Category: Other

Dr. Rassman,

Thank you for your very informative blog. I have a question about the pattern of hair loss. I am a 26 year old white male with a normal hairline, and a thinning crown. My father has suffered a similar kind of hair loss: His hairline hasn’t receded, but he has a bald patch in his crown about 2.5 inches in diameter. However, it seems to me that the Norwood scale indicates that MPB always involves some frontal loss (receding hairline), and that frontal hair loss usually precedes vertex hair loss.

So my question is: Is there a such thing as a Norwood 2V pattern (no frontal hair loss, but a balding vertex area)? If not, how is this kind of hair loss assessed/dealt with?

My hair loss was similar to your description, with progressive crown loss and no frontal loss, but Dr. Norwood never defined a Norwood 2V entity in the published classification system we see everywhere. The hair loss can be treated with medication (Propecia and/or minoxidil), and surgery is likely a possibility if the medication doesn’t work as well as hoped.

Paid advertisements (not an endorsement):

Snippet from the article:

There was a hairy moment or two at the weekend as the biennial World Beard and Moustache Competition got underway.

After a few bristly rounds, David Traver from Anchorage, Alaska, was crowned the victor for his stunning woven beard and down-turned moustache.

The prize beard measures over 20 inches long and was cultivated over a period of two-and-a-half years, before being plaited into the shape of a snowshoe.

Read the full text and see the great photos at Daily Mail UK – Bearded wonders gather for the hairiest contest in the world

I was looking through one of my favorite blogs, Modern Mechanix, and found this hair loss solution from 1960. Obviously it is crap, so please don’t bother sending them any money (as I’m sure they’re no longer around anyway). Ah, the culture of the time…

Source: Modern Mechanix

Snippet from the article:

In my 30years of experience, I have seen several economic situations, each one uniquely different but all the same. No matter the differences, one issue remained the same. If you wanted to endure, you needed to possess every attribute desired by your employer and prospective employer.

One constant is, how you look is as important as what you know. It’s as important to look youthful as it is to look experienced. Unfortunately looking older does not pay off, most of the time you are not perceived as experienced it’s simply perceived as old.

Read the full text at Examiner.com

The article goes on to talk about how important hair is, in that it adds confidence to the prospective employee. I’ve written about this before (and there was an LA Times article about it), but it’s good to get someone else writing about it from time to time. So do you agree or disagree that hair makes the man?

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My offices observe Memorial Day, so I will be enjoying a long weekend. I’ll be back Tuesday with more hair loss questions and answers. Thanks!

Well, I have been reading some of the information on your site and even checked the details of the LLLT device you had in your office: Revage 670. I think taking one more objective look at LLLT would be a good idea rather than discarding it. I can tell you have a big readership on your site and I will recommend you check out what is being done by ordinary people these days without even going to a clinic to use an over-expensive and under-powered, under-performing laser. Please check out: regrowth.com. Then, see the tons of information about LLLT at OverMachoGrande.com.

Lots of pics of ordinary people using home-built LLLT can be seen by following the links on: regrowth.com.

Thanks.

In my clinical experience, laser light therapy for hair growth did not work on the many patients who used it in my office. I even offered its use at no charge. I do not run a research institution so I can not afford to create a formal study on this subject. I returned the laser to the company. Of course, one can argue that its just my personal experience and opinion, but I do not have any financial motivation for such claim. Plus, I find it somewhat troubling when the author of such study sells and promotes the very item he’s studying.

You said before that Propecia/finasteride has no effect on sebum. And some people have complained that Propecia has increased their acne. I was on Propecia for 58 days and I didn’t notice my acne getting any better or worse. This being said, is it safe to say that acne is not caused by DHT? Sure, DHT might be present but maybe it’s caused by something on the surface of the skin, such as skin cells not being sloughed off fast enough.

According to Wikipedia, “[acne] is a common skin condition, caused by changes in the pilosebaceous units, skin structures consisting of a hair follicle and its associated sebaceous gland via androgen stimulation.”

The pilosebaceous unit (hair, gland, and follicle) become infected as they are colonized by bacteria that destroy some of the microscopic anatomy. The output of sebum just feeds the areas which become infected and the circulating androgens. The list of causes are listed here, as well as descriptions of the social impact of the process in its teenage victims. DHT is just one of the androgens that contribute to acne so the use of drugs like Propecia usually fail to solve the acne problems.

Hi doc

I want to know if by taking female hormones, hair loss would be stopped and if the regrowth will increase…For example, transexuals dont’ have hair loss problems. I know all the side effects, but I just want to know if the therapy to chanege sex makes hair losso stop in 100% of the cases.

Thank you

I see transsexual patients on female hormones and they still have hair loss. Even those who evolve into a female will still bald as long is there is testosterone on board. Some even have a hair transplant to get back their childhood hairlines (which is concave in shape, just like the adult female hairline).

I have come to know that someone called SK has discovered a Yoga exercise called balayam is effective in curing baldness and hairloss. If you want to know more about balayam please log on to balayam.com

Controlling stress can help with balding that was caused by stress, but I would sincerely doubt any yoga technique is a “magical yet simple way to cure baldness” as that site states. Who doesn’t love a good magic trick? Sorry, but no yoga move will reverse genetic hair loss.

I just watched the video of this “magical” method and smiled when I saw that the baldness cure that everyone has been missing over the years was apparently the act of rubbing your fingers in a certain way. Well, at least the Balayam site isn’t charging people money for this stuff. See the video yourself at YouTube. And by the way… I’m only indulging this to leave you all with a smile for the weekend.