Category: Hair Loss Causes

Dear Dr Rassman,

I am a male, 45 years of age. My question is – I have had two transplants and the results are not that great because I have fine hair, which was very thick in the past. I have been suffering from anxiety and depression for 20 years plus and I am currently taking prozac. Will my illness cause my transplanted hair to fall out? there is history of family hair loss.

There are many variables that can impact hair growth, including the drug Prozac (fluoxetine) that you’re taking. Depression can also cause hair loss, as you’re aware. Usually though, transplanted hairs are more resistant to hair loss than the genetically impacted hair which will more readily die off with stress in some people.

In other words, as long as your transplanted hair was taken from the permanent donor area, I would not expect it to fall out.

some of my hair have turned grey or white. i have noticed that all the hairs I lose are black, and not a single grey hair falls out. Would you say that if hair turns grey they wont fall out?

That’s an interesting observation, but I really don’t know. Melanin (eumelanin is the type of melanin) is what produces the black hair color, and when it is lost in aging, the hair turns gray. It only impacts hair color, not the hair follicle itself.

Hi, i’m 22 and i’ve always had a high hairline but i’ve noticed that it moved up slightly lately. When I was about 18/19 I started to notice maybe between 5-10 hairs would come off in my hand when I was shampooing my hair. i’ve always had an extremely thick head of hair and still do so i’m thinking this could be normal and just the hair finishing its cycle hopefully.

I checked the last wrinkle on my forehead and noticed that my hair line has moved up maybe half an inch or less from the last wrinkle and my current hairline runs in the exact same shape as the highest wrinkle. I always check for miniature hairs and couldn’t find any obviously examples of any, maybe 1 or 2 hairs at the front of my hairline were slightly thinner but all were the same length.

In terms of family history on my fathers side of the family they all have my same extremely thick black hair and no one on the that side of the family have ever went bald, father is 53 and his got a full head of hair with no greying. on my mom’s side of the family all my uncles still have good hair and they’re in their 50-60 age group, grandfather that side still has a good head of hair into his 80’s. Only one cousin I can think of in my whole extended family has a receding hairline and he is about 35.

Should I consult a doctor or wait for further signs of hair loss?

It’s normal to lose hair in the shower, as the water can dislodge some of the trapped hair (from hairspray or other styling agents) that would’ve fallen out throughout the day as part of the normal hair cycling process. That part doesn’t sound unusual to me.

If your hairline is moving up, that could either be the maturation (normal process) of the hairline or it could be genetic hair loss. There’s really no way for me to know that just based on reading your email. If you’re concerned, get a consult with a doctor that can measure your hair bulk so that you can have a metric to compare to in another year.

Snippet from the article:

To evaluate its association with environmental factors, the researchers at Chung-Ang examined 3,114 Koreans with androgenetic alopecia who attended dermatology clinics between March 2011 and February 2012. Then dermatologists evaluated the patients using a questionnaire to ascertain the perceptible duration of hair loss and personal factors including family history, disease and medication history, and drinking and smoking habits. They also medically classified the hair loss based on shape and density of the hair.

The research showed that the men in the “both the drinking and smoking” group tended to have more severe hair loss. In female patients, however, they found no association, probably due to the relatively small number of the women in the smoking and drinking group.

“The mechanisms by which smoking causes hair loss may be multi-factorial. Cigarette smoking may be deleterious to the microvasculature of the dermal hair papilla and to the DNA of the hair follicle itself,” noted the research.

Read the rest — Drinking, smoking aggravating hair loss

You can see the full results as published in Clinical and Experimental Dermatology — An epidemiological study of androgenic alopecia in 3114 Korean patients.

The survey included 1883 males and 1231 female patients in South Korea, and looked at eating, sleeping, alcohol, and smoking habits. It’s an interesting survey, but I’ve noticed that many (if not most) men I see at my clinic do not smoke cigarettes, yet they are balding.

If the study finds that smoking and drinking can worsen hair loss, then maybe this is a good thing. Perhaps it will get some people to stop smoking and drinking in excess, even with the previously established health risks.

Female to male transgender question:

My dad’s family has male-pattern baldness. My mom’s family is unknown whether their side does or not. I think they do looking at my great-grandpa, but her father is in prison and I’ve never seen him.

Does taking testosterone make you have male pattern baldness?

If you have a genetic makeup for balding, then I suppose taking testosterone, an androgen, can cause male pattern baldness (androgenic alopecia).

Hello,

I am experiencing loss in hair on both my eyebrows. I’ve done a lot of research on the internet and it all leads to the “castor oil” solution. I was wondering if you think it is safe to try that solution or if you can recommend me any others. I’m becoming more conscious of my eyebrow problem and hope to find a solution.

Thank You

You can try it, but I doubt it will work. I’m not sure why someone would think castor oil will grow hair on the eyebrows or scalp. With respect to safety, I would just point out some common sense stuff, like to not get the oil in your eyes. If you are going to try it, you should take some good before and after pictures… which, by the way, I don’t think anyone has.

One way for addressing eyebrow hair loss that works very well is hair transplantation to the eyebrows.