A girl I know started losing hair and it turned out she had a zinc deficiency. She takes tablets for it now and says its slowed down her hair loss. She says that it’s a form of alopecia that she has.
Yes, and if you know that you have a Zinc deficiency, then Zinc supplements will work. This is very rare in an American Diet.
Dr. Paco Jimenez identified the eccrine gland in the upper part of the hair follicle. We discussed that when the surgeon creates chubby grafts in a hair transplant, the eccrine gland is included in the grafts, but when the grafts are very skinny, or stripped of their capsule as with some FUE grafts, this gland probably is not included in the graft. We have seen that chubby grafts produce the best long-term results, and skinny grafts may possibly be responsible for grafts that don’t continue to grow through many growth cycles. This is all speculation at this time, but Dr. Jimenez believes that he will hone down further on the value of the eccrine gland in the near future.
I have always believed that chubby grafts are better than skinny grafts and my results of seeing long-term growth has been very good. I also believe that chubby grafts reduce the risk of dehydration of the grafts during the hair transplant process. Dehydration of the grafts is the major cause of graft loss during a hair transplant surgery.
When you have been on minoxidil for a long time and have built minoxidil dependent hairs, then these hairs will fall out within 1-3 months after the drug is stopped.
How long does it take for hair to fall out after stopping minoxidil from tressless
I have had 2 MRI’s without contract. Both times within 2-3 months of the MRI, I started losing massive amounts of my hair. This has never happened any other time in my life. I lost about 2/3 of my hair in about a 3-4 month period before it stopped falling out each time. Also the MRI’s were about 4 or 5 years apart from each other. The reason for the MRI’s were due to an injury not illness.
They say MRI radiation doesn’t cause this. However this is my experience as it is others as I read online. There are many times in history the medical system has guided us one way to find out they were killing us, then rewrite how to handle these things.
Thank you for your comment. I have not had many such complaints from people taking MRIs so I don’t know how to respond intelligently. In theory, an MRI should not impact hair loss so I must wonder what stress you might have been under, possibly contributing to hair loss.
With 4,500 grafts done, clearly there was a failure of growth in much of the grafts. That means that what you had done was not a good deal or your team with not the best team. Another FUE is most likely out of the question because it would create donor site balding, but a strip surgery might work. Your donor area needs to be measured so that a surgeon knows how much donor hair you have left. You need to find a good doctor in your area. If you are in California, I would be happy to give you an opinion.
I asked the writer: Did the doctor also take hair from the back? If so, post or send me photos of it and I will answer your question about the extent of the proper donor area.
FUE Hair Transplant-hair taken from non-safe donor area?!? from tressless
I have heard this complaint before so I must believe that the Quality Control that the FDA is supposed to enforce, is not happening. To keep your costs down, you can get Proscar 5mg and split it into quarters as this medication is made by Merck as is Propecia (brand name).
Do you actually believe there will be a stem cell breakthrough in the next few years doctor? I want to believe this, but I have come to see these predictions as moving timelines. It is very disappointing that science has not be able to develop more effective treatments for genetic hair loss. Progress has been at a stand still since finasteride. I want to believe that one day I can have my hair back, but I think it is just wishful thinking.
Yes, I believe that there will be some breakthrough, maybe not stem cell but possibly something else. There are many people working on drugs that stimulate the growth of dormant hair follicles and I believe that is where the breakthrough will come from.
It isn’t just an issue of the prostate shrinking. The attached article points out that there is atrophy (tissue wasting) and apoptosis (cell death) in the prostate as well. You can do a quick Google search to see that there are hundreds of thousands of guys who have used Propecia and despite stopping the drug, still report having watery semen with reduced volumes.
Yes, I don’t doubt that for a moment. I know of one family member that stopped Finasteride after 15 years and had a full return of his semen to its normal level and consistency, so that means that the results vary with people.
There is no substitute for dedication and persistence as this young man shows. His results are better than a hair transplant at almost no cost. Although this man did not state his age, I suspect that he was significantly under the age of 25 as the younger you are, the better changes are that finasteride will reverse his hair loss. Congrats!
If you are under 25, the drug finasteride might reverse it, especially when combined with topical minoxidil. These drugs work best on young men. If you are over 25 and did not have a response to these medications, a hair transplant is a perfect solution.
This patient ‘Tom’ started to lose hair 23 years ago. He was followed by me over the past 25 years and kept up with his hair loss as it occurred. His father had a Class 7 pattern of hair loss and like this patient, had a high quality of hair with a very high donor density (I transplanted his father’s Class 7 pattern with 10,500 grafts, and he looked like he never lost a hair on his head). He didn’t start with a Class 7 pattern but evolved into it over the 25 years I worked with him. Because of his high donor density and the excellent quality of his hair, it allowed him to get the end result shown in these photos here. Tom had 4 strip surgeries and insisted on looking full-haired from the moment he came to see me. When the FUE was invented by me, he has a series of smaller FUE sessions to follow the last of his hair loss. He had considerable donor area scarring, which was successfully treated with Scalp Micropigmentation, as you can see from these photos. He is a perfectionist, making us a good team, surgeon, and patient. Like a teenager, he shaves the back of his head because he can. It is important to note that this patient’s hairline was the initial target of the first transplant, and we maintained his frontal look through the 25 years that I managed his hair loss. As hairs were lost, I replaced them. Because he had a very high donor density, he was in the unusual position of having an ‘almost never-ending supply‘ of donor hair. He can do more transplants today as the residual donor density is still adequate and can support more FUE transplants.
I am a cosmetologist and have been so for over 25 years. I’ve been doing extensive research on hair loss for several years. Recently I’ve been experiencing hair loss myself. I have rosacea, the kind that results in acne like bumps. It creeps into my scalp also. After finding out that I have an inflammatory condition found in my lungs, it’s all starting to make sense. My pulmonologist is drawing lines connecting imflamation in my skin and scalp to this. Many people who have acne or other inflammatory conditions also experience hair loss. This is believed to stem from inflammation brought in by either infection, autoimmune disease or allergic response. I have rosacea and hairloss. I’ve not taken any oral antibiotic for this although it has been prescribed (minocyline) . This drug is used to treat inflammation, not so much as an antibiotic. I’ve used metrocream on my face with no great results. My dermatologist switched me to soolantra andnit and is working wonders on my breakouts and redness. She says this cream works to fight against the allergic response to skin mites. So interesting that the inflammation is due to an allergy. It’s probably also in my scalp too. If you have an inflammatory skin condition you most likely also have the same in your scalp. Because the cycle of the hair growth and shedding, you might be experiencing the loss a while after the inflammation began at least 6 months or so. I’m curious how many of you have experienced other inflammatory problems like IBD, joint pain, high blood pressure.
Thank you for writing. There has been microscopic evidence that some inflammatory process is present in female hair loss. We also have seen many autoimmune conditions such as FFA, LLP, Alopecia aerata, etc. that are known inflammatory autoimmune diseases that attack the hair. I would not be surprised that the presence of other inflammatory conditions could overlap to the hair follicles. Unfortunately, our clinical science is not there yet.
I need your advice regarding reflex hyperandrogenicity. I went on Propecia in March of this year. The doctor who prescribed me the drug told me to come back in 6 months for an evaluation. Within probably two weeks I started to experience what I thought was the usual shedding. I was obviously concerned and turned to discussion boards where I found countless responses indicating that the shedding, regardless of the severity, was just part of the process.
I wanted to believe that that was the case so I carried on. I was (and still am) experiencing hundreds of lost hairs every day, increased (though admittedly not drastically) acne, increased sebum production, increased sexual function for about two and a half months. Finally, I went to see the original doctor who prescribed it and another doctor. They both confirmed that this is not anything close to normal. Actually the second doctor (not the prescriber) told me that he had prescribed Propecia to thousands of patients over the years and he had seen maybe a dozen patients who responded like this.
Obviously, I am distraught. I don’t know what to do. I am one week off Propecia and still shedding like crazy. I have lost maybe 60% of my hair. The loss is all over my head but it’s worse on the crown and the sides (I NEVER experienced loss on the sides before Propecia). Both doctors told me cautiously that some of it may grow back eventually. The sad thing is that my male pattern baldness wasn’t even that bad. I was losing my hair for sure. But I turn 40 next month and I probably would not have got to this point for a good number of years.
Most of the hairs I’m losing are thick dark hairs and most have NO bulb on them.
So my questions are:
(i) Given your experience, do you believe that some of my hair may grow back?
(ii) Is there anything I can do, any product I can use, to increase my chances of getting my hair back?
Shedding is not an unusual report for the first few months after starting finasteride, but it almost always stops and most patients find less hair loss after a few months. One family member of mine, did have an increase sex drive after starting the Finasteride. I have never seen a report that Finasteride kicked off massive hair loss as you are reporting. I would expect that, considering your age, stopping the drug might work in your favor and reverse the shed, but frankly, I am not sure. You should see a doctor who has the HAIRCHECK instrument to measure your hair bulk and then follow you over a year to report what is actually measured with regard to your hair loss.
There are clear risks here, one technician moves to another patient because the team needs help, instruments are crossed between patients, there is clearly not surgeons for each of these patients. All of this can cause life threatening infections transferred from one patient to another. There is a real question of quality control, who does it. Are all technicians equal (some report that the technicians are hired and join the surgical teams that same week).
This would be outlawed in the US or most major Western countries.
