Category: Hair Loss Causes

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Hair Loss InformationRecapeen, FUE Plus & Lasers for Hair Loss? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

As creators of the FUE method, I presume you know what the FUE Plus method is? There is a clinic in my country that claims to have been able to boost the traditional FUE method by using a smaller tools when inserting the transplanted hair. (1) They claim that the increase in density is miraculously high, but still the improvement is impressive. Do you know more about this? (2) A new hairloss treatment called Recapeen, has been realeased. The “engine” in this package claims to be the unique pollen extract the substance is full of. Comments? And finally, 3) What is the strongest reason why to spend money on a hairtransplant rather then a laser treatment?

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I looked at the site referred to in your question. There is not enough information for me to judge what FUE plus is. When I purchase a bottle of shampoo and the company comes up with a new version of the shampoo they may add the term ‘plus’ to the name. The detergent market for washing clothes, made the most popular product in the early 1900s. That product was ‘Tide’. Then as they were improving the product, sales did not rise fast enough, so they came up with New Tide. The adjective NEW turned out to be the most popular advertising word in capitalistic history. Everyone came up with a product and then made up a NEW version of that product. I, knowing this, called my company the New Hair Institute and purchased the phone number 800-NEW-HAIR before anyone else thought of it. I was, at the time, an old fashioned marketing person, so NEW did it for me. The modern iteration of this is the term PLUS. I guess, if you did not invent FUE, then the best way to grab onto market presence is to invent FUE Plus, or at least the name. I respect the marketing brain that thought of it. The choice of doctors, of course, should have little to do with PLUS or NEW, but rather who you can trust to do the FUE on your head. Experience and judgments are critical to this choice and you sound (at times) like you are making such choices.

I did look at Recapeen and see that this miracle cure is listed with many other such potions and lotions on the respective websites. If Recapeen worked so well, one might ask why other products are listed there? I call it good marketing and diversification of strategies. Spread out well, and more people will get some part of the message. What are you really looking for?

I agree with you that hair transplants should be obsolete if these miracles worked, but then again, first I would want to see the studies and the scientific evidence that it works, because I am a cautious buyer. Every day that you chase the magical cure for balding is another day that you will continue to lose hair and progress further down the pattern of hair loss buried in your genetic cards.

With regard to laser treatments click here Low Laser Light Therapy for Hair Loss for more details.

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Hair Loss InformationHerbs, Vitamins, Potions, Fava Beans, & Hair Loss – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

After going through this web site and reading your blog comments, I have come to believe that you are closed minded and inflexible when it comes to using homeopathic, natural herbs and other natural remidies for treating hair loss. Are you just unwilling to show flexibility and open mindedness?

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Natural supplements and homeopathic medicine may be a great alternative means to treat a condition or an ailment. Unfortunately, these supplements are not well regulated by the FDA, so claims that are made can not be often substantiated, except by rumor mills and word of mouth communications that tend to praise the remedies more than criticize them. You can’t truly know what chemicals are included in the supplements that may have been used to process the product that you are buying. What the FDA calls Good Manufacturing Processes (GMP) may not be adhered to with food, naturopathic herbs, or potions and lotions sold over the counter in natural food stores. Furthermore, these products may not be covered in the regulatory process that confirms the dosages and the purity of such product, including the safety and efficacy of them. The research and studies that show efficacy are often funded by the manufacturers of the supplements which may bias the reported results. Finally the proper dosage for such products seem arbitrary. Just because the friendly neighborhood natural food outlet, their sales rep, or a salesman in a white lab coat can attest to its efficacy, does not mean that these are safe and/or effective.

For example, Vitamin A is one of the few vitamins that when taken in high doses, can cause hair loss. I have read that this vitamin is recommended for hair loss, so many people think that if a little is good, more may be better. In the case of Vitamin A, excess doses (overdoses) can cause death, so who cares about hair loss when you overdosed on this vitamin? Vitamin C, when taken in low doses is an antioxidant that theoretically prevents heart disease, but when taken in high doses (according to a UCLA published study) it accelerates coronary atherosclerosis (heart disease). Saw Palmetto, which is believed to be a DHT blocker for the treatment of hair loss, may compete with Propecia for the enzyme block that stops DHT production, making it less effective. What is not commonly known, however, is that Saw Palmetto was used by the military in WWII as a sex drive reducer for our troops. It was added to our soldier’s food supply. In studies performed by an independent agency, the dose of Saw Palmetto varied widely by the manufacturers. As such, some people get poor response from the drug as a DHT blocker (it is a weak blocker) while others get sexual side effects, reducing a man’s sex drive as the dose is possibly too high.

Kava is a widely used herb root in Polynesia that can be used to treat anxiety. There are case reports that this herbal supplement has caused liver failure that eventually led to a liver transplant as a life saving procedure, when used on someone who could not tolerate it. Did she lose hair? Possibly so. As part of our medical education, doctors learn that fava beans are harmless, yet they can cause death in very small quantities in those people who carry a rare genetic defect . People who carry a defect in the enzyme glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, can not process the fava bean toxin. This toxin then poisons the red blood cells of the body. This is a genetic defect passed from mother to child. In the Mediterranean, where fava beans long have been a dietary staple and where the genetic mutation is more common than in the U.S., physicians frequently test children for the enzyme deficiency. The fava bean’s effect on hair loss is not as well known but on a positive side, look at the statement made by Hannibal Lecter in the movie “Silence of the Lambs” who recommended it by saying: “A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.” I guess that Hannibal Lecter did not have the enzyme defect I just discussed and it made his meal memorable.

The question I am posing here in answer to your somewhat caustic challenge to me, is that I tend to protect my patients from the unknown. When I do not know something as a fact, I might ask myself: “How many undocumented side effects or enzyme defects float around that are either caused by natural herbs that could threaten a person’s health or life that are not researched or understood?” Arsenic is a natural substance used historically to treat syphilis, but as I have said before, I would not recommend arsenic as an alternative to penicillin, which is safe and well tested (also FDA regulated through GMP standards) and accepted world-wide.

The answer to this blog entry was partly written by Jae Pak, M.D., an emergency room physician with great interests in hair loss and hair surgery. He has worked with me for almost 9 years.

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Maturing Hairline at 18 Years Old – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hey doc, I’m 18 years old and I have long wavy hair. I’ve noticed that my hairline is receding in the front…more so on the right side and a few small bald circular spots in the front. My dad is in late 50’s and he has a head full of thick hair while my mom is in her 40’s and is showing signs of baldness. However, she is constantly stressed out about various issues so I’m not too sure if its heridetary. My grand-dad passed away in his 50’s and he was balding. I tried shaving my head before and i look absolutely horrible! Is there anything I can do to promote the regrowth of my hairline? I am not exactly the Brad Pitt look-alike and my hair was the only thing I had! Are there any new treatments under development and on the market that can do something about this dire issue? Thanks for your help.

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What you are reporting is the maturation of your hair line, which occurs between the ages of 17-29 in most caucasian men. The corners rise about 1 to 1 1/2 inches and the center rises about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch. To see if this rise is normal, look into the mirror and lift your eyebrows up. There is a high crease, which reflects the top of the Frontalis Muscle, the place that hairline transition zone usually starts in boys and most women. As caucasian men go through an aging process (I like the term maturing process) where the hairline rises as discussed above, but for many non-caucasian men, the hairline is flatter and does not rise as far in the corners or not at all. If you have sisters, have them lift their eyebrows and look at that crease and you will see hair just touching that crease. This is a normal male process and nothing to be concerned about, provided that it does not rise higher than the measurements I just referenced. If it does, or if a doctor examines you and determines that you have miniaturization (too many fine hairs behind the mature, adult hairline location), then you may have early male patternedgenetic balding and the best drug to slow or prevent hair loss is Propecia. I have seen many wonderful, miraculous results from this drug in young men. Propecia has been on the market for about 7 years and it is safe. My son, many members of my family, and I take this drug and none of us has defined any negative side effect, sexual or otherwise.

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Hair Loss InformationHair Not Growing Back After Chemotherapy – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Dr. Rassman,
I am a woman who finished an intense bout of chemotherapy and radiation about a year and a half ago. Since then most of my hair has grown back on the sides and back of the head. The center top and crown is still very bald. My dermatologist says it is a typical female balding pattern. Can you give me feedback on this subject? Is it possible I could be a candidate for hair transplants? Thank you.

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Your dermatologist sounds correct. Some women develop patterned loss, which is less common than unpatterned loss. Hair transplants work better in patterned loss, assuming that your donor hair is adequate in quantity and quality. If there is diffuse thinning in the sides and back, you may not have enough supply for a transplant. A good assessment by a competent hair surgeon will give you insights into your supply for quality hair transplants.

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Gap in Moustache – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

i used to pluck my moustache when i sit to watch tv and now there is a big gap left. Will it grow back or do i have do something else. Please advise and mail me.

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It sounds like you have developed traction alopecia from the plucking of your moustache hair. People who pluck out the hair have a type of OCD (Obsessive Compusive Disorder) with a condition we call trichotelomania. Hair transplants work well for solving the ‘gap’ you are referring to, assuming that you have stopped plucking out your hair. Many people do grow out of the plucking problem as they get older.

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Hair Loss InformationHair Evolution (by Dr. Richard Shiell) – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

A wise sage in the field of hair restoration is Dr. Richard Shiell, from Australia. He was kind enough to allow me to use some random thoughts on some evolutionary aspects regarding hair evolution in the human species. This was part of an email interchange between Dr. Shiell and others in the hair restoration community. I personally always find his scope of knowledge and his wisdom quite insightful.

Hair certainly traps warmth in winter and acts as an insulator from the sun in summer but is this why we have it on our heads? It is very much like the question of “what came first- the dinosaur or it’s egg” (birds evolved from a small species of dinosaur).

Do hairy people migrate to geographical regions where they feel more comfortable or do people with more body hair have an evolutionary advantage and better breeding potential in colder climates? Does this also explain why native tropical races have very little body hair? Neither of these points explains why the females of homo sapiens have very little body hair, whatever their “race”.

The Tasmanoids who were the first of the homo sapien groups to come to Australia about 50,000 years ago had curly/kinky African type hair and very little beard growth or body hair. Did they elect to go to Tasmania, which is colder than the mainland or were they pushed there by subsequent migrating groups known by their bone structure as the “Robustus” group (20-30,000 years ago). The current native Aborigines with their big beards and skinny limbs are known as the “Gracile” Australoids. They have been here since before the last ice age melted some 10,000 years ago. Early photos of these Australian mainland aborigines (before interbreeding with white settlers) showed that they had massive beard growth, no baldness and very little body hair, perfect for a hot climate. The three separate races were all presumed to come from where Indonesia is today and to have walked across when sea levels were much lower during the various ice ages in the past 100,000 years. America’s first humans arrived the same way across what is now the Bering sea.

“Global warming” (and cooling) is nothing new and it is the speed of the current warming and whether human interference with nature is contributing to the warming, that is causing so much concern at present. I will stay out of that debate as it is highly political and results of “scientific research” is being used freely and wantonly by both sides! I hope that we can keep politics and religion out of the current hair debate but suspect that matters of sex will be difficult to avoid.

I used to tell my kids to take notes at the beach. When you saw a guy with a hairy back and shoulders he would invariably have a bald head or a hairpiece. This holds true most of the time but there are occasional exceptions indicating that the gene for hairy back and shoulders must be close to the one for type 6 baldness but is indeed a separate gene. Both characteristics are responsive to DHT as we know but while it acts like a fertilizer for scalp hair it causes reduction of shoulder hair in many guys.

Humans seem to have had an obsession with scalp hair since the dawn of recorded history. I guess it acts as a source of sexual attraction to the females of the species like the tail feathers of the male members of the peacock and bower birds families. It is not as all-pervading in humans as it is with birds where the bower-bird male with poor display misses out on the ‘action” almost completely. Consequently the tail feathers have evolved to enormous sizes. Human males can start breeding long before they lose their hair so it gives them a chance to get established in a family unit and as a provider before this sexually attractive feature is lost.

Almost any anatomical feature can be singled out by the opposite sex as a source of sexual attraction. The labia majora were naturally enlarged in the African Hottentot women and the women enlarged them further by dangling weight from both sides to form what was known by the early white settlers as the “Hottentot Apron”. It is not recorded if the white males found them equally attractive but after 6 months in the outback of South Africa, I guess they started to look pretty good !!

In turkeys the combs and throat skin has developed to crazy proportions and of course the posteriors of some species of monkeys are grotesquely red and enlarged. The nearest example of prominent hair growth in mammals that I can think of would be the mane of the male lion. Judging by the shampoo advertisements on TV and in the glossy magazines, hair is still a potent source of sexual attraction in homo sapiens.

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How Bald Should I Be Before a Transplant? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I am a 25 year old male, and I am probably a Norwood III Vertex. Most of the balding is at the crown, but now the front is getting thin as well. My father is completely bald, Norwood 6 I guess.

I have a feeling I’ll end up like him or close to it. I have been on Rogaine and Propecia since I was 19, and 21, respectively. They may be slowing down the balding process, but it is still gradually worsening.

Do you recommend waiting until I’m totally bald like my father, before considering a procedure? What is your best advice for me? Thank you.

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At the age of 25, it is not unreasonable to consider hair transplantation to restore the corners of your hairline. The key is to develop a good Master Plan with a doctor who will know how far to push it and not to be too radical. Any crown loss that is transplanted in someone of your age with your pattern, may not be a good medical decision. It sounds like you have done well with the Propecia, so it is not unreasonable to put the corners back and expect that Propecia will allow you the enjoyment of hair for much of your youth. Your worst case, of course, is your father’s hair loss pattern, but provided that you stick to transplanting the front only and that your hair is healthy and of adequate densities, you will never look abnormal and should join the choirs of men your age who want to maintain their youthful look. Generally, I do not recommend hair transplants in men under 25, but there are always exceptions to that general rule.

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Acne Related to Hair Loss? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hi Dr. Rassman,
I have a hair loss problem for you. I’m 25 yrs old and started to notice that my hair is thinning & my hair volume is decreasing. I first started to notice is that I keep dropping a lot of hair during washing,drying & combing of my hair. Lots & lots of strands of hair can be found on the floor, my hands & the floor. I think more than 100 strands of hair had dropped per day. I compared my recent photo with photos I took some time back & I really do notice that my hair had thinned a lot. This have been continuing for quite some time already & does not seem to be stopping.

I sleep late almost every night & skip my meals at times. Recently I also have some acne problems on my face as well. Could the acne problem & hair loss be related & is there anyway I can stop this hair problem of mine. I’m worried & saddened by this hair loss problem. Thank you for the attention.

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I am not sure if you are taking any acne medications, but some of those medications do have hair loss as a known side effect. Both acne and hair loss reflect the hormonal influences in young people. For the hair loss issue, Propecia works to block the DHT (hormone) effect. On a humorous note, both hair loss and acne can be successfully treated for men by removing the testicles, but few are willing to go there, me included. We cherish our manliness, so the cost of that manly appearance, unfortunately for those with acne, is a process that may required good medical care until it gets under control or abates with time.

We lose about 100-150 hairs each day and restart growing the same number of hairs, I have little doubt, based upon what you said, that you are experiencing hair loss, made worse by worry and stress. You should consider Propecia, but a good doctor must be your first point of starting a comprehensive search for solutions that work. Do the right thing by starting with a good doctor. Don’t mess with your future.

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Triangular Alopecia – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Dear Doctor Rassman,
I am 20 years old. I want to know something more about triangular alopecia. My temples are receded about 1.5 inch. I have also genetic hair loss in bitemporal area and also in vertex (or at least it is what the doctors said). My father has lost also all of his temple hair including the hairline and the top, but nobody else in my family lost his temples hair, even though everybody has genetic hair loss. In addition I want to say that my temple hair is changed. Above the ear it is thicker than before but with less hair count, curly (it was not) and with a slower growth. Can it be part of genetic hair loss or it is genetic and something else in the same time? I have tried many doctors in Vienna, but I was not satisfied. When I ask about Propecia thay said: “It is not for you, it is for old men”. There is a clinic, Moser Medical, with some doctor of ISHRS but from the emails that I sent to them, they seemed more commercial than helpful. Can you tell me something about my condition? Thank you for your time and for this website.

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Triangular alopecia is a condition of hair loss which impacts the anterior temple area on either or on both sides. It may not be a complete loss of the temple hair, at times showing an atypica or asymetrical pattern, even to the point where a little residual tuft may be present on one side and no problem on the other side. It can affect either men or women and it is not necessarily part of the genetic balding process we commonly see, which produces balding in other parts of the scalp. It is probably another inherited process and hair transplantation is the best approach to treating it.

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Sudden Hair Loss in 21 Year Old – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hi Dr. Rassman,
I was hoping you could help me with some suggestions or information on what is going on. I recently began losing a lot of hair suddenly. However, the really weird thing is that a lot of my hair (maybe 50 to 70%) of it has a white hard mucus type of substance that can be scraped off from the end of the hair(maybe its the actual skin from the scalp or the hair follicle or something?) Is this normal because i really feel like its not?!?!?! I’m freaking out here because im so young (21 years old) and it came on so sudden and i dont know if every hair that falls out with that stuff means that it will never grow back again, and maybe there is something i can do to stop it???? I’m really scared here, if you guys could help with any suggestion or what you think it is, i would forever be in debt to you. Thank you so much.

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You are panicking and that is not a good way to evaluate something as serious as your hair loss seems to be. Clearly, a good doctor knowing hair and scalp problems will be able to diagnose your problem. I can only guess without having you in front of me and that would not be doing your any service. My suggestion is to see a good dermatologist in your area.