Category: Hair Loss Causes

Hello Dr. Rassman.
After reading about the 26 year-old who had questions about his hair loss, possibly due to drinking & smoking. I am a 32 y/o white male in the same boat, except I don’t smoke. My hairline over the past year or so seems to be receeding more now than ever. I am wondering if indeed one’s hair loss is due to their drinking, if they stop drinking, would the hair possibly grow back, or is it too late? Thank you!

Drinking alcohol should not produce hair loss unless your diet is deficient. I would look for genetic causes for hair loss by getting your hair mapped out for miniaturization to determine the cause of your hair loss.

Generally for a male, if the hair loss is precipitated by poor diet, it is most likely accelerating the genetic process and probably will not reverse. That said, for females, there is a good possibility that correction of the diet will help with the hair loss.

Hello Dr Rassman,

I am a regular reader of this blog, and really appreciate your efforts in educating all of us. I am a 37 year old male with thinning hair. However, I have thick body hair on my chest and back. Given this I have the following questions:

1. Is the body hair different from scalp hair in its structure/chemistry even though they look pretty much the same?
2. Wouldn’t the nutritional need for body hair be no different from scalp hair?
3. Can I possibly rule out nutritional deficiencies/imbalances.

Would really appreciate your clarification.

thanks

Body and chest hair is different than scalp hair in thickness, rate of growth, and the different hair cycles that determine how long they will grow. Think about it — do you regularly get a body/chest haircut?

The most common hair loss in men is genetic hair loss. Nutritional deficiencies/imbalance are probably the lowest on the list for the causes of hair loss, particularly for most well-fed men.

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Stress is acknowledged to accelerate MPB. My question is how much stress would it take to increase hair loss to a noteable degree. Would everyday stress, for example the stress in which everybody would at least arrive at in work or home cause an acceleration or when you mean stress do you mean a really long drawn out period of total stress. What is responsible in stress which causes acceleration in MPB, raised testosterone?

Medicine is a descriptive science, and the observations that stress contributes to hair loss is something we have observed. I do not believe everyday anxiety (being late for work, for example) is stressful enough to cause hair loss, but I also do not know how to calculate the degree of stress a person has in their lives. People tell me that they’ve noticed their hair falling out with divorce and other severe relationship or family problems, financial problems, and so on. These are the types of long, drawn out stresses that can cause hair loss. If you think about the saying “I’m pulling my hair out” that many people use when under pressure, that describes the stress people are talking about.

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Hello docs,
My question is pretty simple: can your hair begin miniaturizing at different times? For example: let’s say you start losing your hair in the vertex area first; then, maybe a few years later you start thinning in the crown area as well? Does this just mean that your body is playing catch-up, or does it mean that the end result is total loss in one area versus partial in another?

We do not bald symmetrically, so your observations are correct. The patterned hair loss which everyone references generally does not occur uniformly. Miniaturization varies by part of the scalp and the genetic patterns you inherit. Although most hair loss is started with signs of miniaturization, sometime this miniaturizing does not show and the hair loss occurs anyway. The time line for miniaturization and balding varies between people and can be erratic.

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Hi, you’ve stated that everyone responds differently to Propecia, but that it often works better in younger men (I assume in their very early 20’s) as a general rule since they’re mostly likely in the early stages of MPB. However, I believe you’ve also suggested that Propecia can only slow down the process for a younger man who may be headed towards a class 6 or even 7. Does this mean that only young men with a history of lower class balding on the Norwood scale in their family can have their hair loss stopped or even reversed with Propecia? Is it unrealistic to think that Propecia even has a remote chance of stopping hair loss in a 21 year old that has noticed some general thinning but has a father with a class 6 hair loss stage on the Norwood scale?

Thanks for your response in advance. Also, I wanted to compliment you on the website, it’s a great resource and I’ve enjoyed reading it.

Just because your father is a Norwood Class 6 patterned balder, does not mean that you will be that. You may have different expression of the gene or inherited it from another line on your father’s or mother’s side. Since we can not predict your pattern with certainty, slowing down the loss with Propecia (finasteride 1mg) makes common sense no matter what your final pattern will be. So instead of significant hair loss in your 20s, maybe you can push it back to your 40s. If you get your hair mapped out for miniaturization, then at some point your final hair loss pattern can be predicted and from such an examination you can establish a good Master Plan for your future with a competent, caring doctor.

There are no scars in the area but on the left side of my chin about 3 months ago I developed a bald spot about the size of a quarter. there are some very light hairs but not growing. Also I have developed smaller spots under the chin line. I am on no medication and my hair is a very dark brown.

These balding spots may be a sign of alopecia areata. This is NOT a diagnosis, just a possibility. You need to see a doctor (dermatologist) to get a real diagnosis.

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I have 2 small bald spots on my head where somebody hit me in the head with a wrench several times. It just happened 2 days ago but im wondering if it will grow back, it didnt just bleed it’s just red and i can still see the holes where the hair grows out of but my question is do you think it will grow back and if so how long

You were hit with a metal wrench not once, but SEVERAL times? Forget about the hair for a second — what about your brain? You should see a doctor to make sure you don’t have any lasting trauma or a concussion. Sometimes brain bleeding occurs slowly and may not be evident for days or weeks, so seeing a doctor is a good idea.

If you can try to not get hit on your head (particularly with wrenches) for several more months, you will know if your hair will grow back or not. At this point though, there is no way to tell.

I have come up with a solution for balding just kill all bald males in this world and by then at least there will be a signifcant of ppl who will inherit the genes. The method is slightly extreme but my logic is undenyable. As a proud former bald (thanks to revivogen which you so blantently knock great doctor… not) i say get rid of these hairless idiot so our children can just…….. live better lives, im sure you will find time to read this as you are not a real doctor thanks for your time

I wasn’t going to even bother posting this, as you’re either an unnecessarily angry moron or a just “hilarious” prankster. Hopefully you’re joking, but I’m posting this as a shocking reminder that prejudice and discrimination exists for hair loss. The ironic part is that you stated that you are a “former bald” — meaning you most likely carry the same genes for baldness that the men you want to eliminate have. Talk about self hate!

To give a positive slant to this ridiculous post — of interest, the American Indian has no history of balding and is the only race that has that unique distinction. Some have postulated that in the migration from Alaska (only this group of American Indians have no balding), that ethnic cleansing may be an explanation, but if that happened, it was part of a barbaric process in a primitive people. Your solution falls into this category.

Dr. Rassman:

In one of your replies to a question about Scalpmed, you stated that it is “normal” to lose 100-150 hairs per day. While this may be true for people with NW 0, it certainly is not the case
for NW2+. I would imagine that daily hair loss is PROPORTIONAL to the amount of hair left on the head. Your assertion is misleading and quite untrue.

Thank you

I’ve often said that a “normal” range of 100-150 hairs (sometimes even 200 hairs) are lost some days. While it is true that this is a generalization, the importance of a miniaturization (microscopic) examination of your scalp is all the more relevant if you believe you are losing more hair and not growing it back. For a man who lost 50% of his original hair, for example, the daily loss of hair will be half of the original daily cycling loss, reflecting the population of hairs that remain.

The one thing I stress most on this site is the importance of a miniaturization study and not just making assumptions based on the fixed number of falling hairs you may be seeing.