Category: Uncategorized

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I Don’t Trust My Doctor After He Recommended Rogaine and the Laser Comb

Hi Doctor Rassman, first let me start off by thanking you for running the balding blog the way you do. Its the only real source for hair loss questions/answers that I trust in terms of reliability and i would be lost without it.

I am a 23 year old male who noticed a bit of a “wider part” and “larger cowlick” around 2 years ago. I’d wager I’ve thinned a bit since then, but i still have full coverage with no pure bald spots, thinning primarily noticable in the crown region. I took propecia for 8 months and then, like an idiot quit the medication out of fear it was doing nothing and i was throwing money away. approx. 4 months later I realized the thinning sped up so now I am taking the medicine again. I don’t really trust my prescribing doctor’s knowledge…he recommended using the laser comb and rogaine before I attempted propecia but I was persistent.

my questions:
1. Who can map my hair for miniaturization in my surrounding area?
2. assuming I will end up a norwood 6(like my father)what type of coverage could a transplant offer me if we assumed I had average scalp laxticity and average hair density?
3. Do you believe there will be breakthroughs in the next decade that will prevent most of my generation from being forced to live their lives as bald men?

Thanks again for this site

We have written in the past about the LaserComb — basically, we don’t feel it works for treating hair loss. Rogaine, however, is an option if you are persistent enough to apply it twice a day, everyday. In my opinion, most men are horrible at keeping to a regimen and it is a factor you must consider when starting any daily routine like this.

Thank you for sharing your experience on Propecia. It seems that you experienced “catch up” hair loss after stopping the medication. While you will not gain what you lost, restarting the medication was probably a good idea.

Now to answer your questions —

  1. On the east coast, I would trust Dr. Bernstein in New York. He was with New Hair Institute until he branched off to start his own clinic and he’ll be able to map your scalp for miniaturization.
  2. Coverage really depends on your hair character + hair/skin color contrast. If you’ve got black hair, white skin, and a very fine hair character… you won’t have good coverage. If you’ve got thick blonde wavy hair, you’ll have better luck.
  3. Certainly there is work being done and there is a huge market for it, but what you’re asking about is essentially a cure for hair loss. While I do hope something happens within the next decade, I really have no way of knowing if the current work being done is the answer we’re all looking for. Keep your fingers crossed, but your expectations realistic.


2010-09-09 11:57:06I Don’t Trust My Doctor After He Recommended Rogaine and the Laser Comb

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Woman Prescribed 5mg Finasteride for Hair Loss

I am a woman and have been prescribed a dose of 5mg of finasteride daily for hair loss. It is working, but I am concerned about the high dosage. Since I am not of childbearing age, do I need to be concern about it?how long do I use it?

Women who have a high androgen level and genetic balding may be helped by finasteride. I do not know the proper dosage, but the 1mg dose should work. The experience with women shows that those who do not have a virulizing problem with higher than normal androgens, should not see any benefit from finasteride. You can read Treatments Available for Female Hair Loss for more information.


2007-12-05 14:24:56Woman Prescribed 5mg Finasteride for Hair Loss

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I get watery semen with Saw Palmetto

I get watery semen every time I take 320mg SP extract. I reproduced this issue a dozen times. Doesn’t that suggest it blocks DHT significantly?

I have never recommended Saw Palmetto, so I have no personal experience with it other than what I read. It does sound like a DHT blocking effect.


2020-12-16 11:01:55I get watery semen with Saw Palmetto

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Women and Propecia

I am 49 year old female with very thinning hair, primarily in the crown. Can women of non-childbearing years take Propecia? Have any studies been done on its effectiveness in women?

There are women who take Propecia (finasteride) and it has worked for them. That being said, it has not been well studied in women and it is not recommended for women, because the long term effects on female cancer risks (ovarian, uterine, breast) are just not well known.

There’s a good overview written earlier this month about female hair loss options — Treatments Available for Female Hair Loss


2006-09-26 10:05:09Women and Propecia

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I had 4500 grafts

This is an impressive result; however, I don’t believe that you needed 4500 grafts to get this result. The readership is made to believe that this number of grafts were critical to your balding; however, that is absolutely not the case in my opinion. Your forelock was strong before you did the transplant to it hopefully wasn’t touched. I have had results like this with far fewer grafts.

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I am worried about the reported 2% risk with sexual side effect with propecia. Are the risks even higher?

The official number is 2-3% but the placebo number are almost 2%. In my practice I think that the numbers may be higher, 4-5% range. The reason that you see a lot of complaints on the internet is possibly because you are only hearing from those that have the negative sexual side effects. One of my own family members, got an increased sex drive, a complaint I do here on occasion but seem to never read about it on the internet. The testosterone levels often do go up when this drug is taken. For those that need/want to take this drug it is a matter of choice for many of them. To paraphrase William Shakespeare, “To take the Pill of not take the pill, that is the question?” Balding may be the only alternative.

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Would Minoxidil Help Regrow My Crown if Finasteride Hasn’t Worked There That Well?

Dr. Rassman,

I appreciate your blog. I’m a 24-year-old male who started experiencing thinning and hair loss on my crown shortly before my 20th birthday. I started taking finasteride after my 22nd birthday and experienced fantastic results. However, I still have a somewhat large area on my crown that is much thinner than the surrounding areas.

I am considering using minoxidil on my crown, as minoxidil is supposed to be very effective in that area. I am wondering if, after being on finasteride for two years, there is any chance that minoxidil would be effective? I understand that the two drugs target different hairs (i.e. hair regrown using finasteride doesn’t preserve hair regrown using minoxidil, and vice-versa), but after four years of thinning, would minoxidil show any decent statistical chance of working for someone in my situation?

Finasteride plus minoxidil works better in the crown than finasteride alone in some people. My advice has always been to to start on the finasteride first (with a doctor’s prescription) and if after a reasonable time there is a poor response in the crown, then add minoxidil treatment to see if there’s an added boost to your hair growth plans.

For financial and time reasons, it makes sense to just start with one medication in case that accomplishes what you want it to, rather than committing to multiple lifetime medications from the start.

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I Have a Hard Time Rejecting the FDA Approval of the LaserComb

In the world of hair loss, sufferers quickly learn to veer on the side of caution when approaching new “remedies.” It is for this reason that I stand behind your skepticism of the Hairmax lasercomb, despite recent FDA approval. But something about this really bothers me. If we can’t even trust the FDA when they tell us that something grows hair, who can we trust? How can we pick and choose which of their approvals to accept? The lack of any real clinical data might make the comb especially fishy, but I have a hard time just rejecting the FDA stamp. They wouldn’t lie to us, would they?

Please see my previous posts on the subject —Why Are You Suspicious of the FDA and the LaserComb Now? and HairMax LaserComb Receives FDA Approval?.

Even though the stationary laser has some scientific documentation in the European literature, thie stationary lasers are far more intensive a treatment than a few strokes of a comb, which I can not believe will produce any long term effect such as is reported. It’s not that I don’t want it to work, I really would like to be wrong on my stance, but I don’t believe in ‘fairy tale’ miracles. The cost to the individual consumer is not great (between $500-700), but the doctors and the company that is promoting it stand to make a fortune. There are many such fortunes made in various hair solutions on the market that just don’t work, so this now joins the group of what may be another successful marketing product. Only time will tell if it works. I really can not endorse the hair comb at this time, but alas, it is a Buyer Beware issue. The good news is that the buyer will not risk much more than his dollars to find out the answer for him. I can see no down side, other than potential disappointment and loss of money if it doesn’t work as you’d hoped — but really, that goes with along with most things in life. Balding men seem to chase rainbows when there is a potential cure available. Many disappointed people may eventually come to see me because of such comments and with honesty as the best policy, maybe it will benefit the practice of honorable doctors in the hair restoration field who can really put their hair back. I hope that people who can benefit from drugs like finasteride (Propecia), don’t put off treating their hair loss while they wait for the comb to do its thing, the thing that may not happen.


2007-02-21 19:36:03I Have a Hard Time Rejecting the FDA Approval of the LaserComb