Category: Other

Worried about “shiny” scalp.

I have very very fine, wispy dirty blonde hair. However, in the sunlight, very often when I walk past a window I feel like I see so much scalp. I have an intact frontal hairline with a low-dipping widow’s peak and lose next to no hair in my brush or in the shower. The distribution of hair *feels* the same all over.

Does this just sound like paranoia? (I won’t go into the genetics question as that’s impossible to answer).

Yes, it sounds like paranoia. Many thin haired blonds have a see-through appearance where almost anyone can see their scalp in bright sunlight… especially if your hair is wet or is very fine and wispy as you describe.

Snippet from the article:

Gray hair is, along with premature balding, one of the greatest fears of image-conscious men and women everywhere, but it may soon be a thing of the past. Scientists at the Ito Lab at New York University’s Langone Medical Center have identified the proteins that cause gray hair, which could lead to an eventual cure.

Scientists have known for years that hair color is determined by the stem cells that guide the development of hair follicles working together with color-producing stem cells called melanocytes. Today, NYU researchers announced they had isolated the wnt protein, which serves to coordinate pigmentation between the two types of stem cells.

Read the rest — NYU Scientists Find Possible Cure for Gray Hair

Protein manipulations are getting closer and maybe what we learned from these rats will be available to humans in the future. Of course, we need assurances that it will be safe, so the breakthrough will have to grind through the FDA process… which might take years.

Snippet from the article:

[Yevgeniy “Eugene”] Vasin charged $300 an hour to treat Cotter at his San Jose office and her home. Doctors at UC San Francisco said she had MS and put her on a regimen of medication, but Vasin told her that was wrong. He suggested she cut her medicine intake by half and injected her with vitamins. The injections included Cerebrolysin, a drug used outside the United States to treat Alzheimer’s disease, as well as baldness treatment Proserin and vitamin B-12, prosecutors said.

Read the full story — San Jose man charged with pretending to be a doctor

I assume the article is referring to Procerin, a saw palmetto-based tablet (if there’s a “Proserin” out there, I’m unfamiliar with it). Now I won’t debate whether Procerin works as a hair loss treatment, since regular readers already know my stance on saw palmetto… but I’ve not known it to be a suitable treatment for multiple sclerosis. Perhaps this fake doctor confused MS with BPH.

Snippet from the article:

Bloomberg News (5/26, Blum) reported that the use of illegal drugs “in the US is estimated to have cost the economy more than $193 billion in 2007, according to a government study” released yesterday by the Department of Justice’s National Drug Intelligence Center. According to the study, “the cost of illegal drug use is comparable with diabetes, which a 2008 government study said cost more than $174 billion each year.”

Read the rest — Study: Illegal Drug Use Cost US Economy More Than $193 Billion In 2007

Although this is not about hair, this is a very important study that shows us what almost every American knows. I have posted it here because I have a large audience and this is clearly an important subject to all of us. We should care about the thousands of victims American policy seems to be enabling. By posting it here, maybe I will catch the attention of some important politician.

We have lost the war on drugs and spending more money on it makes no sense. In Mexico alone, 40,000 people have died this year as a result of our national policy on drugs. What is the value of those lives? The amount of money that is quoted here does not reflect the real costs of drugs in lives lost, lives ruined, or the results in direct and indirect crime.

I feel that this should become a political issue in our future political campaigns and we should have the opportunity to fix the problem by making many of these drugs legal and taxing them, just as we do for alcohol and cigarettes. The drug cartels can not compete with legalized drugs that are taxed and the money we generate can be invested in our failing economy. It’s about time that the US Government stopped enabling the criminal elements in our society.

Snippet from the article:

“I have no problem saying this, but I’m losing my hair,” Chris Evans, 29, admitted to E! News at Sunday’s MTV Movie Awards.

Unfortunately, that poses a slight problem for the actor, who signed up for three Captain America movies and three Avengers films. “The fear is this [role] can span 10 years so I can be doing this character until I’m 40,” he explained. “I’m supposed to be like this superior human. He can’t be balding. How horrible would it be if this superior man has male pattern baldness?”

Read the full story — Chris Evans Admits: “I’m Losing My Hair!”

I’m not seeing any hair loss in the photos I’ve seen of this young man, but I doubt he has much to fear anyway, as hair loss hasn’t stopped leading men from wearing wigs in the past (see Sean Connery, John Travolta, etc etc). Besides, I think Captain America wears a mask that covers the entire top of his head…

I seem to find this question posted in a lot of places around the internet but unfortunately I have not come across a clear response. It has been known that when a terminal hair is subjected to the miniaturization process, intermediate hairs can be found in the balding area. As a result, most men that are losing their hair may notice these thinner hairs in their comb and in the shower as they fall out.

My question is, do men that are not undergoing androgenic alopecia produce these intermediate hairs as well? I have personally noticed that I regularly lose intermediate hairs that are quite long (> 2 in.) but from non balding areas of the scalp. Is this is a sign that this region will soon be subjected to the balding process or can a normal non balding person also produce these intermediate hairs in noticeable amounts?

The follicular unit contains terminal hairs and vellus hairs. The vellus hairs (sometimes called peach fuzz) may not cycle at the same time as the terminal hairs, as they may be on a different cycle. Intermediate hairs seem to be hairs that are seen as the anagen process commences and these small, baby hairs can be seen independent of the full terminal hair. The intermediate hair may grow into full terminal hairs.

Snippet from the article:

These days, “snake oil” is synonymous with quackery, the phoniest of phony medicines. A “snake oil salesman” promises you the world, takes your money, and is long gone by the time you realize the product in your hands is completely worthless.

But get this: The original snake oil actually worked. Save this one for the next cocktail party; it will blow your friends’ minds.

Read the full story — How Snake Oil Got a Bad Rap (Hint: It Wasn’t The Snakes’ Fault)

I had thought “snake oil” was synonymous with “medical scam” in most of the world, but I still get emails from people in various parts of Asia that truly believe snake oil will cure what ails you and want to know where to buy it. Sorry, snake oil doesn’t regrow hair.

We’re off today to pay respect to the men and women who gave their lives for their country… also known as the unofficial start of summer, Memorial Day. We’ll be back tomorrow!

Snippet from a non-hair-loss article:

Pop a Tylenol and take a brisk walk for protection against prostate cancer? That’s what the findings of two new studies published this week suggest.

In the first study, published Monday in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, scientists found that men who took a daily dose of acetaminophen (Tylenol) for five years had a 38% lower risk of developing prostate cancer, compared with other men. Additionally, daily acetaminophen was associated with a 51% reduced risk of developing an aggressive form of the disease. Men who took acetaminophen for less than five years saw no protective benefit.

Read the full story at CNN – Prostate Cancer Studies Find Benefit in Daily Acetaminophen and Brisk Walks

This as an observational study of over 78,000 men, and while nothing is definitively proven here, the findings are interesting.

So why post this kind of health stuff on a hair loss blog? The majority of the readers here are men, and as the article points out: “Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men“.