Hello
male/20/GA/caucasian
i have very thick hair and rich hair. but about two months ago i got a buzz cut (my hair at that time must have been about three inches or more). the barber did it very quickly though. there was no blood or irritation at the time. however when my hair started growing back a few weeks later i noticed a few irregular small patches and patterns on my scalp, on which there was no hair. i don’t see any scar marks either, it’s just that after the haircut i have not seen hair there after that haircut. do you think hair will regrow in those patches eventually?

If you have patches of bald areas after the close clipping and your scalp was not damaged by your stylist (you would’ve felt it), these patches may have just been revealed by the clipping, not caused by it. You should see a doctor for a diagnosis or send me photos, and maybe I can help (reference this post when sending).

I’ve been reading more of the news items about yesterday’s publication of the two studies in Nature Genetics, and pulled some key quotes from various news sites that are worth highlighting.

From the BBC —

“Analysis of DNA from 5,000 volunteers with and without male-pattern baldness found two stretches of the genome linked with the condition.”

“One was the androgen receptor gene and has already been linked to male-pattern baldness. The other region is on chromosome 20 and is nowhere near any known gene.”

We’ve long known that genes were responsible for hair loss, but now they’ve finally been identified.

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From the Scotsman —

“Until now, the only known genetic link with male baldness was on the female chromosome, meaning it could be passed down to men from their mother’s father.”

“Dr Richards said so far they had only identified a cause of hair loss.”

In other words, the cure isn’t here and this is still the very early stage, so don’t cancel your hair transplant just yet.

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From the Wall Street Journal —

But dermatologists say that looking at hair shafts under a microscope can spot shrinkage years before it’s apparent. “We can pick it up when kids are teenagers,” says Robert Bernstein, founder of Bernstein Medical Center for Hair Restoration, a treatment clinic in New York. He agrees that medication can slow hair loss only if it isn’t too advanced. Once an area is devoid of hair, only a transplant can restore it.

This is what I’ve been talking about all along — mapping your scalp for miniaturization.

My eyelashes got singed when I was barbecuing. I was not seriously burned or anything, it’s just that the eyelashes got singed and are now shorter. My question is this. Will they grow back? They were quite long before this happened. My wife is upset and says that they haven’t grown back, but I insist that eyelashes will grow like any other hair. Thanks.

It was my understanding that eyelash hair grew much slower, but I researched it and found a couple different pages that say different. This page says, “Eyelashes are on a growth cycle much the same as the hair on your head. They grow at the rate of about every three months, so that when one falls out, it will soon be replaced.”

And About.com states, “The hair on the arms, legs, eyelashes, and eyebrows have a very short active growth phase of about 30-45 days explaining why they are so much shorter than scalp hair.”

I’d say you will have to just wait it out.