I am 29 and female. My hair is thinning since I started creating dreds on my hair. What should I do?
Your braids may cause traction alopecia. To find out about this, you need to get a diagnosis with a good dermatologist or hair doctor (you can use the physician search at ISHRS.org to find one in your area). Without more information, there is little that I can do.
Hey doc, Great site!
Here is my background: I’m 30 yrs old; have been on Propecia for about 5 years now; the hair on the crown of my head is full; but I have a pretty good widow’s peak and am starting thin pretty severly along my hairline. I just wanted to fact check a few things:
- Is Rogaine my only viable option at this point to stop the thinning in front?
- If I up the dosage if Propecia from 1mg to 2mg will that work? Will it still take 8mos to see new growth given that I’ve been on the product for 5 yrs?
- At what age would you advise I look into hair transplantation?
- Should I even consider Avodart since it’s not approved by the FDA? Has it been shown to be more effective with re-growing frontal hair?
Tks for your advisement
The questions that you asked have been answered separately on multiple posts in the pasts, but I’ll briefly answer them here again…
This man came to see me after he had a hair transplant with an unbalanced hairline. His temples were also transplanted with the hair placed perpendicular to the normal direction. I recommended that we extract these hairs using FUE and then transplant them in the correct direction. I just wanted to show how important it is for the doctor you choose to actually have an understanding of the direction hair naturally grows in, so that you can have the most natural looking results possible. Click the photos to enlarge.
I am 23 old male that has genetic balding;
First Doctor William i am very thankful towards your efforts you are putting in professionally answering the questions on this hairloss related website. I have been using Minoxidil 5% (Tricovivax) for a month and during this month I have noticed an extreme shedding; I have three major concerns:
- What this shedding cycle stops that is caused from monoxidil?
- Is spraying 2ml (as a whole and once per day) has the same effect as spraying two times per day ( 1ml in the morning and the other at night)?
- Is the usage of minoxidil alone without Propecia will resist the balding process (male pattern hair loss; or Propecia targets the root cause of genetic hair loss (which is DHT) thus it is a must to resist the blading process.
Hi, I am 16 years of age, I have a full head of hair, however i notice slight thinning nearer to the temple, but not too much thinning, just light hairs. I am using products to strengthen it though. I was just asking if it is possible to get a FUE hair transplant to straighten my hairline to have a juvenile hairline?
Is it possible to have one, at my age, and my parents are fine with me going through the procedure?
Age sixteen is too early for presence of male pattern hair loss, but it does occur at rare times. You need to be seen and examined by a hair loss doctor for possibility of other types of hair loss. If you are only seeing some thinning in the frontal hairline, you may be experiencing early maturing of the hairline. If this is the case you have to wait until your hairline maturation completes. If it progresses toward male pattern baldness, then medical treatment would be your first step in managing this condition and you absolutely should get your hair mapped out for miniaturization to put a metric for following the progression. By any means, hair transplant is rarely recommended at your age.
Till the end of last year there were only one or two white hairs in my mostaches but in the past few months they have increased to around 10 to 12.
I have also seen few white hairs in my nose.
Can you please tell me the probable causes and I will be thankful to you if you could advise me some treatment.
My age is 32 Years.
Thanks
White hair in the scalp or any other area of the body usually follows a genetic pattern and you may have taken the gene of premature whitening of hair from your parents or grandparents or someone down the family tree. Some skin disorders like alopecia areata may cause growing white hair in involved areas after the disease has taken its course and hair regrew.
Hi, Dr. Rassman. First of all thanks for answering a question I sent about a month ago. Your blog has become my main source of information about hair loss and I really appreciate the work done here! Doctor I was wondering if you could elaborate a little more on procyanidin. I read your comments about it some days ago. I read the article mentioned then and was really interested in knowing more about it. Is this subject generating buzz among doctors? Does it really look promising from a technical point of view? Thanks again and congrats on the great work!
I was as impressed with the scientific papers as you were, but I do not know anything more than what is referenced here —
I am a 20 year old black woman. I have an extended forehead that seems different form what other women have. Most women’s hair line is close to their face whereas mine is so back onto my head. It has never grown since childhood and i have a sister who has the same thing. I am thinking that maybe its hereditary but how can you be of any help to me? Would i be a good candidate for this procedure? and are there any tablets that i could take that might change it or foster the growth of hair there? Please help!!!!!
Women can have a hairline lowering procedure, which advances the hairline downward. If you are not a keloid former, you might be a good candidate for this. You need to be evaluated. There are no magic pills to fix this.
Hello Dr.!
I have some questions about minoxidil. Is normal that you get blond hairs on scalp after using minoxidil 5%. Is this possible Telogen effluvium? I shed a lot after using a minoxidil for 18 days, now i have blond hairs to. What should i do? Thank you for your time.
I do not know if you were a blonde to start with, but new hairs may be more translucent (not usual). Some people report shedding when they start the minoxidil. If this is happening to you, just wait it out for at least 3 months and the shedding should stop.
Are you telling the truth? Please doctor, help me! I feel like there’s something the propecia company and doctors are not telling us. I have experienced worse hairloss due to propecia. I used to be able to pull out a few stray hairs and my hairline was slightly receding. Similar to many patients I’ve seen post on your site, now I’m balding all over and I can pull out about 15 hairs at time. What’s the real deal. Are doctors lying to us to make a buck? I feel like it can’t be an issue besides mpb for all these men that have taken the drug and then experienced worse hair loss! It’s been about 6 months for me. Should I just forget about the drug and quit? Thank you for your time! I’m trying to see a doctor, but they’re all booked for months. I’d really appreciate in your input.
The medication finasteride (Propecia) is proven to decrease the rate of hair loss in most young men and in some cases increase the density and bulk of the scalp hair in the crown and top of the head. This is based on several clinical studies. Some patients may experience increased shedding in the first few months of its use, which usually stops spontaneously. I generally examine my patients before starting them on finasteride. Could you have some other cause of hair loss (other than pure genetic patterned balding)?
The miniaturization study is the best method of assessing the effectiveness of medical treatment as opposed to subjective self-evaluation by the patient. My suggestion to you is to see a good hair transplant doctor to document your miniaturization status and repeat this study every 6 to 12 months while on the medication. You needs numbers placed on the miniaturization process so that you can see from any point in time where you are and where you were.
Hello….Having received 3 vastly different estimates of grafts required for my first transplant, I went with the middle number. The estimates were 500 vs. 1500 vs. 2500. Now I realize that I should have gone with the highest estimate from a very well known Toronto doctor who estimated me at FPB 2.
Anyhow, I am now at 1 year post-op and still have STUBBLE on the front of my scalp. It just does not seem to grow. I went back to my surgeon and he said to wait ANOTHER 7 or 8 months to see him for a re-evaluation.
WHY is the growth so ridiculously SLOW?
MORE IMPORTANTLY, is it true that shock loss will be much less or not at all with the next HT because the scalp has already gone through an HT?
As always, thanks very much for your kind help.
Clearly, something is wrong here, as most of the hair should have grown by 1 year. The presence of stubble reflects some of the original hairs that are still there which usually fall out as the new hairs come in. If you pull on these stubs, you will find just a hair, no bulbs which means that it is not a growing hair. At a second procedure, shock loss is rare provided that it is within 5 years of the first transplant. I wrote a blog entry for estimating hair graft numbers — Patient’s Guide — How Many Grafts Will I Need?
Hi Dr. Rassman,
I was just wondering. My family has some history of baldness, on my mom’s side, with my grandfather going balding, and having a receding hairline far back at my age. However, I still have a maturing hairline, but over the last year, I have been under heavy stress, as I am pre-med. I’ve lost hair in the front of my head, behind my hairline, but no thinning beyond that. HOwever, my father, thinking it is Telogen Effluvium (he is a physician, and loses hair in the same pattern when he gets stressed) gave me some rogaine. I’ve been applying it for barely 3 weeks now, and I can feel a huge amount of stubble, even in weird areas it shouldn’t be filling in, like the temples. Shouldn’t it take longer to work if it is male pattern baldness? Or is the minoxidil likely just forcing the schocked hair follices back into anagen?
Thanks so much
Yes, this is an unusual response with classic genetic patterned hair loss. If you had telogen effluvium it might reverse rapidly as you reported. To be on the safe side, I always like to get a diagnosis with your hair mapped out for miniaturization to determine if you have a pattern thinning occurring. By knowing if you have a genetic hair loss component, you can create a Master Plan should this happen again.
Who could have guessed that sparing the mayo was not good for the bald spot in the back of your head? And now that a U.S. Patent was filed, makes it all even more valid, right? Sounds delicious.
From the article —
According to the patent’s description, the “magic formula†essentially consists of mayonnaise in a concentration of between 55 and 64 percent by weight, olive oil in a concentration of between 12 and 15 percent by weight, carrot oil in a concentration of between 12 and 15 percent by weight, and collagen in a concentration of between 12 and 15 percent by weight.
Read more at HairLossHelp News
I have read about a combination of products that can be used to slow or stop hair loss. The Ultimate Hair Stack was recommended by Will Brink. Any comments to the following: https://www.dolfzine.com/page700.htm
This is interesting reading. I learned that there are more drugs out there that can bring about hair regrowth (Cyclosporine, for example), but are known to be dangerous. I caution anyone from trying the unproven drugs discussed here. Knowledge is power, so it does make good reading.
Does male pattern balding come from the mother or fathers side of the family?
The ratio of mothers passing the gene compared to fathers is fairly close. If my memory serves me right, it is about 51:49% in favor of the woman passing the genes.