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Normal Miniaturization?

Hi Doc, how’s it going? I wanted to ask you how much miniaturization throughout the scalp is considered normal? 10-20%? I’m male, 22 and I have been on propecia for the past 3 years. I had a miniaturization test 3 months ago and the doc said I have slight to moderate miniaturization at my hairline and crown. At my age, would my hairloss stabilize? I’m just hoping I have enough hair until the next hair treatment makes its way to the market, thanks.

I call any miniaturization under 20% as normal, because it may reflect vellus hair. What you see in one part of the head should be similar to other parts if it is not miniaturizing so that additional piece of information helps me as well.

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Normal Daily Scalp Hair Loss?

I’ve always read that we lose 50-100 hairs a day but how much of that hair comes from the scalp or do we really lose 50-100 hair from the scalp? It would certainly explain the 30+ strands of hair that gets caught on my comb whenever I brush my hair.

We typically lose 100 scalp hairs each day… and most of that loss may occur when you are outside with the wind blowing through your hair doing your everyday activities. We are born with approximately 100,000 hairs on our scalp. While you may be losing 100 scalp hairs a day, your body is also growing 100 scalp hairs that you cannot see to keep things on a balance.

If you’re seeing 30+ hairs each time you comb your hair, I have to wonder if you’re wearing a hat or using gel/wax that could trap the hair that would normally fall out during the course of your day. Or perhaps you’ve got some sort of hair loss.

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Non-Surgical Treatments for Postmenopausal Women?

I am a 55 year old woman within my 3rd year of full menopause. My hair is thinning noticeably at the crown and in the front, not so much in the back. I am concerned that I have inherited my mother and maternal grandmother’s hair loss; they had very thick hair until they reached my age and from there on it was a systematic hair loss. My father on the other hand had all his hair until he died at the age of 60.

My question is what can I do to stop the hair loss, and is there any treatment for recovering hair loss? Is there any promising treatment for women that does not involve surgery?
Thank you

The only medication that is proven to work for women is Minoxidil. It only works in some women. Many substances are sold with promises that just aren’t true. Hold onto your money and be careful not to get caught up in any scam.

I would see a doctor to be sure that you do not have other causes of hair loss and have your hair mapped out for miniaturization to be sure of the diagnosis. Female genetic hair loss has a unique pattern shown under high power visualization.

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Non-Propecia Recommendations?

Dear Dr. Rassman,
I am a 17 year old and have been losing my hair for about a year and a half. I started losing it while I was taking Accutane, and it hasn’t stopped since. I went to a dermatologist and he said that it was MPB, and he recommended I take Propecia. Is there anything else I could take or use that you would recommend, such as Revivogen or the LaserComb instead, as I am frightened of the possible side effects, considering that my cousin took Propecia and had sexual side effects?

If you have MPB, then Propecia is the appropriate medication for you. Although the other things MAY have value (I am not saying they do), Propecia is in your best interest in that it WILL have value to you. Don’t gamble with your hair, for unlike a slot machine where you can always win more money, the hair gamble is irreversible; you can’t go out there and win more.


2006-01-04 10:54:32Non-Propecia Recommendations?

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Non-physicians doing the surgery and I can’t get an accurate surgical record of my surgery

I have ask my Dr for the count of my graft on the first and second day after the surgery to find out how many graft were implanted. I am getting a run0around. First I was told that he was going to email me, then he told me he was sending a copy to my home. Is there is a way he can altered since we got into a huge argument because my hairline one side is higher than the other and the grafts were sparce out too far. It doesn’t look like the 2000 graft I paid for. What should I do?

When technicans do the surgery, it is an illegal process as only a doctor can do the surgery. I would report the doctor to the medical board and they will take an action against that doctor. People like you put their life and the looks on the line and do not deserve that type of medical care


2017-12-18 08:50:57Non-physicians doing the surgery and I can’t get an accurate surgical record of my surgery

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Non-Hair-Loss News – Stem Cell “Enhanced” Facelift Caused Bones to Grow in Woman’s Eyelids

Snippet from the non-hair-loss article:

Her eyelid drooped stubbornly, and the area around her eye was somewhat swollen. Six and a half hours of surgery later, he and his colleagues had dug out small chunks of bone from the woman’s eyelid and tissue surrounding her eye, which was scratched but largely intact. The clicks she heard were the bone fragments grinding against one another.

About three months earlier the woman had opted for a relatively new kind of cosmetic procedure at a different clinic in Beverly Hills—a face-lift that made use of her own adult stem cells. First, cosmetic surgeons had removed some the woman’s abdominal fat with liposuction and isolated the adult stem cells within—a family of cells that can make many copies of themselves in an immature state and can develop into several different kinds of mature tissue.

Read the full article — In the Flesh: The Embedded Dangers of Untested Stem Cell Cosmetics

Yikes. The article goes on to discuss possible dangers of unapproved stem cell treatments and how we should temper our excitement for these types of treatments so that serious illness research isn’t put in jeopardy.

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Non-Hair-Loss News – Man Finds Out He Has Cancer After He Uses a Home Pregnancy Test

Snippet from the non-hair-loss article:

If you are a lady, and you think you might be pregnant, you can take an at-home test to find out. You simply pee on a stick. Whether the results are measured in pink lines, blue lines, plus and minus symbols, or a “pregnant”/”not pregnant” digital readout, all the home pregnancy tests on the market are really looking for the same thing — Human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG).

HCG is a pregnancy hormone. It’s produced by the placenta, a temporary organ that only forms in female bodies when an embryo has attached to the uterine lining. And so it was kind of weird when a male friend of a Reddit user known as CappnPoopDeck peed on a home pregnancy test and it came back positive.

Read the rest at BoingBoing — Positive pregnancy test diagnoses man’s cancer

Wow.


2012-11-12 09:19:12Non-Hair-Loss News – Man Finds Out He Has Cancer After He Uses a Home Pregnancy Test

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Non-FDA Approved Products

Dr. Rassman,

I realize as a doctor you must take the given data to insure your patients are given the “right” treatment for their condition. I do however, wonder how you can comment on products you yourself admit to know very little about. I do not know much about the product either, but a friend has used it and has had very real results with it within 12 months. I am not here to blast your opinion, but as a doctor you are compelled to research things/products that may very well put some doctors out of business. Heart disease for expample, may be a thing of the past in a decade. There are great prescriptions for heart-related conditions, but there are also great things such as diet and herbs that greatly reduce the risk of heart disease. My father was a surgeon who always put the patient first even if it was not the most lucrative choice for him. I am a bioligist with a very firm understanding of biochemistry as well. I agree that nothing is side-effect free, especially if it has any real efficacy, but check closer on some things to make sure you are not missing something out there. Something that may have potential. I am sure I don’t have to remind you that your patients are always first. You know your science works, but remember the light bulb was ignored at first also. oh yes, as far as the FDA works, I have no real comment on that. They have their own job and I am not certain how they work. They do real good things, and it has also been proven that they do real crooked things also.

This sounds more like a statement than a question. Your points are well taken. In my formal capacity, I do not recommend medications/herbs/potions/lotions that I do not know to work. You are correct in that not every medication is good and safe (just look at Vioxx), but the tradeoff between benefits and risks just need proper informed consent for each person using it. I know that Vioxx helped many people handle the pain of crippling arthritis, but some of them paid for that benefit. The issue really is, did they know what the risks were? We all know that the drug Thalamide caused babies with no arms or legs when their mothers took the medications while pregnant, but did you know that this drug was a miracle drug for many problems today in the non-pregnant female? The drug was taken off the market, so some people with particular types of bone cancer go through hoops and loops to get some to help them. It is now being considered for people with advanced HIV infection and body wasting, yet to pass FDA safety and effectiveness clearance. The drug has many uses in the third world.

I believe that we all have the right to know and balance (1) the benefits and (2) the rewards of taking a medication or herbal remedy that is heavily promoting its products. There are two sides of that equation. I do not know if some of these products are safe or effective, so I read the material supplied by many of these companies. When I see poor photographic representations, or scalp coloring agents used to promote benefits which are only created by a ‘can of spray paint’ on the scalp below the miracle new hair (or something similar), then I can not endorse these products. They may be great products, but they burned their bridges with me as a product endorser.