Is Male Pattern Baldness Not Genetic At All?

There was a study done by a Cornell University professor named T. Collin Campbell in conjunction with Oxford University entitled “The China Study”. It’s an entire book, but basically he says genes are expressed by nutrition, and many of his arguments revolve around animal based protein v. plant based protein and cholesterol, cancer, heart disease — not necessarily balding. But this peaked my curiosity. Can male pattern baldness not be genetic at all but instead the balding aspect is expressed by some type of diet balding men eat whether that diet is heavy in red meat or whatever?

I have been aware of this thesis for some time and one has to give it credibility. There is no doubt that diet does play an important role in one’s health. It is classic “nature versus nurture” type of argument, but things are not so simple. I did not read The China Study book, so I really cannot comment on that, but with respect to balding, although it is genetic, diet may very well influence the ‘expression’ of the process. Some people ascribe diet as a cause of the racial differences in balding when comparing Asians (in Asia) with Caucasians in America, but the science for this is clearly not available.

5 months on finasteride (photos)

Is my donor area over-harvested? (photo)

I am now 5 months since my surgery and I think that the surgeon went high on my donor area and may have over-harvested in this area as I can not see-through my scalp when I cut my hair short.

Your donor area may very well be over-harvested and the area on the left side looks lighter than the permanent zone below it. The harvested area appears above the permanent hair zone so speak with your surgeon about your concerns.


2020-07-11 22:16:10Is my donor area over-harvested? (photo)

Is penis shrinkage real?

I just wanted to ask if it is true that finasteride can cause penile shrinkage? My girl friend has been complaining that my hog is too large and I was wondering if taking it might at least diminish the girth.

I have a problem with this claim. You know when you are not sexually excited, you go swimming, you are out in the cold, the penis often smallest shrinks down. Try going for a a swim you you will see that it shrinks. Worrying about it I am sure doesn’t help. I don’t believe that having a large penis is an indication for taking finasteride which I don’t believe shrinks the penis.

6 Months After Fue Transplant-Not what I Want!

June 10th marks 6 months since my 1200 FUE graft HT on my temples (lowered hairline as well slightly). The transplant hair is growing in slowly but surely. Unfortunately, I have significant shock loss on my native hair surrounding the transplant hair. Much of this has not grown back yet. Specifically, I have shock loss in the front hairline area and behind my right temple where grafts were placed.

I met with my doc last month, and she boosted me from Fin to Dut to help with growth (I have no sides from either-yay!) She also remained steadfast that all my shock loss hair will grow back, it just takes time. However, part of me wonders if I should really believe her, if she thinks it will really grow back or if she is just saying that.

Finasteride is best taken before the hair transplant as it often prevents the loss of the native hair. Unfortunately, after you lose your native hair and then take finasteride, the effect is heavily muted. I always offer my patients finasteride before I do a hair transplant to avoid this problem. You should wait a full 8 months to see the results of the transplant and then reassess your situation.

Is Shock Loss Permanent?

In the interest of keeping things as private as possible, I have removed the Doctor’s name from this email I received…

Hi Dr. Rassman,
I read your recent comment about young guys under 30 years old who get an HT and are not on Propecia. I fit into that profile. I recently had a HT with [another doctor] and its 4 months post -op now. had a lot of shockloss of original hair post op and am really concerned now that I read your comment online [see: Hair Loss After Transplants]. Since I had sexual side effects when on Propecia, I had to quit it and cannot tolerate being on it.

I received a total of 3366 grafts in total. Am attaching Before Hair transplant pictures with this email and 6 weeks post op pictures. According to [my hair transplant doctor], he feels that the shockloss will mostly come back and eventually I will have good results. He recently asked me to take Saw Palmetto and see if I can tolerate being on it. Started taking 320 mg of Saw Palmetto twice a day recently.

Please advice what I can expect from the procedure. Do you think that I will permenantly lose a lot of original hair that has fallen due to shockloss for good? Or will it mostly come back?

I’m seeing growth in the 4th month but not sure if the shockloss hair is coming back or it is the new grafts that are growing in. To highlight my case, I mostly had diffuse thinning in frontal 1/4 of my scalp. The hair that was there was strong and had a thick shaft, there might be other miniaturized hairs, but looking at my pre-op pictures you will get an idea of the state of the existing hair follicle.

Thanks a lot for your time and effort.

My current regimen includes : minoxidil 5%, topical Spironolactone 5% cream from Lee’s, 3000 Mg of MSM, 2% Nizoral trice a week, Recently added : betnovate topical lotion, 320 mg Saw palmetto twice a day, Folligen lotion.

I have had an opportunity to review your questions and photographs. For our general audience who are reading this, I will summarize the salient points.

You appeared to have a large surgical session with dense packing based upon the number of grafts reported by you. The frontal area appears to have been shaved for the procedure and the growth of the hair does not reflect the normal growth that one would expect in 3 months. This is a case of hair loss transplant shock in a young man, just as my previous responsive email reported to another young man. There is a possibility that the hair that you lost may come back. Most likely though, it will not return. Other medications have not been shown to be effective (like Propecia). In people like you, I generally try to cover the short term transplant period with half of the Propecia dose, even if it causes some drop in sexual performance just to protect the hair.

The good news however is that the new grafts that you had done should (hopefully) more than offset any loss you may have. You will know reasonably well at about the 7-8th month by comparing the two sides. The left side that seemed to suffer more of the reactive hair loss needs to be compared to the right side. If the hair loss was reversed, the densities of the two sides will be the same. Please drop me a line or send me photographs at the 7-8th month and I would be happy to give you further insights. Good luck.


2005-04-20 15:38:33Is Shock Loss Permanent?

Is the number of harvestable grafts a lot higher if the patient caught MPB early and immediately started taking action (anti-androgens)?

No, the number of harvestable grafts are fixed for your lifetime and depend upon your original donor density which the doctor can measure. That is why we are careful about what we take from the donor area when we do a hair transplant. As the limit for a typical Caucasian is about 7,500 grafts, then as this number is drawn down, it can’t be replaced and eventually there is no donor hair left. This is my concern in Turkey where they will take out 6000 grafts in a single session, leaving almost nothing left for future balding (which is almost a certainty) and they do it all with FUE, but most people can’t handle more than 3,750 FUE grafts before they start looking bald in the back of their head (see: https://baldingblog.com/collection-victim-photos-internet-harvested-depleted-donor-areas/.

6 weeks minoxidil, finasteride and microneedling

I am 37 years old and had this balding for 10 years. I started using 1 mg PO finasteride daily 1 ml topical minoxidil twice daily 1 biotin vitamin daily, Saw palmetto shampoo, plus 0.5 mm micro needling at home 2-3 times per week.

I would increase the microneedling needles to 1.25mm and reduce the treatments to once a week. That depth gets to the stem cells that control the growth of the follicles to react to the wounds. You also might consider switching to oral minoxidil. Speak with your doctor. The photos suggest that the stem cells are still there and alive, so push the depth of the microneedling t where the stem cell reside.