Balding Blog – Page 1267

September 11, 2009

Hair Above Where I Use My Cell Phone is Thinning – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Doc,
I have an area above my right ear where the hair is about 75% thinner — the hair itself, not the coverage, though that’s thinner too. There is also a substantial amount of grey hair here, but not the thick scraggly kind, these are also finer than the rest of my hair. Of note — I don’t have any grey hairs anywhere else but this area. No one in my family appears to have a similar condition. The only thing I can attribute it to is cell phone usage. I only hold the phone to my right ear, and while I don’t spend all day on the phone, I do take 20-30 calls/day. I’m interested in your comments.
Thanks

If (keyword is: “IF”) cell phone use is causing your hair loss, maybe you are pressing it too tight to your ear and rubbing up on the side of your head where you have hair loss. This would be considered traction alopecia.

I highly doubt it has to do with radiation from cell phone use. It may not be cell phone related at all and what you’re seeing is coincidental. Without an examination and a more careful history your guess is as good as mine.

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September 11, 2009

Fluocinonide Stopped My Female Hair Loss for a Couple Months – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Hi. I am a 32 year old female who has been experiencing hair loss every six months for the last two years. Every time my dermatologist or GP would prescribe Fluocinonide Topical Solution (.05%). The shedding would stop about 2 months later. However, 5 months later the shedding would start up again. I had some blood work done, but they came back normal. Can you tell me what is going on?

Also, can you recommend a hair loss expert/dermatologist in Orange County? I would like some answers.

Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy day to answer my questions.

This may be a jaded perspective and opinion, so be forewarned…

Hair loss for women can be a very frustrating condition to treat and diagnose for physicians. Miniaturization studies will show the status of the hair, thinning possibly in some areas. The doctors are under pressure to be proactive and to provide some form of treatment to the distraught patient even if they are not losing hair. If a doctor prescribes a harmless treatment that does not really have any clinical basis or proven results, is the doctor being honest? Treating hair loss with a corticosteroid (anti-inflammatory drug) such as fluocinonide would mean that there may be some inflammatory process going on behind the hair loss, but even without the use of such drug it is more likely the shedding would have stopped in a few months time. Hair loss can be cyclical in women. Oh… and don’t discount the power of the placebo effect.

I would think that if you have some sort of an inflammatory cause of hair loss (that is responding to fluocinonide) you would need a scalp biopsy to make the diagnosis. Any GP or dermatologist would be able to do that. Be forewarned that a biopsy would leave you with a small bald spot.

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September 10, 2009

Do You Think Hair Cloning Will Ever Be Readily Available? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Dear Dr,

From one of the last posts I saw about hair cloning it appears that there is a real possibility that it will never emmerge. You mentioned that the trials have been underwhelming and are not working how they were expected. Do you think that the compnaies invoved with developing hair cloning will wash their hands of it. Do you think we will ever see it working. Obviously, everyone is waiting for a genuine ‘cure’ for baldness and if it is not going to be hair cloning is there anything else on the horizon that might be it? Surely, we must be getting closer to that day and if so when do you think that day will be? Many thanks for your blog.

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DNA I think that hair cloning will be available at some point in the future, but certainly not in the immediate future. I feel like I’m the lone person willing to say that it is not ready for primetime yet (not even close), and I wonder why some people are just willing to believe every press release with a tiny nugget of information.

There are more promising options than just hair cloning alone such as stimulating the stem cells in the skin and epidermis, finding of compounds that are the missing link to hair growth (for example, some medication that might just grow back the follicular units that may be present throughout the bald head). While I think that any one solution is not at hand, the availability of multiple approaches just increases the odds that some solution will someday be at hand.

There are breakthroughs occurring at a rapid rate now on using stem cells to generate entire organs like the kidney, heart, and lungs. Hair is another such organ system that could benefit from such breakthroughs. I am optimistic that one of these breakthroughs will be evident in the next decade or so, but which one? Your guess is as good as mine.

September 10, 2009

Tongkat Ali and Finasteride – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hi Doc,
Thank you for this site, it is a source of valuable info for a lot of people including me. Keep up the good work.

My question is, can tongkat ali affect the effectiveness of finasteride (Proscar) in stopping hair loss? I read that tongkat ali is a natural testosterone enhancer and can benefit the person using it with stronger libido, sexual performance enhancer, and can promote good physical well being. Will it make the finasteride less effective? According to some research it has not found any baldness side effect for people using tongkat ali. Thank you and more power to your work.

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I’ve got no experience with this herbal, also known as eurycoma longifolia, so I turned to the internet for some info. According to this page, tongkat ali requires DHT to boost the libido, and finasteride blocks DHT. Therefore, you should not take both at the same time if you want the tongkat ali to work and if what I read on that site is actually true.

I don’t know if it’ll make finasteride less effective, but it seems that the finasteride would make the tongkat ali ineffective.

September 10, 2009

My Hair Thinning a Few Years Ago but Stopped — Should I Take Propecia Now? – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Hello. I noticed that I started thinning at the top of my head when I was about 23-24 years old. I lost quite a bit of hair but still had a reasonably decent amount of hair left. I am now almost 28 and have not really lost any more hair but haven’t really regrown it either. I have started Propecia to prevent any further loss but I was wondering if I have waited too long for any regrowth to happen. If my hair stays like this it’s ok but I do feel a little bitter at myself for not starting propecia earlier.

I would follow up with the doctor you are receiving Propecia from and get a good documentation of your current state of hair. This may be in the form of a photograph… or better yet, a miniaturization study to get an estimate of the percentage of miniaturization on certain areas of your scalp. Then you can judge if Propecia is worthwhile or at the least keep track of the hair loss progression. Lets try to take a scientific approach! Regrowth isn’t guaranteed for anyone taking the medication (some will just see the hair loss halt), so I wouldn’t beat yourself up about it.

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September 10, 2009

In the News – Women May Have Lead in their Lipstick? – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Not exactly hair loss related, but interesting nonetheless —

Snippet from the article:

Fact is, FDA has found lead in all 20 lipsticks tested, in significantly higher amounts than those that caused a minor media uproar when the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics (CSC) tested lipstick in 2007. The FDA detected lipstick lead concentrations up to 3.06 parts per million (ppm), more than 4 times the maximum (0.65 ppm) measured by CSC.

Read the full article — I’ll take my lipstick unleaded, please

Oh boy. Should we think twice about kissing a woman with lipstick on? I wouldn’t jump to conclusions that leaded lipstick is causing hair loss, but it is a little odd to me that the FDA is fine with traces of lead in lipstick, yet the EPA wants it out of our environment.

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September 10, 2009

Do Men Have More Shock Loss Than Women? – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

I notice most females get transplanted hairs into diffusely thin areas and seem to get better results than men in those areas. In your experience, do men tend to get more shock loss than females? And if so why? Would a male who has female pattern balding (mostly diffuse thinning down the middle front area) have a higher chance for shock loss even if they are on Propecia versus a women with the same balding pattern?

Women are not always good hair transplant candidates because they usually have diffuse thinning, including in the “donor area” (rim of hair around the back and sides). Contrary to what you may have seen, women do not necessarily have better results than men. What you may be noticing is that women tend to keep their hair longer, curl their hair, layer their hair, or style their hair that is more conducive to disguising their hair loss.

There is no difference in shock loss for men (who are on Propecia) or women. Young men that are not on Propecia are the ones that get the worst shock loss, but both sexes can get it.

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September 9, 2009

My Transplant Wasn’t Cosmetically Adequate – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Hello,
I had a hair transplant in my crown area about 4 years ago. Although medically it was a success, cosmetically it did not adequately cover the bald spot and the bald spot is still obvious. I was fed up and tried shaving my head bald. This left the transplant scar clearly visible. The hair has grown back but I am now back to square one. I am not sure what to do. I think my options are to a) have more transplants in the crown, b) have hair transplants in the scar area and cut my hair short, or c) treat the scar. Are these my only options or are there other options. What would you recommend? I now feel I am in a catch-22, because I cannot cut my hair short, and I have noticeable hair loss.

Thanks

You probably didn’t get good counseling and were not given realistic expectations. Without seeing you, I can’t really give an opinion, as I do not know how “bald” you are. People have different views and I would need to see what you mean. Its all perspective. I could let you look at my (Rassman) transplanted crown and use my results as a yardstick of your expectations. If you have enough donor hair, you might be able to have more transplants to fill out the area.

Generally, it is very difficult to completely cover the bald spot on top of your head. Not because it is technically difficult, but because you might not have enough donor hair. You can transplant hair to the scar, but you will always have the scar there, although less visible. You can do a scar revision and this time the surgeon can use a trichophytic closure to hopefully make the scar even harder to detect (almost normal, but possibly not enough to shave your head). Another potential possibility is to use the FUE technique to extract hairs one-by-one and place them into the linear scar. Again, I can’t tell you what is actually possible without an exam first. For your crown, there are products like Toppik which work nicely to camouflage the area.

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September 9, 2009

I’m Losing Hair at 21, But My Dad Lost His Hair at 36! – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Dear Doctor. Thank you for this blog. It has helped me so many times!

I was wondering…Im only 21 and I’m already beginning to loose my hair. Actually my hair loss already began in the age of 19. But I was looking at some old pictures of dad when he was about 33-35 years old, and his baldness first kicked in around the age of 36. I really dont understand why I’m already beginning to loose my hair? Is it just bad luck, because you can’t look at your dad and foreseen when your hair loss will start? I was just thinking that 15 years is a lot before my dad’s hair loss started! Can there be another reason to my hair loss besides genes? I’m in good shape and I’m eating healty. I can litterly “pull” oyt my hair when strokeing my fingers trough it. Or when I’m washing it my hands are full hair. Thank you for your time!

Best regards

The most common cause of hair loss in young men is genetic. There could be other causes, but it is much more likely that it is your genes. The fact that there is hair loss in the family tree helps, but you won’t necessarily follow the exact same timeline of loss as your father.

A direct examination of your scalp with mapping for miniaturization will tell you the diagnosis. Then if you are positive for genetic hair loss, Propecia is a great (prescription-only) drug taken daily to address the loss problem as it will slow down the loss, possibly stop it, and if you really lost hair it might even reverse it at your age. See a good doctor.

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September 9, 2009

I Practiced Doing Headstands for Years and Now I Have a Callus with a Bald Spot – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Dr. Rassman,

I am grateful for the information on this blog but after going through the forum, there doesn’t seem to be a case that is similar to mine. I am a 23 year old Asian male located in the Los Angeles area and on the top of my head is a circular spot which is nearly bald. I am 99% certain this circular spot is a callous that was developed by the many headstands and spinning I used to practice when I was 18-22.

The rest of my head is fine, I notice losing the usual hair but my crown appears to be thinning because the hair from the crown area is combed up to disguise the circular spot. Is a hair transplant the only way to deal with this callous on the top of my head and where can I go to get consultation on that procedure?

Please help, Dr. Rassman.

Headspin It sounds like you developed traction alopecia in the area that is callused. Hair transplants should solve the problem, but you must make sure that you stop standing on your head and spinning. If you want to continue to stand on your head, use a circular collar to keep the pressure evenly spread.

As you indicated you are local, you should visit me and let’s look at your problem (I’m in Los Angeles).