My Brother Was Bald By 22, My Dad Was Bald By 26 — I Think Propecia Helped Me Dodge a Bullet

First off, great job on the blog Dr. Rassman. It’s probably the most valuable information regarding hair loss on the internet.

I noticed the first “signs” of MPB when i was 22 (26 now). I thought the corners of my hairline started to recede. That coupled with my brother and father being bald I freaked out and decided to see a doctor. I sought the help of a reputed NYC area specialist (I’m not going to mention his name) and upon a hair miniaturization test and the divulging of my family history he advised I go on Propecia. He assured me though that the minituarization was only slightly present just in the front of the hairline.

I got on Propecia right away and 4 years later my hair looks exactly the same short of a little more recession in the hairline but I would say that I am STILL not 100% at the mature hairline point that you describe so thoroughly on this blog.

Because my brother was pretty much bald (full NW5) by the time he was 22 and my father also a full NW5 by age 26 is it somewhat safe to assume that I may have dodged the bullet since I am 26 and not even a full NW2 yet? If it makes any difference I also physically take after my mother and in her family baldness is not common.

It is also very much possible that Propecia may be responsible for me keeping all my hair but I would want to know if there is any way to find out for sure. I would not want to take a drug I don’t really need for all my life especially with all the recent commotion about this product.

Thank you.

Thank you for sharing your story. I guess the way to find out for sure if Propecia was responsible, you’d have to stop taking the medication and see if your hair falls out. Not exactly ideal, and not something I’d recommend.

There’s also the HairDX Finasteride Response test, but it won’t tell you if Propecia is the reason you still have hair on your head. It should tell you if you’re responding to finasteride, though.

What Is Brotzu, and How Does It Work to Help People Losing Their Hair?

According to a Google look-up, Dr. Brotzu pioneered this lotion. It is reported to be an “Omega-6 fatty acid. It is supposed to be an anti-inflammatory lotion. It is being promoted in the product as a precursor to PGE1. Specifically, DGLA is converted to PGE1 via the cox-1 and cox-2 pathways.” There are no FDA claims that have been cleared by this. So much of what you read is hypothetical and possibly illegal in the US. I can’t say if it works or not, as I would have to read a clinical scientific paper on it first.


2018-06-19 08:46:41What Is Brotzu, and How Does It Work to Help People Losing Their Hair?

My Dermatologist Said My Hairline Recession Could Be From a Final Surge of Hormones

Hi Dr. Rassman,

I’m 20 years old with a receded hairline (my derm. diagnosed me as a NW2). No one in my family is bald, with the exception of one distant relative. My hairline receded 2 years ago but then didn’t budge. However, over the past few months, I’ve noticed it rapidly thin about a 1/4 inch into the hair line all around. My derm. said this could be the result of a final surge of hormones as I finish growing/developing. Is this common?

I’ve been on Propecia for one week now and will that be able to help me return to where I was only a few months ago? Any help would be greatly appreciated and keep up the great work with this blog!

A “final surge of hormones” sounds nutty to me. Young men always have hormones that surge. What you’re describing could just be your genetics, not some hormonal surge.

Starting on Propecia when you have early hair loss is the best course of action, so stick with it and lets hope that it reverses or halts the progression as it does in many 20 year olds. I can’t say for sure what benefits you’ll see, but you’ll know in the coming months if you’re experiencing less loss or regrowth.

Does caffeine stimulate hair on the scalp like minoxidil?

Both Caffeine and Minoxidil when applied to the scalp, can induce hair growth. In a recent study in a peer reviewed journal, both 2% caffeine and the 5% minoxidil were both equal in value when applied to the scalp topically.?


2018-12-06 13:10:32Does caffeine stimulate hair on the scalp like minoxidil?

My Doctor Prescribed Propecia for My Acne

Hi Doctor. I recently went to my doctor regarding an acne problem I have had for years, and he prescribed me to take propecia for it. He said that acne is caused my the same hormone that causes hairloss. Something called DHT. And that the ingridient in propecia inhibts DHT and thus eliminating acne. What do you thik about this, it seems kind of wierd to me. Please inform me soon because you seem to be an expert on propecia. I wanted to ask him more questions, but he is one of those doctors thats always in a hurry.

He was pretty condfident that propecia treats acne really well

I haven’t heard of Propecia (finasteride) being prescribed for treating acne. Acne is generally caused by bacteria on your skin and certain hormones in conjunctions with a high sebum production. I recently wrote about acne and DHT here.

So while Propecia does inhibit some of these androgens (such as DHT), Propecia is not prescribed for acne as a treatment. I would consider seeking another physician for a second opinion (mine does not count as I am not your doctor) since you are clearly not comfortable with your treatment plan nor your doctor.

Can a tight bun cause hair loss?

Tight pulling on the hair from a tightly pulled bun, like a tight ponytail, might cause traction alopecia if it is done over a long period of time


2021-10-14 05:49:34Can a tight bun cause hair loss?

My Doctor Told Me I Have Keloids On My Scalp

my derm told me that i had keloids in the back of my scalp. is it normal for a women to get them in there scalp? i have 7 of them in the lower back of the scalp and the and maybe 3 in the middle. they injected them with steroids 1 and they didnt get any better. just got a lil smaller, not to much though. i thought in the back of the scalp was more for men to have.

I would assume that your doctor is right if he diagnosed you with keloids. If you want a second opinion, you can try seeing another dermatologist. Keloids don’t discriminate.

Here is an excerpt from eMedicine: “The prevalence [of Keloids] has been reported to be higher in young females than in young males, probably reflecting the greater frequency of earlobe piercing among females. Keloids and hypertrophic scars affect both sexes equally in other age groups.”

My Family Members Started Balding Around My Age

Hello there,

I’ve been wondering if I was going to end up bald. My grandfather on my father’s side is bald, as is my own father. Nobody on my mother’s side is bald (though she had no siblings and her mother’s brothers had their hair).

My bald grandfather said he started to bald around 18. A picture of my dad when he was around 19 1/2, he looked like a NW3. I’ll turn 19 in four months and was wondering if I don’t see any symptoms by the time I turn 19 or 19 1/2, will I go bald?

Thank you again.

There is no way to easily tell if you’ll develop the balding pattern your male relatives showed around your same age. You can have the HairDX test done and get an idea if you have the genes for balding, or you can see us and get a hair bulk assessment yearly to show when and if the balding/thinning process kicks in.

Of course, you can also just watch and wait.

Can you exercise enough to lose weight?

The answer to this question is NO. From the attached article here (Still No Giraffe) and a recent article in the Scientific American (June 2017), it is clear that our metabolic rate is relatively stable regardless of how much we exercise. The attached article has a scientist who followed a ‘primative bushman’ from Africa as he burned calories after he shot a giraffe with a poison dart and followed the giraffe for a few days on almost a constant run 12+ hours/day. He collected the bushman’s urine for the days he followed the giraffe. The bushman was fed a special type of water which was excreted in his urine indicating the calories he burned. He found out that the number of calories burned by this bushman was only about 10% above the calories burned by someone who sat at his desk all day. Our brains use the most calories we consume, following by our heart, our kidneys, out liver and our intestine. Our muscles are only responsible for about 10% of the calories we burn so if an average man burns 2680 calories per day and doubles his calorie burn from skeletal muscles (not really practical to do this), then he would bun only another 268 calories. That turned out to be a surprise for the researcher and the author who ran along side the bushman for a few days as he chased the giraffe. In the Scientific American this month (June 2017), another article focused on the number of calories burned by men or women and were shown to be relatively constant, regardless of the exercise program undertaken by either of them.

So you might ask, why exercise if you can’t lose weight? Why not just sit and watch TV all day and night? The answer is that exercise makes you healthier, lets you live longer and develop less diseases such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other diseases. The conclusion of both articles is that if you want to reduce weight, you must reduce your caloric intake. Sitting on a couch by the TV all day will just take all of what you eat (for example, eating just two small cookies per day can translate to a weight gain of one to three kilograms per year) all of which gets turned into fat. Of course, that is the problem in America today as 1/3rd of the population is obese (expected to be half of the US population by 2030) and about another 1/3rd may be overweight. Just like a car cruising at 50 miles per hour, if you overfeed it gasoline, it will overflow the tank (your body’s fat reserves here reflect that tank). There is no substitute for good eating and controlling your obsessive need to stuff foods into your mouth every-time you see a good ice cream cone or some extra BBQ ribs or a third hamburger with french fries until you feel stuffed. This type of obsessive eating increases your risk to dying with cancer, heart disease and stroke, especially if you don’t exercise. Add to that, Alzheimer’s disease, dementia and almost every disease we humans develop by being alive, and overeating leads us to an early grave.

bushman