Balding Blog

This is a very impressive study on 76 men which took place over 24 weeks and got substantial growth. Mean hair count increases of 40% were observed in PSO-treated men at ‘just’ 24 weeks, whereas increases of 10% were observed in placebo-treated men (P < 0.001). Adverse effects were not different in the two groups. I think that this is worth a try for many men thinking about doing something simple and inexpensive for treating their hair loss.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4017725/

hello Doctors, about 2 years ago i was shaving my hair with a trimmer and it pulled a chunk of hair out at the widows peak, the hair has never grown back properly and when light hits that area it appears shiny and bald. But on closer inspection there are loads of tiny thin hairs… these hairs have remained for over a year and never grow any longer than half a millimeter. I would imagine this is miniaturization ? but from reading up usually miniaturized hairs fall out…. these hairs have been there for over a year and never shrunk or grown more ? any ideas what might be going on and if i could use something to make
them grow normal ?

Traumatic pull of hair and hair loss resulting from such trauma can take about a year to grow back. If it has not grown back in one year, then we generally assume the hair is lost. In most cases it does grow back if the pulling is not chronic over time.

However after 2 years, I suspect what you see is what you get. The small fine hairs you may be seeing is just vellus hairs that is present on our bodies that is not necessarily scalp hair. I cannot tell you exactly what you are seeing without an examination.

Why is a pull test positive in cases of telogen effluvium but not in mpb. If a pull test was positive is this a definate indication of telogen effluvium

The pull test can reflect many conditions, including a variety of autoimmune alopecias, telogen effluvium, possibly even androgenetic alopecia when it is very active. The test constitutes grasping about 60 hairs between two fingers near the scalp, then pulling gently (but firmly) on the hair. A positive test will yield 6 or more hairs and it is often done on 4 different parts of the scalp.

Do not wash your hair for 2 days prior to doing the test. If you decide to do the test on yourself, do not keep repeating it as you can pull out more hair than you really want.

This would not be a reliable test for male pattern balding diagnosis, because the hair loss from this condition varies. I suspect that when the process is not active (like when a patient is using finasteride / Propecia), the hair loss has stabilized so that the pull test would or should be negative. There are much better ways to make the diagnosis of MPB than by using the pull test.

I read about this hair regrowth technique on the internet about massaging the scalp, and pulling on the hair and at night rubbing garlic into the hair and sleeping with it (it suggested other things like nail scratching and brush scratching the scalp, ect. I tried it for about two weeks (the first week putting olive oil on every night before bed).

Now my hair, which was a bit receded on the sides has significantly receded on the sides and into the top. In only two weeks (and it was pretty stable before). I am wondering if any of these techniques (like the scalp massages, or pulling, or even the garlic) could have caused the losses.

I just feel so lost and a bit depressed as to why it changed so drastically and what to do about it, if I can just even get it back to the way it was two weeks ago.

Thanks so much for your help.

Rubbing on the hair and scalp can force out weak hairs, and that is why we suggest no rough scalp massage. Pulling on your hair absolutely will not help either. I have heard of such remedies over the years. Some of them are pretty funny, like keeping various animal droppings on your head while you sleep, pouring animal urine on the scalp, standing on your head for hours (just being upside down is thought to bring more blood supply to the head), and on and on.

What is wrong with going to a doctor who knows things that you do not, can diagnose what you can not, and can treat you with appropriate effective treatment modalities? The real cost to you is the time delays you are putting into getting to the root of the problem. To answer your question though, garlic won’t regrow your hair… but added to butter, it makes for a tasty sauce on bread.

People who may have similar symptoms are not at any greater risk of developing gynecomastia on Finasteride than anyone else.

How to deal with gyno on fin? from tressless

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10495374/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26636418/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4969473/

All three of these research papers discuss the impact on scalp and systemic DHT. Dutasteride reported a low incidence of sexual side effects 1.7% but although this number is thought to be low, if you subtract the placebo group from the sexual side effects group on finasteride it comes out about 2%.

https://www.hairlosslearningcenter.org/topic/merck-makers-of-propecia-caught-lying-for-second-time/3390

This is all speculation at this time; however, it is appearing in many forums as fact. We must wait for the court to go through its process before judging Merck here.

In one of your posts on the blog you said you’ve done pubic hair to scalp transplants in a patient(s) before. This certainly isn’t to undermine any work done but wouldn’t a person have a bizarre appearance with pubes growing out of their head? And how well do they survive on the scalp since they are hairs with apocrine glands?