Balding Blog

Hi Dr Rassman, like many others, I’d like to thank you for taking the time to maintain this blog. I’m 40, have considerable recession at the temples, but recently I started noticing more in the middle front and overall thinning. Obviously that’s not sitting well with me, probably causing a chicken and the egg situation, as its stressing me out, which can be a major contributor.

Do you think Propecia would still do anything for me? In addition, Retane is another product I’ve read about. Have you heard of it and if so, whether its worth looking into further. I hope you will be able to respond to my question. Thanks very much in advance.

Retane doesn’t appear to have anything of value in it to regrow your hair or cease your hair loss. This list the ingredients on their site as inositol, biotin, protodioscin, folic acid, vitamin B5, vitamin E, aloe vera, and ginseng panax extract. These ingredients simply don’t have value in treating hair loss. The product’s website references an 86% success rate over and over — and a closer look at the clinical study they reference shows that it was conducted 7 years ago, included only 22 people (15 men, 7 women), and was only 4 weeks long. Their website informs us that you might see regrowth at the 6 week mark, so why their “study” went to only 4 weeks is beyond me. That is such a half-cooked study for a hair growth treatment that I don’t think I need to go further with my comments.

As for the other part to your question — I haven’t seen your photos and don’t really have a full history of your hair loss, but if your doctor prescribes Propecia to you, I don’t see why it couldn’t work. At the very least, it could halt the hair loss from progressing for some time. As long as you know that you for sure have genetic balding (think miniaturization mapping), you should spend your money on a hair loss treatment that is proven to work, like Propecia and minoxidil.

Hello, i am slightly confused, i read how resveratrol can increase test levels, is this true and would it worsen my hairloss?

But i also recently read a contradictory study on the combination of resvaratrol with curcumin, which is claimed to help with hairloss. Do you think this is a posibility? An italian company were seeking a patent on a pill that contained these two .

Also i take finasteride, can the res/cur, affect the absorption of fin? I take fin in the morning.

Here’s what I just learned from Wikipedia —
Resveratrol is a chemical produced naturally by several plants (including red grapes). As suggested, it gives the heart beneficial qualities of red wine. Curcumin is found in Indian spice turmeric, which is a member of the ginger family.

So in essence (let’s cut out all the nebulous scientific names), you want to know if natural extracts from grape and ginger can be beneficial to your hair. There are THOUSANDS of these natural concoctions people have tried to help with hair loss throughout history. I really do not know if it will work, but in the end it becomes a “buyer beware” market and your experience with how your body responds is the final answer you need for you. In my opinion, I doubt it will have an impact on your hair, but more so on your wallet and time. I don’t know anything about the study you’re referencing, so I can’t really give you any insight into their findings.