! And thank you for your site!

I would think 60 to 80 hairs, plus or minus a few, is a very normal range of hair loss per day. Thick hair might appear like more hair shed then fine hair. In other words, this does not mean you are going bald. Having thick or thin or coarse or flimsy hair does not mean you will lose more or less hair.

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I’ve been reading more of the news items about yesterday’s publication of the two studies in Nature Genetics, and pulled some key quotes from various news sites that are worth highlighting.

From the BBC —

“Analysis of DNA from 5,000 volunteers with and without male-pattern baldness found two stretches of the genome linked with the condition.”

“One was the androgen receptor gene and has already been linked to male-pattern baldness. The other region is on chromosome 20 and is nowhere near any known gene.”

We’ve long known that genes were responsible for hair loss, but now they’ve finally been identified.

—

From the Scotsman —

“Until now, the only known genetic link with male baldness was on the female chromosome, meaning it could be passed down to men from their mother’s father.”

“Dr Richards said so far they had only identified a cause of hair loss.”

In other words, the cure isn’t here and this is still the very early stage, so don’t cancel your hair transplant just yet.

—

From the Wall Street Journal —

But dermatologists say that looking at hair shafts under a microscope can spot shrinkage years before it’s apparent. “We can pick it up when kids are teenagers,” says Robert Bernstein, founder of Bernstein Medical Center for Hair Restoration, a treatment clinic in New York. He agrees that medication can slow hair loss only if it isn’t too advanced. Once an area is devoid of hair, only a transplant can restore it.

This is what I’ve been talking about all along — mapping your scalp for miniaturization.

I was sent this fluff piece that really doesn’t dig into anything other than reminding me that today is “Be Bald and Be Free” day. The article from the Examiner is about professional golfers that are losing their hair, and the writer states:

Looking at mug shots in the PGA Tour media guide, I count 21 baldies – not including a surgically enhanced Woods – among 311 players listed in the publication.

That’s only 7 percent, compared to the 40-to-50 percent of the male population who are bald or balding. (Estimates vary, depending on age parameters, definition of baldness and what studies you believe. However, I did learn in my research that castration is the only cure for baldness and neither masturbation nor wearing hats causes hair loss.)

Tiger Woods had a hair transplant? He wears a hat so often, as many golfers do, that I never noticed.

But back to the Be Bald and Be Free day — Holiday Insights says, “Bald and Free Day honors those of us with a beautiful, shiny top. You don’t have to be bald to celebrate this day. But, it helps. People who are married to, or related to a bald headed person can celebrate with the honoree.”

I’m enjoying a big slice of Be Bald and Be Free Day cake and our Be Bald and Be Free flag is proudly presented in our office, in honor of those fallen follicles. Sorry, I got carried away.

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