Category: Hair Loss Causes

Hi i am 21 years of age and i am thinning quite badly in the front. I was wondering if you could tell me about the effects of exercise on DHT?

Also more importantly my hair on the back and sides is becoming incredibly dark and thick. It will not grow much beyond 1/2 inch and is impossible to style etc because of this. it is very dark compared with the rest of my hair. is it normal to have this extent of thickening in the non-MPB areas of the head?

Thanks

Usually, with the thickness of hair around the back and sides of the head (when compared with thinning hair in the front for those who have genetic hair loss), the issue is one of contrast. I suspect that it is not that the hair is getting thicker around the back and sides of the head, but maybe you are getting thinner in the front. You need to get your hair mapped out for miniaturization to find out exactly what is happening to you.

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You recommended a Dr. in Oakland’s site for hairline lowering. On his site I saw a procedure called the Juri Hair Flap.

Sounds too good to be true, 4 weeks and you have all your hair back. Can you tell me more about it?

The Juri flap has been out of favor for some years now. The inventor has apologized for this surgical procedure, and to me that says a great deal. In the old days (prior to 1992 or so), there were many radical procedures for treating hair loss and most have been abandoned today in favor of follicular unit hair transplantation, which has a very low complication rate and a very high patient acceptance. The Juri flap points the hair in the wrong direction (to the sides and backwards) and when balding progresses, it leaves a big hole in the balding area, which is hard to cover. For advanced balding (nobody can ever tell where they will end up) the look is quite bizarre. I spoke to Dr. Kabaker (the Oakland doctor you asked about) and he does not recommend them today for balding but may use this technique in rare circumstances such as: accidents, people who lose parts of the scalp, severe but localized burns to the scalp, etc..

For more about the Juri Hair Flap, see Dr. Kabaker’s site — Kabaker.com

Dear Doc,
I have been experiencing hairloss for the past 8 months. I still have a good amount of hair it’s just become alot thinner. My problem is that on my right side about 4cm above my ear I have a patch that has gone extremely thin. It’s not bald but it looks as if someone has got a pair of clippers and shaved a chunk of my hair hair off – it looks rather odd. The other side is fine. Why do think this has happened? Thanks.

Some people have a different genetic trait in the area above the ears. It is usually on both sides and frequently present for a long time. There are a variety of hair conditions that can cause patchy hair loss or thinning. You need to see a good dermatologist for an examination and an opinion. You should also get your hair mapped out for miniaturization to see if this is happening in other parts of your scalp.

Have you ever heard of tomato consumption causing hair loss?

No, I have never heard that before.

Here are some interesting facts about tomatoes that I’ll repost from Epersimmons.com:

Hi Doc

I have been having recurrent hair loss since i was 18 (now 23). It starts with a pimple which doesn’t itch but the area is tender with fine hairs at the bottom of my head also around the hairline.

Infected cysts can cause hair loss (sometimes temporary and sometimes permanent). Your history is too sketchy to make much sense out of it for me. You need to have a doctor examine these ‘pimples’ to see if this is acne or something else.

I have already lost more than half the hairs on the top of my head. I have been reading on your blog, that it is normal to lose up to 100 hairs a day. However, given my current state of hair loss, does the number of “normal” hairs to lose decrease? In other words, since I have lost half the hairs on my head already, should I only be concerned now if I lose more than 50 hairs a day?? I ask this question largely because I am about to start taking Propecia and I want to guage an idea of what kind of benefits I can hope for. Thank you!

While it is normal to lose 100 hairs a day, there should be 100 other hairs growing at other parts of your head to replace the lost hairs. It is just difficult to find the growing hairs and easy to see the falling hairs. If you are bald and have lost 50% of the hair population, then you will cycle about 50 hairs per day, not 100, and that is what you will see on your pillow (if all of the hair loss was at night when you slept).

If you have considerably thinned and are still losing hair (100 or 50 or 20 hairs a day), you may have hair loss that is genetic in nature (male pattern hair loss). If this is the case and you are worried about this, you may consider having your scalp hair mapped for miniaturization to see the pattern and state of your hair health.

I have male pattern baldness, yet I have thousands of tiny translucent hairs on my scalp. They are short, and do not seem to grow much, if any. When light is shinning from behind me the hairs are very noticable and people look shocked, as I look bald when no back light is present. What are these hairs and why don’t they grow to full length? Have not been able to find anything written about these type of scalp hairs on the internet.

Congratulations! You are a polar bear. A polar bear’s fur is translucent despite its apparent white hue.

Kidding aside, what you are describing seems to be vellus hairs that commonly grow all over our body (look closely at your face… its all over — except for our palms and soles). These hairs are not like normal hair on the scalp and will not grow to normal scalp hair length, and in each follicular unit (which normally has 2-4 hairs normally) there is usually one vellus hair (which is not seen with the naked eye). When there are translucent hairs on the scalp that do not grow (instead of full pigmented hairs) then that is often seen in advanced balding/thinning. These hairs are usually miniaturized and do not grow normally as the genetic factors come into play. You should have your hair mapped out for miniaturization to find out what is going on.