How old do you have to be for an accurate miniaturization mapping?
Any age. It is just an examination of hair condition under a microscope. You can be 1 or 100 years old.
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It Feels Like Bugs Are Crawling on My Scalp – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog
My scalp consistently feels “weird” (i.e. like bugs are crawling around on it). I know this might sound strange, but I am always having to itch my head because it just never feels normal anymore. This has been going on for the past three years and sometimes I can deal with it, but most of the time its annoying me. Do you have an explanation on this?
Any response is greatly appreciated.
Maybe there are bugs crawling on your scalp. For example, head lice or mites can be small enough where you may not notice by just looking in the mirror. I would see a doctor for a good examination.
UV Rays on the Scalp – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman
Dear Dr,
I am having UVB treatment for chronic eczema on my body. Should i be protecting my scalp from the UV rays? The sessions are short and only 15mins max. Right now i am on 54 seconds.
UV exposure does impact the skin. Dr. Richard Shiell in Australia believes that he gets less hair growth from transplants on the right side of the frontal hairline in his patients due to sun exposure from those who do a lot of driving. In Australia, they drive on the left side of the road and therefore get more sun exposure to the right side. If he is correct in his observation, UV exposure can damage the skin. There are two areas of potential damage:
- To the skin and the growing parts of the skin
- To the blood supply of the scalp
At the dose you are taking, it may not be a problem, but I would check with your doctor and find out from the source.
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In the News – Testing Hair to Detect Breast Cancer? – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman
Snippet from the article:
An Australian company called Fermiscan is in the process of developing a test that could possibly identify a person with breast cancer using about 20 strands of their hair.
The Fermiscan test has shown a 69% accuracy in detecting breast cancer. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that mammograms or ultrasounds showed no greater than a 50% chance at detecting breast cancer, and a 78% detection rate when the two were combined.
Read the full article at InventorSpot.com.
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Preliminary DHT Sensitivity Test? – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman
Dear Dr Rassman
I have read with interest your website and would be keen to ask you the following.
You state that if hairs are not DHT sensitive, medications such as Propecia will not help. Effectively the most probable medication a doctor or dermatologist does prescribe is right Propecia or Minoxidil. But at this point I wonder whether there are some preliminary tests on the scalp or the hair someone might do before even trying with these medications. In fact, if someone wants to know whether his hairs are DHT sensitive and so whether a medication like Propecia would work, what kind of tests would you recommend?
Thank you for your time. With kind regards
There are no tests that I am aware of to test for dihydrotestosterone (DHT) sensitivity or to test for effectiveness in DHT blocking with Propecia (finasteride 1mg). If you are a male and balding with a typical male balding pattern, DHT is likely responsible and Propecia will likely help… but I suspect DHT is not 100% responsible for male pattern baldness, as genetic and biological processes are not so simply constructed. More importantly, try to look at the problem more practically. You may be very sensitive to DHT or not very sensitive to DHT, but even a little finasteride is worth a shot at slowing the balding process when you have nothing but hair to lose.
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Tattooing Your Scalp to Get a Buzzed Hair Look? – Balding Blog
Hi, I was wondering if it would look natural if a person with a norwood 5, shaves their head and tattoos the balding portion of the head (in an attempt to regain a shaved norwood 2 look.) Also, when you tattoo the balding portion, would it promote hair loss in the non-balding parts?
Most people who have their scalp tattooed just can not replicate the appearance of a crew cut head of hair. I’ve seen this tried before, and to be honest, the majority I have seen look distinctly abnormal, with one exception: a patient that was able to artfully replicate a short hair cut with a temporary tattoo which he reapplies every few days. While tattoos could potentially cause hair loss (if there’s infection, for example), they more than likely won’t.
Eating Insects and Balding in the Amazon – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman
Hello Doctor.
I can’t recall I have ever seen a picture of a balding man from the amazon natives. I can recall I have watched a long time ago a documentary film, in which I have seen an amazon native delousing louses or other insects from another amazon native’s head and then eating the insects. Are they balding-proof thanks to this insects diet?
To my knowledge, balding afflicts all men with no discrimination to race, ethnicity, social class, and even insect diets — with the exceptions being the Native American with ancestry from the Alaskan Bridge, and Aboriginal Australians. I’ve written before about the possibility that there is an isolated gene pool in an isolated area that doesn’t have the hair loss gene, although it is just a what-if until someone studies it.
I just found some wonderful images of Amazon natives at this site, Amazon-Indians.org… and this photo (contains nudity) in particular appears to show hair loss in a native to the rainforest. I don’t know what kind of bugs he eats, if any.
With that said, do you know where I can get some of those insects? They might be worth selling on on this site (don’t take me too seriously here, we’re just before a long weekend).
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Hair Loss InformationIn the News – Count the Hairs on Your Comb – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog
From the article:
Want to know how much hair you’re losing?
Start counting — the hairs on your comb, not on your head.
In the June issue of Archives of Dermatology, scientists demonstrate that a so-called “60-second hair count” is a simple and reliable away to get a grip on whether you’re balding and, if so, how fast.
The procedure, which can be carried out in the convenience of your own home, may reassure the adult male — or not.
Read the full article at Washington Post — Countdown to Hair Loss.
I Want Dreadlocks, But Need a Doctor’s Opinion… – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog
Hi, I have been considering dreading my hair for quite some time now. However, I have a few reservations. First, I’ve heard about hair loss due to dreadlocks and I was wondering how likely it is to happen, and whether it is based on how long the person has dreads. I’m thinking I’d probably have them for 2-3 years. Second, I’ve been waiting to dread my hair because I applied to medical school and wanted to avoid any unnecessary judgments during interviews based on my appearance. Now I am starting medical school in the fall and would like to dread my hair, but I am worried that it may negatively impact my professors’, classmates’, or patients’ opinions of my abilities as a student and future physician. As a doctor yourself, would you consider having dreadlocks to be a bad idea during medical school? If I do dread my hair, I plan to get rid of them prior to interviewing for residencies. I considered waiting until I begin my residency or even finish it, but by then I will be nearly (if not over) 30 and at that point I feel I will have outgrown it. Any thoughts, opinions or advice you have would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time!
Creating dreadlocks is a personal choice. With that said, as a doctor I always ask if what I do could impact a patient’s confidence in me, so I would not make such a personal choice (of course, this is just my personal opinion). My practice is an elective cosmetic surgery practice and if I had dreadlocks, I believe that many potential patients would not select me as their surgeon, simply because of prejudices that they may carry. Taking it one step further… let’s say that you are a surgeon that needs to perform a life-saving procedure and the patient has two choices — you with dreads or another doctor with a more “standard” hair style. Do you think that will impact the patient’s confidence in you? Or let’s say that you have to break bad news to a patient who has cancer. Will that patient accept your opinion or ask for another? It goes on and on…
The confidence of a patient is about judging the book by its cover at times. Are we far enough along to ignore the cover of all the books out there? I’ve never had dreads, as you might’ve expected, so I’d love to hear from readers with dreadlocks to see if they’ve impacted the way people perceive you.
Hair Loss InformationGrowth Hormones in Milk – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog
I emailed a professor at Colorado State who knew about growth hormone and IGF-1. He said there is a difference between GH that is injected and turns into IGF-1 and IGF-1 that is consumed orally. GH that is consumed orally is orally inactive and is a protein hormone that is digested completely by the stomach, while GH that is injected into the bloodstream is the only way for GH to take effect on one’s body. And theoretically even if GH was not digested by the stomach, he said there is not enough GH in milk for example to cause any difference. He did not know about anything related to GH and balding though.
Good point and your diligence is appreciated. The stomach does inactivate many things that we eat because of the high acid content. I don’t know what else I can add to this. For those curious about the growth hormone / milk saga, see DHT and Milk.