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If My Hair Can Be Pulled Out Easily, Does That Mean Rogaine and Propecia Are Becoming Less Effective?

Hello Doctor,

I have been loosing my hair since the age of 16 and finally took notice months before my 18th birthday. Currently I am on both propecia and 5% Rogaine and have been for the past year (prior I relied on just 1.25mg finasteride).My current results with my regimen have been satisfactory, as I can not for sure say what I’d look without the medication.

My question is regarding the ease of hair falling from the scalp when rubbed and the amount of hair strands that can been pulled by gently using your index finger and thumb. Recently I have been able to pull about 3-5 strands at a time out of head and hair tends to fall out easily when I rub it (a common habit of mine while studying). This has been occurring on and off for the past couple of months- especially after I was off rogaine for a period of 2 weeks in January while I awaiting for new shipment to arrive (I order the foam online through ebay since it is not available in Canada).

Do these symptoms indicate that the drugs are becoming less effective now, leaving genetics to take its course? Is there any shampoo or conditioner that you recommend or heard from prior patients to help strengthen the hair follicle?

Maybe you should stop pulling on your hair. How easily your hair falls out has no real clinical significance with Rogaine or Propecia use.

There is no magic drug, shampoo, conditioner, or potions that will help strengthen hair. There are hundreds of products out there. Try them. I am not against them, but you WILL end up spending a significant amount of money and likely be left without any benefit.


2012-11-13 08:41:15If My Hair Can Be Pulled Out Easily, Does That Mean Rogaine and Propecia Are Becoming Less Effective?

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If My Father Lost All His Hair, Am I Wasting Time Trying to Prevent My Hair Loss?

I have slight frontal balding and some thinning at the top of my head. I have no blad spot yet but its getting close to that. I am 28, my dad was completely bald on top, a stage 7 I guess. I have been using Propecia for 3 weeks.

I have 3 questions,

  1. Is Nisim or Nizoral any help to my hair loss?
  2. Seeing my father lost almost all of his hair on top am I wasting my time trying to prevent my hair loss.
  3. Do you know of any good hair loss doctors in the Tampa, Florida area.

Thanks in advance.

If you are 28 years old and are not completely bald as your father almost certainly was, then you will probably not be following his pattern. All Class 7 men have lost most of their hair before they were 28 and if you have no bald spot now, I would doubt that you would in the Class 7 hair loss pattern. If you get your hair mapped out for miniaturization you might be able to tell where you will be losing more hair, possibly even when (short term vs long term). See an expert and find out for yourself.

The answers to your questions are as follows:

  1. I’ve said it before, but, “Nizoral is a good shampoo. I do not believe it is necessarily good at regrowing hair. There is not enough scientific data to support hair growth claims.” As for Nisim, they make yet another herbal product that is not proven by the FDA to work. As regular readers of this site should know, I do not recommend products that aren’t FDA approved for treating hair loss. You can try it if you want. They say they offer a guarantee, but I’ll leave that up to you. Buyer beware.
  2. The choice for you is to be proactive or not. I think that you are not going to follow your father’s pattern, considering you said he was a class 7 by the time he was your age.
  3. I usually do not supply referrals for transplant docs, but you can check ISHRS.org‘s physician search to find one in your area. Be sure to use the internet to research the doctor you chose.


2007-05-01 17:39:35If My Father Lost All His Hair, Am I Wasting Time Trying to Prevent My Hair Loss?

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If My Dermatitis is Active, Can I Still Get a Hair Transplant?

(female)
Does contact dermatitis affect my chances of having hair implanted. Over the past two years, my dermatitis has caused my hair to fall out and I want to get implant hair. Can I? That’s the question. Please let me know.

Thank you.

At NHI, we have performed surgery on many patients with dermatitis or even psoriasis. Each and every patient is different and if you are interested in surgery, you need to be evaluated by a competent hair transplant surgeon.

There are cautions with regard to the pretreatment of active areas of local dermatitis or psoriasis for example, as complications do occur with such findings as a Koebner phenomenon in the areas where incisions are made in active areas of psoriasis or dermatitis.

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If Money Wasn’t a Problem, Where Would You Get a Hair Transplant Done?

Always look up the doctor and see his credentials (here are mine: https://newhair.com/doctors/rassman/ ). Ask to see his patients and meet them one-on-one because what you see is what you are going to get. It is not very complicated but too many doctors are ‘sold’ by salesmen who know how to convert you to get your money.


2020-06-11 09:59:15If Money Wasn’t a Problem, Where Would You Get a Hair Transplant Done?

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If Minoxidil Regrew Hair, Could Starting Finasteride Cause it to Shed?

I have been taking minoxil for roughly 8 months and have had decent results in the hairline area, especially the corners. I’m going to start finasteride soon however I have a question about shedding. As I understand it, the shedding that can happen on finasteride is due to the follicles that are DHT damaged shedding the hair to grow back stronger.

My question is: is hair grown back solely with minoxidil more likely to be shed when starting finasteride?

The initial shedding is noted with the use of Rogaine (minoxidil) way more often than Propecia (finasteride). I’ve only rarely seen this problem in patients after starting finasteride, but I am seeing growing concerns from readers about it. It’s interesting how various claims can be given so much acceptance when it’s not something widely noted in large scale studies or amongst doctors with patients on the drug.

So unfortunately I don’t have an answer to your question, since I don’t have enough of a patient history that have experienced it.

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If Minoxidil and Propecia Work Best in the Crown, How Can I Save My Hairline?

I am 33 years of age and my hair line has become considerably thinner over the last year or so. Apart from having a transplant what else can I do to prevent further hairline loss seeing as Propecia and Rogaine only work on the crown?

Also is it possible that hair loss occurs in stages that last a year or so and then slow down?

Hair loss can occur in stages, spurts of hair loss and then a quieter period. Frontal hair loss is difficult to reverse, but Propecia (assuming you have genetic hair loss) does slow the process down. I have seen many men who were losing hair rapidly in the front, then go on Propecia and see the hair loss stop. If they should stop the Propecia (some do for reasons that I do not understand) the hair loss picks up again and makes up for the time the drug was effectively holding the hair there. Get your hair mapped out for miniaturization and then consider the Propecia option, if indicated. You may be concerned about frontal loss today, but taking action with the drug Propecia will help you in the frontal area today. Crown loss can be thwarted as well.

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If Intercytex Is In Phase II Trials, Why Is Hair Multiplication So Many Years Away?

Hello Dr. Rassman,

Intercytex has completed phase I human trials of their hair multiplication product ICX-TRC. The founder of the company, Dr. Paul Kemp, was one of the phase I trials volunteers. Phase II trials have recently begun in the U.K. and may be expanded to the U.S. sometime during 2007. Although there are always roadblocks that can slow progress, they are working towards phase III trials in late 2007/2008 in both the U.K. and U.S. and then the final FDA review for the 12-18 months following. This timeline would bring us to around 2010.

If they have already completed phase I and have started phase II, why do many in the hair transplant community still think it’s many, many years away until hair multiplication is a reality?

I was at the ISHRS conference in San Diego a week ago and more importantly to your question, I was in attendance for the Intercytex presentation at this event. It was stated that the phase II trials will end in 2008. Intercytex’s presentation, while enthusiastic, did not include any human volunteer examples or mention a specific (near future) time line. Anyone can assume and put a guess to a when and if hair multiplication would be a reality. But, considering that the completion of phase II trials is still two years away, it is virtually impossible to state when/if it would become a reality. There are still many obstacles ahead.

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If I’m Taking Propecia, How Do I Know If My Loss Has Stopped?

i was just wondering if i was on propecia for the last three years and my thinning hair has ceased, how do i know if the drug is still at work or my hair has done all the thinning its going to do on its own in my life and i dont need the drug no more. im 54 yrs old.

thanks

Propecia is considered a life-long medication. If you stop taking Propecia you may lose the hairs that it was maintaining.

I just saw a 40 year old man who stopped taking Propecia 8 weeks ago. He reported that his hair started to fall out in handfuls. This is what I call “catch up” hair loss. We have written about this phenomenon numerous times on this site. He asked me if he could reverse it again by starting the drug today and wanted to know if it would work on him now. My answer was to watch the change in his bulk measurement and if he came back in 3 months, this test should show if the hair loss process is reversing or if it just stopped the hair loss. Since everybody is different, talk with your doctor regarding your specific situation and your options.

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If I’m Splitting the 5mg Finasteride Pills, Are the Side Effect Risks Greater?

I’m turning 26 years old soon and been on Propecia for 4 years now starting in mid July. For over 2 years I been cutting generic fin in 4 pieces and have saved tons of money. If you are cutting fin you are taking a slightly higher dose can it give you side effects? Because when cutting those pills the dose can be sometimes from like 1mg to maybe 1.5mg it’s hard to cut it accurately! And even if you do you be still taking 1.25mg!

Unless the pieces are perfectly symmetrical and you didn’t lose any crumbs in the cutting process, you probably aren’t getting a full 1.25mg finasteride dose — and like you said, splitting it accurately is difficult.

But let’s assume you’re getting an average of 1.25mg per day. I suppose taking that dose by cutting a 5mg tablet can theoretically give you a slightly higher risk of side effects than taking a premade 1mg finasteride pill (Propecia)… but in practice, we have not seen this.


2012-07-02 11:39:24If I’m Splitting the 5mg Finasteride Pills, Are the Side Effect Risks Greater?

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If I’m Going to Be Norwood 7, When Will I See Significant Loss?

Hello, I have a question about the different patterns of hairloss in men. My father is a full-blown Norwood class 7. I started losing hair very early (20) and got on finasteride right away. But my hairloss is not diffuse like I would expect a NW7 to bald. I only really have temple recession at this point (21 yrs.old). So my question, Does a NW7 generally bald in a diffuse pattern, or can a destined NW7 start off by losing the temple region?

In other words, do I have any hope that I did not get my father’s hair genes?

Norwood 7You are right to be on Propecia. I can not tell you how you might lose it, particularly with Propecia on board. Ask your dad how and when he lost his hair, as that will give you some possible insight. If I mapped out your scalp hair for miniaturization, there may be some insights into the “end game”.

Most Norwood class 7 balding patterns (see diagram at right) will have considerable balding along that path by the mid to late 20s. You might not have your father’s genetic hair loss pattern, though. Cross your fingers.