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Almost all Caucasian males develop a maturing hairline. When recession occurs, it usually is associated with hair loss elsewhere on the head and scalp and that is why I perform a HAIRCHECK if I have any doubts on the distinction between a receded hairline and the appearance of a maturing male hairline. The HAIRCHECK instrument will show hair loss behind the hairline which always occurs when the hairline is receding. The picture of me below shows a V Shaped mature hairline that is 100% mine since it changed from the rounded hairline of my youth. This hairline was not transplant but my entire crown was transplanted with 2700 grafts. The second picture shows early hairline recession that was transplanted along with a replacement of the temple peaks. You can see that this hairline was ‘ratty’ in appearance which is essentially what often happens when the hairline starts eroding.

DHT levels have no value when you are considering taking finasteride for male genetic hair loss. Young men have good testosterone levels and therefore will have good DHT levels so measuring these levels does not change the treatment goals

When I was 17 the temples of my hairline had receded and I now have very minimal crown loss . I’ve been using minoxidil with dermarolling for the last 3 months on my hairline but all I can see are very tiny vellus hairs along my hairline. However for the past couple days I’ve been having day long migraines and I suspect it might be the minoxidil so I’m stopping use until around next week.

Hair transplants are personal decisions. Knowing what you might look like by looking at family members might help you understand better, especially if you can speak with those that are still alive and ask them if they could get their hair back (an completely undetectable hair transplant) would they have done it. You need to sit down with an expert in this field (hair restoration) and get a Master Plan worked out for your future hair loss problems if your hair loss should occur.

It’s hard for me to imagine that anyone would intentionally or unintentionally do this to any human being. Immoral and terrible!

I had lung cancer and my last chemo treatment was in July of 2012. I finished radiation in October December 2012. I had some balding prior to the Chemotherapy that you might classify as a Norwood Class 6 pattern, but there was still hair throughout the head. It was just thinning. It has been almost two years and now my hair loss pattern is very clear and all of the thinning hair has not come back. I have a few sparse hairs all over my head, but they are very sparse. I am off my medications at this time. Will my hair come back and what can I do to help it. I have used Nioxin for two years and just recently started uses minoxidil. Are there vitamins to help? Just what can I do?

I do not know how to help you. You clearly had male pattern balding that was not complete and the chemotherapy stressed your fine, miniaturized hairs and finished the balding process in them. One of our patients had used the ‘Cold Cap’ when the took Chemotherapy and lost less than half of the hair. Few doctors are aware of this treatment. At this stage, I believe that you can expect that hair regrowth will not occur. We have a treatment that may be worth looking at, called Scalp Micropigmentation (scalpmicropigmentation.com). Many patients convert from a Class 6 or 7 pattern to a full looking head of hair by taking on a shaved look. Just like the star of Breaking Bad, many men look great with the shaved look and your case does parallel the main character’s appearance. This is something to consider. Many times I ask myself if SMP was available when I started to treat my hair loss, would I have chosen this option. The answer is yes, but at my age, this is not something that I would do considering that my hair loss is gone and my hair transplants were 100% successful in addressing by large crown loss.

This email came from a transplant patient of mine from years back…

About eight or nine months ago, I had a low testosterone test result and began taking testosterone shots to respond to this. My urologist assured me that the shots would not cause hair loss, but I’d appreciate knowing from you your thoughts on the subject if possible. To my viewpoint, my hair seems to be thinner, but I am not objective (or rationale) on the subject.

If you have been taking testosterone for 9 months and have not seen an impact causing hair loss, then you should be safe with regard to this potential problem. I would assume that those hairs which are genetically impacted by the balding process are all gone by now and all you are left with is hair that will not fall out with testosterone. Your transplanted hair falls into this category.

If you were a young men and still had active balding, then you would have seen hair loss by this time from the testosterone.

Dr. Stuart Gitlow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine says “we’ve known that people who use marijuana when they are younger tend to have cognitive abnormalities”. He studied were people in their 40s who smoked about 6 joints a week when they were 18-20. Brain scans were done which showed volume, shape and density changes in two key regions of the brain. These areas deal with emotion, motivation and decision-making…. “This is the part of the brain you don’t want to mess with”. says Northeastern University psychiatrist Hans Breiter……” The more marijuana that users smoked, the more their brains differed from normal brains…..

As we move to more and more legalization of this drug, we should ask ourselves what is the price we will pay? This will obviously impact schooling, and everyday life. Can you afford to take this risk?

This is an important book to read for those of you who are experiencing hair loss from a man who went through it. He discusses the pitfalls in the commercial side of the hair transplant business which you should all know about. John Vincent has offered our readers a free copy of the book by emailing him here:

Dr. Rassman

My daughter has many bald spots on her head, we noticed this back in August of last year and it dosen’t seem to be getting better. I am at a loss as to what to do. I have had her saliva tested and put her on a vitamin and mineral regiment. She has also started to eat more vegetables at our urging to help with her problem. She is seven years old and has always been concerned with her appearance, I am very concerned that this will progress and affect her forever. Please send me any information that you think may help us.

Take her to a good dermatologist. Spots of hair loss are signs of something wrong like a fungal disease of the scalp or alopecia areata or a variety of other conditions. This is not the place for the amateurs (or even online opinions) and your daughter deserves a good professional opinion from an expert in person.