For those of you who do not want to fall into the trap that some professional athletes find themselves in, I just found the US Anti-Doping Agency’s “wallet card” which may be of interest.
From the list — Masking Agents: Avodart, bromantan, dutasteride, epitestosterone, finasteride probenecid, Propecia, Proscar
Have you heard anything about whether topical application of caffeine can slow/stop hairloss and if so, what is your opinion on this?
No, I have not heard of this.
My opinion is that there are many products, methods, and systems sold claiming to slow/stop hairloss and that it is a very lucritive market for business people since roughly 50% of men are bald. My motto on BaldingBlog has always been “buyer beware”. We know that smoking can reduce blood flow to the scalp and if there is any relationship between blood flow and hair loss, there would be basis to say that topical caffeine could have the same effect as smoking.
By the way, I have heard of monkey semen shampoo a while back that was to slow/stop hair loss. I haven’t heard much about it lately. Either it didn’t work or monkeys didn’t want to cooperate.
hi there,
i was just wanting to ask a little question for over a year now. i have been thinning on one side of my head, my right side above the ears and surrounding the temple area. what it is i want to know is when i get stressed i get this burning sensation around the thinning area like it feels like it is falling out as i get stressed. is it possible that when i get stressed i get really stressed?
I do not understand your symptoms. An examination is critical to understand what you are thinking is thinning above the ear on one side. It would be unusual for stress to impact one area cyclically, while leaving the rest of your scalp unaffected.
hello i have one truly important question. does propecia have any long term effects and could it be usefull for more than 5 years. does propecia have any affect on nerotransmitters in the liver and etc as well.
If you are taking medications that impact neurotransmitters, then they might cause hair loss, as there are many such medications on the market which are used for various medical conditions. I do not see direct evidence of a 5 year impact on neurotransmitters from Propecia.
I am in the business world and I must go out to speaking engagements, as I make my living by lecturing. If I have a transplant, I need to be out in public in a week. I have read your newhair.com site and from that I know you need more information. My hair is black, my skin is light brown (I am Indian), my hair is straight and I am a class 3A balding pattern. Am I unreasonable to hope to get this process complete in a week and then go out into the public domain?
This patient had 2,648 grafts 8 days prior to taking these photos. He is much like you’ve described yourself: darker skin, black hair, Norwood Class 3A/4A pattern. Today’s modern technique keeps the wounds very, very small so that they heal faster. Some of the hairs already fell out so the full complement of hairs are not there and will not return until they start to grow (1-4 months). The issue with detectability has more to do with skin color and its contrast with hair color than anything else. Very white skin shows blemishes easily, so what you see here may or many not be the case in other skin colors like mine, which is olive in color and is almost as good as the man in this picture. When you actually look at him, his previous frontal balding now has a short beard in the area where he was bald and he reported that most of the people he met with socially, have not looked at his hair, suggesting that they did not notice anything worth focusing upon. Of course, you know what we are looking for, so the transplant may be evident to the viewer of this blog.
Click the images below to enlarge.
If someone has a mother’s father that is bald, will that person then be bald? Does this linkage dictate male balding genetics?
No, I do not believe that this is the case. The expression of the balding genes are not well understood and that is why it is so difficult to predict what will happen to any particular individual with balding in his family line.
Is it true that a man could escape the balding risk if his mother doesn’t inherit the MPB gene from her father and instead inherits genes from the mother’s side?
Again, there is little predictive value from knowing just two generations and certainly no value in knowing or determining what one might inherit from the mother. We have not really identified the genes that are responsible for genetic balding and I believe that there are many of them working together.
When we look at the fathers side of the family to predict any sort of inheritance pattern concerning MPB, should we exclusively just look at the male’s father and grandfather?
Again, the genetic patterns on inheritance are clearly not understood. If one inherits the father’s genes associated with MPB, you can not assume that the son will have the same hair loss pattern of his father. I have seen sons that have exactly the father’s pattern and a brother that has no balding what-so-ever.
If I am not bald by the age of 50, does that mean that I have escaped my father’s balding pattern.
Not necessarily, but practically that might be the case. On occasion, male pattern balding starts after 50, but that is unusual if there are no signs of it (no miniaturization anywhere in the scalp) seen.
What happens with women’s hair loss? Does it follow the types of patterns that are found in a woman’s mother, sister or grandmother?
I have seen many women with generalized thinning (woman’s version of the balding process) and they have reported many women in their families that have had the same problem. There appears to be a link between women who show thinning and their mothers, grandmothers, and sisters, many of whom will also have hair thinning/balding. As I think about it more (while answering your questions), I only remember women to women links from taking the history of women. Men have rarely reported that their mothers have had thinning hair, but I know that my mother did have considerable thinning after menopause and I have genetic balding (I was transplanted in the crown), and my brother has it but has not elected to get the problem addressed.
took steriod called D-BOL four months ago.I only took five of the thirty month cycle.I noticed three weeks later my hair was reciding a little bit.I do have family history but not in there twenties.I used to have very thick hair only five months ago.Took D-BOL only five pills like i said.Thats only over two week period,can only five steriod pills cause this.I am very depressed to see my hair keeps getting wourse by the day.Wake up see minertrized hairs more by the day.Five months ago and still thinning.Is this a permedent thing now.My main question is will my hair regrow with time,or is it gone for good.And will my hair stop thinning and go back.I mean I thought steriods leave the body in four weeks also given the fact I only took five pills.Will my body correct itself or is the steriod effects ganna stay and mess with my hair forever.please your answer would be a big help.I am 22 male.I am getting upset to the point were im ganna take 6 avodart a day plus 3 saw p pills and laser comb for an hour on the hairline.My hair loss is in the front only.Very thick hair five months ago,now thinning over five pills I took five months ago.It should be long gone uot of my hair by now.
Steroids are strange in that they theoretically can kick-start a balding process. It is possible that a short course of steroids might start what may have otherwise taken years to start. Once started, anything goes. Your question should be: Do I have active genetic hair loss? The answer is get yourself examined; have your scalp mapped out for miniaturization to find out if you have genetic balding. With that knowledge, you can make intelligent decisions on what to do. Also, it might be worthwhile to read previous blog entries relating to steroids and hair loss.
Hello,
I am a 26 year old female. I went to the doctor roughly 6 months ago when I noticed my hair thinning on my crown. I was told that there was nothing wrong and to just use Rogaine. I started using Rogaine however, since I have been using it my hair has thinned out even more, it has become more noticeable. And it seems like if all of my hair is thinning and not just on the crown Can Rogaine have increased my hair thinning? Should I increase the strength and use the Men’s?
Thank you!
There are two possible explanations to your further thinning of hair after using Rogaine. The first one is that it might be a continuing course of your hair loss with or without using Rogaine. On the other hand, Rogaine may induce further hair loss a few weeks or months after initial usage by increasing the hair cycling. This should pass in about 4-6 months. If it is effectively working to cause your body to discard the old thin hair shaft in preparation for growing thicker hair shaft in the future, this could explain it.
I had thick and fast growing hair until I started taking syntrhoid for an underactive thyroid. The doctor says the medicine is not to blame but it just seems too coincidental to me. But, I am losing most of my hair in the front part of my scalp and I feel these tiny pimple like bumps on my scalp. I do not have dandruff but am wondering if this could be something else. I take no other medications and I am 56 years old, female. MY Mother and Grandmother both had and have thinning hair but it is in the back and they were both on all sorts of heart and blood pressure medicine. My 58 year old sister and brother are having no hair problems. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Patients with hypothyroidism tends to have hair loss, and hair loss is a known side effect of Synthroid. I would certainly take this up with your doctor. There are many other causes for female hair loss as well, such as stress, crash diets, oral contraceptive pills, beta blockers, coumadin, psoriasis, and inflammatory diseases.
According to Dr. Bernstein, a hair transplant won’t protect you from getting sunburn. (The following is from a transcript of an open house posted on his website):
Attendee: How thick will my hair be after the hair transplant?
Dr. Bernstein: I like to describe what hair transplants do, by what they don’t do. It doesn’t keep you warm and it doesn’t keep the sun off your head. It doesn’t keep you from getting a sun burn.
I am in occasional disagreement with my very bright friend and colleague Dr. Bernstein. The statement by the patient in the post from the other day corresponds to my own experience as well. I used to get sunburns on my bald crown all of the time, but now since I have had 1600 grafts placed in the crown, I haven’t had a sunburn on my scalp. I do not believe that hair transplants should be done to prevent sunburns. The sun will still penetrate down through the transplanted area, possibly just a bit tuned down.
hello dear doctor
I have been on propecia and rogaine for 1 year but 20 days ago I started to have systemic sides ,problems caused by minoxidil and my doctor told me to stop using minoxidil
I asked him to recommend me something else inseat of minoxidil or at least to keep my hair healty cause propecia works very little on me for mpb but he said he does not know the answer so I wanna ask you same question cause you have experienced as I found out in internet and I wanna know if I can use aminexil and sod (copper peptides)for whole life time as in minoxidilthank you very much indeed for your precious helps
What is your age? What were the symptoms you are complaining about with Rogaine or Propecia? As you already are under a doctor’s care, then you should be asking that doctor to manage you or switch to another doctor. Your questions raise more questions than I feel comfortable answering through the internet without much more information.
Hello Dr Rassman,
I have been using Rogaine and Propecia since June 05 (except when I stopped taking propecia for a month in november). After not shaving my head for two months, I noticed that I had grown significant amount of hair in Novemnber. However, in January I realized that my hair overall was getting finer. Now it’s April and I am back to where I was last June if not worse sice the hair I have left is finer.I have been very compliant with the meds. Do you have any suggestions?
There is no guarantee that either of the medications will work or last. This is a statistical process and if you take both Rogaine and Propecia, chances are that you’re statistically better off. Without examining you, it would be impossible to put meaningful medical logic to your situation. There is only so much I can do over the internet.
Dr. Rassman,
Recently I noticed that my hair has a slimy feel to it when it gets wet, and then it will dry as if it has gel in it, very hard. I have always lost hair in the shower, but it seems that this is increasing with the slimy hair problem. Another symptom that I’ve had is extreme scalp itch, but no more than normal dandruff visible to be the cause of it. I have recently spent a great deal of time in the swimming pool, but no one I’ve been with is experiencing similiar problems. Also, I’m taking Adapex for weight loss and wonder if this might have some correlation with my symptoms. I’ve tried researching my slimy hair and came up with a process used on wigs called decutilization, where layers of the hairs cuticle is removed for some reason. However, I can’t find anything to do with my own hair having this problem or how to fix it. A friend suggested that my hair had lost it’s acidity, but home remedies and ion hair strippers have not helped. Please help me figure this out. I want to solve the problem so my normally soft healthy hair will return. Thanks so much.
The need to have luxurious hair is a quest that many people have and that is why the TV ads fill the airwaves with shampoos and conditioners, potions and lotions that are focused on people who do not like the texture of their hair or the dryness of it (or in your case the slimy nature of it). Hair does change texture with time and stress. It also changes if we expose it to the sun (drying it), chlorine from a swimming pool or other things. As we get older, hair clearly changes its character and its thickness and these two are absolutely related. I looked up Adipex and found references to a drug called Phentermine which is sold without a prescription. In the look-up, I also saw a link to this drug and hair loss with the Microsoft Diet on Google, and I got excited that Microsoft has found some magical cure to weight loss which I could tell my readership. Now is that getting us somewhere or isn’t it? I wonder if we can download a cure for hair loss from Microsoft if we buy into their diet (see Microsoft Diet working for many in Seattle. I hate to point out my sarcasm, but that was a joke.
There is no doubt that weight loss can cause hair loss if the weight loss is aggressive and if there is any vitamin or nutritional deficiencies associated with the weight loss process.
Many, many times I have answered questions from this audience reflecting that ‘natural food’ or ‘natural ‘herbs’ may not be safe. From my readings I found this reference to Green Tea, a valuable suggested antioxidant with possible cancer properties. Clearly, all of these product are not created equal so this is just a warning for those of you who think that natural is always safe (let alone effective). There is never a guarantee that the products that you buy actually contain what you are buying. To get what you think, you need to be sure that these products are using ‘Good Manufacturing Processes” (GMP) and known term of art for quality manufacturing. The following piece comes from the ConsumerLab.com Newsletter:
CANCER PREVENTION SUPPLEMENTS (GREEN TEA, LYCOPENE, AND SELENIUM) JUST RELEASED — Certain foods and nutrients are associated with reduced risk of cancer. Many of these are anti-oxidants, scavenging free radicals that can otherwise damage cells. Supplements containing three popular ingredients — green tea , lycopene or selenium — were purchased and tested.
But problems were detected in three green tea products : Two were contaminated with lead and another contained only 71% of its claimed level of EGCG, a key compound in green tea. One selenium supplement contained only 38% of its ingredient .
can transplants be done in the temple areas and also in the area right above the back hairline?
Yes, transplants can be placed in the temples. As for the “back hairline”, I am assuming that you are talking about the area just behind the frontal 1 inch of hair. If that is the case, yes, I have performed such transplants on many people filling in the forelock area for a fuller appearance. If you are referring to the crown (back top of your head), then again, yes this area can be transplanted as well. Look at the photo gallery to find out what you are looking for: Hairline photos