Category: Other

Concerning the previous questions i’ve read about future advacements and the hairloss gene found.. say in the near future, we find a “cure” for baldness. Does that neccecarily mean you can “cure” someone with a norwood 6 with great thick hair again?

Or is the cure coming too late for men already bald and at a good time for men with balding in their future

Thanks!!

Of course this is all hypothetical, but sure, if there is a “cure” for hair loss then a man with a Norwood Class 6 could get his hair back. If there’s a hair loss vaccine, he could never lose it to begin with. It’s all just guesswork at this point and way, way, way too early to tell. I wouldn’t hold your breath just yet, though. In the meantime, drugs such as Propecia (finasteride 1mg) can definitely help slow further hair loss and hair transplant surgery can certainly give you a non-balding look. It may not be a complete cure, but its as close as we have right now.

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Hi Dr Rassman

As you have said before, it is perfectly normal to have some thinner hairs at the frontal hairline, temples, neck area. My question is, do these hairs follow the same cycles as the rest of the hair?
I.e, when I shower and notice that just a few (maybe 3, 4 or 5) of those that fall out are a bit thinner than the rest, could it be that they are those naturally thinner hairs from the temples etc??

Thanks!!

The vellus hairs may very well have a different cycle than the full terminal (normal thickness) hair. I don’t know that anyone knows for sure.

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Hi,

I have been eating a lot of chicken lately in order to intake more protein to supplement by weight training. I have some body hair, and would eating too much chicken cause my body hair grow even more?

I am 25 years of age and always eat chicken properly cooked with spices.

Where did you get the idea that eating chicken can cause hair growth on your body? At your age, good nutrition will ensure that your genetics will be properly expressed. Just maybe, you have arrived at that age which will grow that body hair you have been incubating. So to answer your question — no, eating a lot of chicken doesn’t cause body hair growth. Not even with the spices.

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Dear Dr. Rassman,

Recently there has been a lot of hype in the media regarding new genetic screening tests for androgenetic alopecia. Is the research behind this reliable and if so what are your thoughts on how gene therapy will affect how we treat hair loss in the future?

There indeed has been much hype of genetic screening for androgenic alopecia. First off, you do not need a screening test to be diagnosed with androgenic alopecia. If you have the gene, it does not mean that you will bald… and if you are already balding then you do not need the test. Genetic balding is relatively easy to assess, especially with a miniaturization study.

One might argue that the utility of the genetic screening test for androgenic alopecia may be for someone who does NOT show any signs of balding, but would like to start some form of medical treatment (such as Propecia), but I am personally against starting any medication (no matter how safe it may be) if you do not have signs of balding. Answering thousands of questions over the years on this site has taught me that the general public is scared and preoccupied with the 1 to 2 percent of the potential side effects of Propecia. They are so scared that lots of men don’t even start Propecia despite the fact that they are balding. Now imagine telling a non-balding man to start a medication that may give them sexual side effects. I realize in the end it is all about the education process. However, as a general rule doctors do not like to put patients on medications if they do not need it.

With respect to gene therapy, that is entirely another ball game. We are barely understanding genetics of hair loss and are still years away from gene therapy to cure hair loss.

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I’ve ignored all polls up until now and will rely on the statistics from the past US Presidential elections to call this one for Barack Obama (and a day before the election, no less). Some may say, “But Dr Rassman, clearly the polls are showing Obama has a gigantic lead anyway!” … and to those people, I can only point out that it’s entirely because of his beautiful hairline. Ignore tax policy, ignore social programs, ignore foreign policy — this election is 100% hair related. People always vote for the hairiest, right?

Today being Halloween, I decided to dress in my beautiful new naughty nurse costume and hang up the doctor scrubs for the day. And now that you’re all thoroughly terrified, I also wanted to use this opportunity to remind you all that the brand new BaldingForum is live!!! We’re very excited about this new site and hope to develop a community of folks that want to discuss everything and anything hair loss related.

Only thing I wonder is what’s the point of meeting prior patients? I’m sure the doctor will only select patients that had great experiences and outcomes to allow you to meet anyway. Just like on a job application, when they ask for personal references…..doesn’t everyone only list those that’ll give the most glowing reviews?

Aside from getting personal experiences from past patients and being able to ask them questions patient-to-patient, you can also have the opportunity to see the results in person. True, a doctor can just show off the best of the best, but you can at least determine if the best is even possible with that doctor. The results don’t lie, and if the doctor just has a pool of patients with poor results, their best won’t even make the grade.

We hold monthly open house events at both of our offices, where anyone can attend. If a patient was dissatisfied for whatever reason (results, aftercare instructions, etc), they have the opportunity to reveal that to others. I haven’t found that to happen in the 17 years that we’ve been holding these free events, so that’s a good thing and I believe that means we’re doing something right. Many times patients just drop in to say hello and we did not even know that they were stopping by. There’s no way we could control these open house events to only show off our best patients, as they are… open. That is why few doctors offer similar events year after year.

Announcing our new site, BaldingForum.com

I’m extremely pleased to announce the launch of our new message board — BaldingForum.com! I wrote an introduction message on the new forum, and here’s a slightly edited, abbreviated version of that…

This new forum is an opportunity for BaldingBlog.com visitors to become more involved in the questions and answer process, creating unique insight and a dynamic community. The volume of questions we have been getting each day at the blog has risen tremendously, and it is quite honestly a bit overwhelming at times. Now I’m not complaining about success, but I do genuinely feel bad for not being able to get to every question or even having some people wait for weeks to get a response. This forum should help to alleviate some of those problems, as members can now ask more general questions that other members can answer based on personal experience or even by finding the answer in an existing post on BaldingBlog.

BaldingBlog will continue daily as it has been, and the new forum is just an extension of our brand. There will be some tweaks to the blog here and there, but we’re very open to your critiques and criticisms. Please let us know your thoughts by participating over at BaldingForum.com!

Dear Dr Rassman,

Firstly i would just like to thank you for providing such a constructive and educational forum for unbiased, informative hair loss advice. I work in a hair transplant clinic and never hesitate to refer patients to this site for additional information.

My question however is regarding a friend of mine who suffers from psoriasis, her scalp being the worst affected area. I felt compelled to seek your advice after seeing her in tears yesterday, fed up with the constant irritation and discomfort. She is nearly always scratching her scalp and is now experiencing noticeable thinning and loss in some areas.

Can you recommend any particular treatments to control the condition or at least alleviate the itching? She has seen numerous doctors and dermatologists but is yet to find anything that works.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

This is a standard dermatologic condition which any good dermatologist should be able to address. The best person to treat your friend’s psoriasis is her dermatologist, but as she’s having difficulty finding a treatment that works, I found a good list you can both review at the National Psoriasis Foundation site.