Balding Blog

Does miniaturized hair gradually grow shorter with each cycle or can a miniaturized hair be long, say 5-6 inches then fall and stop growing?

At the start of the year my hair was thick but after a stressful couple of months, all my hair turned super thin with bald patches. The hair turned so thin it has very wide partings. Also all my body hair thinned too. Beard, arms, legs and pubic area. It’s like every hair on my body miniaturized. I can see my scalp now with wet hair. It all happened quickly, this wasn’t a gradual thing. The hair texture feels weird. My beard hair has thinned the same. I had thick hair on arms and legs now it’s all very fine. My pubes are now thin and wispy. I started taking fin a few months ago. I was prescribed it for prostate. Will this help? I can’t find anything about this when searching the net, only TE but does hair thin during that? At the start of the year I was very stressed, hardly eating or sleeping for a couple of months which I”m sure caused this.

Let’s imagine a hair that grows out for two years and is 12 inches long. If miniaturized started into the second year, the hair closest to the scalp would be thinning then the hair at the end which was made 2 years earlier. So a miniaturized hair can be seen simply by pulling out a long hair and looking at both ends. Another aspect of these miniaturized hairs is that they will grow slower and slower over time, eventually they stop growing and just stay there, falling out with washing, brushing and just the wind.

There is another condition that I just recently defined in the literature called Age Related Thinning. In this situation, all of the scalp hairs become thinner all at once and it is uniform thinning throughout the scalp. Although this is more common in men and women over 50, it does appear in younger men and women. I have seen it in men in their 20s and they make the mistake to think that this is balding because they can see through the hair to the scalp. There is no known treatment for this and neither minoxidil nor finasteride can reverse this as I know it. This is my article about it: https://newhair.com/pdf/Kumaresan-Muthuvel-Bernstein-Rassman-Commentary.pdf

It is more than possible as many people have this done. The problem is the growth cycle of body hair which is about 6 months and the telogen cycle is 6 months. That means that if you are transplanting 100 hairs, only 50 will be growing at any one time. Because of the short hair cycle, the length is limited as well as the character which comes with the body hair texture. This, in combination, makes for considerable expense when doing these, you are only getting half of what a scalp or beard donor hair transplant would give you.

You have a mature hairline and may have very mild corner recession. There is nothing to worry about now. Try to find a doctor who can perform a HAIRCHECK instrument test. This test will determine if you are balding or not.

No access to dermatologist, need advice. from tressless

This man sent me an email asking this question:

How do you tell the difference between recession and mature hairline?

I asked him to send me a photo of his hairline with his eyebrows lifted high so that the creases show on his forehead. A mature hairline can be seen here because the hairline is about 1/2 inch above the highest crease of the furrowed brow. The shape of a mature hairline is V-shaped which is a typical male hairline shape. If you are concerned about a receding hairline, always do this test.

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.

These are neutraceutical products which have general claims like hair health but minoxidil has science behind it to show it really can grow hair. You can’t draw any science from some claims from Nutrofol; however, the photos (if they can be believed when produced by the company and not peer reviewed medical journals, can be impressive but not always believed).