Retrograde Alopecia

I’ve searched your site over, but haven’t been able to find anything about Retrograde Alopecia, where the hair directly above the ears and neckline thins. Can you tell us something about this? Does Finasteride or Minoxidil help? In what percentage of patients do you see this? Thanks for taking the time each day to contribute to your blog! I thoroughly enjoy it!

I have seen hair loss above the ears and neckline over the years in my practice, but it is not very common. I wish someone could quantify this. I tend to see this more when I travel, particularly in airports where a lot of men are walking around. The problem for me is that my eye only catches the ones with the hair loss in these areas. There is no history with these drugs in this type of hair loss.

I’d think hair transplantation could work well as long as the donor hair isn’t affected, however, I have not performed surgery on any patients with neck hair loss. I believe “retrograde alopecia” may be a correct term, but it is not mentioned or popularized on web searches because it isn’t a common occurrence.