Category: Uncategorized

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“Something I hate about the hair market” from Reddit

Every once in a while, once a month, I simply search “hairloss treatments” to see if anything new happened, or maybe a new treatment, but all I get is recent articles like “does ___ cause hairloss?” “can vitamins help with hairloss?” “can saw palmetto halt hairloss?” Bull**** articles like these make me pissed off, not because of the articles themselves, but because they are repetitive articles that i see every month when I search this shit. What happened to Breezula? WAY-1001? Guess we’ll never have a good safe, non-fearing treatment. Guess everything comes with a price.

Back in the 1980s, there was a ‘product’ called the Helsinki Hair Growth Forumlae that may have been the first modern product claimed for the hair growth pitch to hit the US market for magic hair growth cures. As the first, it sold like ‘hotcakes’ and it took more than 10 years for it to lose its unique market position because the FDA dinged them for claims that could not be proven. I look them up, and they are still selling hair products, just no magic claims.
If you look at newspaper in the late 1800s and early 1900s, you will see a lot of products selling cures for hair loss like magnetic hats that you wear at home. People never liked the idea of being bald so they easily reached out to anything that was offered. Today, with the internet, we have the ability to discern the difference between fact and fiction, but many people have realities that they want to believe and will often buy into anything that sounds ‘reasonable’ with low risk and possibly low cost solutions for hair loss.
There are now many doctors who have become the salesmen for sometimes shady cures, but because they wear a white coat, or have the MD after their name, they become believable. I have to be careful how much I say about the doctors who are making promises that they can’t deliver on but I can tell you, the readership, ‘Let the Buyer Beware’ as there is no fast, cheap fix for hair loss that I know of.


2019-12-16 09:08:35“Something I hate about the hair market” from Reddit

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Finasteride Dosage and Body Weight?

Hi Dr Rassman,
I am a big fan of your site, and you have answered couple of my questions via your blog.

I am 24 and been using finasteride 1mg generic per day for the past 14 months. I have got a receding hairline and vertex and it is on norwood 3 vertex. After started fin, there is an increase in the hair density at the hairline but vertex is continuing receding. I am obese and weighing 124 Kg (273 lbs) and my height is 5 feet 10 inches (177.80 cns). So based on BMI, I am weighing almost double than that I should be. I have gone through your site to find is there any relation between finasteride dosage and body weight. But I was unable to find an answer. should I consider increasing the dosage to 2mg per day to hold the hair I have. Waiting for your suggestion. Thanks a lot once again.

There is no evidence or reason for adjusting finasteride to body weight, but there is no harm doing it provided that you do not develop side effects (which may increase with a larger dose). I realize hair loss is an important issue to most readers here and most readers want to maximize their treatment, but increasing the dosage does not always mean better results.

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St John’s Wort and Propecia

Hello Dr Rassman.

Want to start by thanking you and all the others who helped and contributed to this awesome forum!

I have been depressed for a while now. But then I’m very critical of antidepressants. So i have decided to test ST. John’s wort, who according to studies can be just as effective as antidepressants while it has much less side effects than conventional antidepressants.

But St. John’s wort has a tendency to affect the metabolism of other drugs.

My question is, do you know if St. John´s wort will affect propecia

I am not much of a herbal expert, but I do know that some herbs can interact with medications. In particular, St. John’s Wort is listed as having interactions with Propecia (finasteride 1mg), though I do not know if this will have a clinically significant affect on the efficacy of Propecia. You may run the risk of increase side effects, however.

I would consult with your doctor.

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Finasteride impacting beard growth

Here to ask a question I’ve never seen asked, or at least never answered on this subreddit or anywhere else on the internet despite my effortful and differently-worded google searches.

I’m 20. I started balding at 14, and I started fin at 17. Switched to dut at 19. Now I’m 20, and I still don’t have beard growth despite having the genetics for insanely aggressive baldness and insane beard density. This makes total sense because I’m taking a DHT blocker but my question is- will I never be able to grow a beard if I continue with my DHT blocking regimen? Am I blocking myself from ever being able to grow a beard, or am I just blocking it for the time being while I’m taking the DHT blockers? The idea of never being able to grow a beard terrifies me and I think I’d rather go bald and have a beard than never ever have facial hair as an option, but if I can wait until I’m 25-30 and then grow a beard after ceasing dut/fin, I’d rather do that. Thanks for any and all responses this gets.

Dr. Robert Bernstein answered this question as follows:
As you suggest, it would be reasonable to assume that since DHT stimulates beard growth, blocking DHT (with finasteride) would tend to inhibit its growth. In practice, this does not seem to be the case, i.e. we don’t find that Propecia has any effect on facial hair. The reason is not clear.
It is interesting to note that testosterone stimulates growth of axillary and pubic hair, but not scalp hair. Scalp hair growth is not androgen dependent, only scalp hair loss is.
DHT stimulates terminal hair growth of the beard, trunk and limbs, external ears and nostrils. Of course, it also is responsible for the bitemporal reshaping of hairline as one passes into adulthood and causes male patterned baldness (androgenetic alopecia).


2021-04-25 11:04:46Finasteride impacting beard growth

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Starting to Lose Hair at Age 19

Hello, I am 19 years of age. Over the past year I have found that I have lost alot of hair. All my life I have had thick hair. my whole family has relatively high hairlines, even my 13 year old brother. I have always had one although there was always alot of hair around the hairline. In recent months my hairline has been receeding noticably and I have found that hairs have come out when showering, sometimes just randomly in the day, and I find them in my mouth. There are no patchy bald spots. However the hairline is extremly thin and around the crown it has also thinned out. Even the hair at the sides do not feel half as weighty as they used to. I used to badly need a haircut every two weeks, now although I still do at times, it is more in the vain hope it will make my hair look better. It is whispy looking on top also. I also find my scalp feels odd although this could be in the mind. It has all happened suddenly.

You need to have your scalp mapped out for miniaturization to determine if you have genetic balding. If you do, it will follow a pattern much like those shown on the Norwood chart, as your hair starts to thin in these patterns before it becomes bald. Over 50 years ago, General MacArthur said, “Old Soldiers never die, they just fade away”. I will rework his quote by saying, “Hair never dies, it just fades away”. Some day, when hair cloning starts up or we figure out the missing link in the pathway that stops the hair from cycling in the normal manner, we might be able to revive those hairs that are present even in the baldest of men, but at age 19, lets start to crawl before we walk. Don’t live in fear of what may not be. Get a good doctor to diagnose you and then treat you appropriately, if treatment is needed.

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finasteride and many side effects in a short time

I hope this message meets you well! I’d like to ask a question I’m sure you’ve answered hundreds of times. I greatly appreciate your time. I was recently prescribed finasteride, I have only taken it 3 times at 1.25mg consecutive days, and a week later, 3 more times at ~.7mg, spaced 3-4 days apart. I suffered from side effects (low libido, terrible brain fog, difficulty getting erection, and difficulty maintaining one) during this time. I’d like to continue the drug but I’m scared, honestly. Is it likely these side effects will disappear?

For the record, I’m 24, 200lbs 9% body fat and in good shape. I don’t take any other medication. I use minoxidil, I take biotin, and today I purchased zinc. Thank you again for your time, and for your help!

Sound like the drug and you are not good for each other. I would stop the medication


2017-12-21 19:18:01finasteride and many side effects in a short time

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Steroid Shots for Female Hair Loss?

Dr. Rassman,
I am just about bald. I am on blood pressure and thyroid medication for oven several years. Every five weeks over a three year period I have received steroid shoots to my scalp, still my hair is melting away. All the doctors I have visited suggest steroid shoots. HELP !!!!

There are many causes for balding. There are many other diagnosis that must be considered tnat could be indicative of a more serious problem. For example, for diffuse hair loss must rule out the diagnosis of Diffuse Alopecia Areata, not uncommon in women. If your hair is really being lost all over, you might need a biopsy performed looking for a process responsible for the hair loss. Do not play doctor yourself.

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Finasteride not working

I’ve been on fin for about 10 months now, something I’ve noticed is that I’ve literally just been shedding CONSTANTLY the whole time on the drug, like can pull out like 50 or so hairs per day from my top, sides, back if i really bother to, I’ve not really noticed a difference in my hair, maybe the crown has slightly thickened but other than that nothing.

You may be progressing with your balding process and not controlled by finasteride. See a good doctor who knows about this problem.


2020-11-04 08:30:24Finasteride not working

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Stopped Propecia Because of Gynecomastia, Now I’m Seeing Shedding

Hi Doc,

I have been on propecia for over 4 months and had to stop due to side effects (started developing gyno). Couple of months passed and I started seeing massive shed which is probably the catch up hair loss. Since I cannot go back to propecia/fin, is there any topical treatment (other than rogaine) that can help slow down this process? I am not looking for any regrowth at this point, but just want to make sure the catch up hair loss can be controlled at all? Thanks for your valuable suggestions.

I just had a patient who reported gynecomastia along with some sexual side effects from Propecia, and after he reduced his dose to 1/4 of a pill (0.25mg) he was able to continue taking the drug without side effects. It is only a report by one patient though. Most of the patients who have had gynecomastia usually do not tolerate the drug even at lower doses and when there is gynecomastia, there is often other libido and erectile dysfunction side effects as well. A quarter of a pill is better than none, so I would recommend trying a lower dose of Propecia before completely quitting on this medication. Minoxidil (Rogaine) is the only other FDA approved hair loss medication, so your choices are limited.


2009-06-19 10:13:44Stopped Propecia Because of Gynecomastia, Now I’m Seeing Shedding

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Finasteride side effects went away

I started fin 13 months ago 1mg /daily. At first I had sides, loss of sex drive, runny ejac, and shitty boners. I’m a vain man, I work in sales and I figured this was all worth keeping my head of hair. Fast forward 3 months and they went away. I was hesitant to celebrate but it’s been 9 months and they haven’t come back. Fin not only stopped my balding dead in its tracks, also got some regrowth. I’m 31 so hair loss is pretty normal at this age but I still get the “you lucky bastard” comments from the less hairy lol. This might sound dramatic but good looks are an insane advantage in our society and finasteride saved my life lol.

This is a positive story, something about side effects one doesn’t hear often