Can pulling dandruff scabs cause permanent traction alopecia?
This is a 26 year/old male who was concerned about balding, especially recession in the two corners of his hairline. This man has a very large and strong forelock. It takes over a good 70-80% of his hairline, and in the center, it is located where it was when he was 10 years old. Many men with strong forelocks, even if they are bald behind them, will maintain an excellent frontal hairline look. In his case, the two corners are developing their mature position, making it look like he has corner recession, which he does not. To be sure that he was not balding either in the forelock or the corners, or even behind the forelock, he purchased a hand microscope from Amazon and then took these pictures, mapping out the microscopic photos to the photo of his head. As you can clearly see, there is no miniaturization anywhere on his scalp
The dose you took is almost half the recommended dose. According to the original Merck studies, a half dose is 72% as effective as a full 1mg dose. You were probably at slightly less than 1/2 dose and it worked for you. Good job.
Miniaturized hairs get thinner and thinner until they disappear. That is the normal course for miniaturized hairs. Drugs like finasteride, ofter reverse the miniaturization process.
Week 1 on fin. Shedding has decreased from 100-150 hairs/day to approx. 10-30 hairs/day. Scalp itch is almost entirely gone. No sides. Taken every other day. I’m a diffuse thinner, so I’m sitting at a NW1 right now with density being my primary point of concern. I started fin about two months after seeing signs of thinning. What can I expect going forward?
Should Finasteride and Dutasteride be taken on the same day? For example: should I take Dutasteride in the morning, then Finasteride at night?
It makes no sense to use both dutasteride and finasteride. Pick one or the other. Get a doctor to advise you.
Yes, I have done this many times; however, I require a good understanding of how much miniaturization is present to help my patients understand what might happen to them after a hair transplant if anything. The older the man is, the less miniaturization is usually present, but that is not an absolute rule.
Diffuse thinning is overused. Some men will develop generalized thinning in their pattern of balding. When this happens, I would expect the thinning to continue until some pattern actually appears; however, if one intercedes with drugs like finasteride, these men might reverse the thinning (Miniaturization) or freeze it where it is for some time. There is another condition called Age-Related Thinning, which is a term that reflects that all of the hair on the head will change its diameter uniformly. This commonly occurs in men and women over 50 and is more frequent as one ages; however, I have seen this in many young men who had coarse hair in their youth, then the hair caliber reduced to something less than coarse hair. These men reach out to me and think they are balding, but maybe not.
If it came on with using minoxidil, it is most likely hypertrichosis
Interesting reversal in female patient with dutasteride and oral minoxidil. She restored much of her female concave hairline. Amazing
Finasteride works well in the crown in men over 45. A 71-year-old friend went on proscar for his prostate and regrew his hair in the front and in the crown. He bragged to me.
The American Indian that came over the Alaska Bridge a thousand or so years ago, have no balding. I believe this is the only large population that doesn’t see genetic balding
My question is, how many grafts can the average Caucasian person get from their donor via FUE? I don’t mean in one session; I mean in total over their lifetime. I saw different answers in different blog posts, some said at the very least 6,000, others said about 7,000, and yet others said that most people would become depleted after 5,000.
No. Finasteride will eventually stabilize at some positive balance with your rate of hair loss. The original studies showed that over a 5-year period, men on finasteride lost less hair and kept more hair. I know from my practice that men on finasteride for 20 years who decided to stop the drug came crying to me to get back on it as they experienced “Catch-up hair loss”, going back in the direction of the genetic hair loss they might have had if they didn’t take it.
The crown is often more sensitive to medications like finasteride and minoxidil. This shows up nicely in this young man.
