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I have read in an article that cosmetic dread locks(i.e. created by hand by a hairdresser, as opposed to the usual matted mess which comes from simple disregard of grooming) can actually prevent hair loss as the cluster of hair in the dreadlock provides greater support throughout the hair shaft and at the root. It also said that if the wearer ever pulls back his/her hair traction alopecia rarely occurs if it is not done tightly to the point where tension is felt at the hair line or a headache occurs. Don’t really believe it but for the benefit of the doubt I thought I’d ask you if it may be true.

You are absolutely right to not believe it. Dreads commonly cause hair loss from traction alopecia. If there is some special way that stylists can create dreadlocks where the tension is not on the scalp, well, I haven’t seen it. I definitely don’t agree that this hairstyle can prevent hair loss, unless perhaps your dreadlocks are sprinkled with magic.

(female)
I have severe eyebrow SD and I use desonide. I’ve been told by my dermatologist to apply it twice daily until it gets under control.

1. How close in time can I apply steroid creams without causing skin thinning?
2. What would you say is the upper limit of the length of time that I can use it?
3. Let’s say I use the desonide for about a week, and then stop for a couple of weeks, and then return to it for a week, am I starting over in terms of the length of time that I can use a steroid cream when I return to it? How much time should pass before I can safely start reusing a steroid cream?
4. What is the mechanism of action of steroid creams and how exactly do they cause skin thinning? (Feel free to get technical and use medical jargon.)

Thank you.

Your doctor should’ve given you application instructions, but I generally tell my patients that 3 or 4 treatments 12 hours apart is my usual limit for topical steroids. Seborrhea is produced by overactive skin proliferation which, like psoriasis, responds to steroids on the schedule I just reported. I do not know more than that for your case.

This new drug that makes eyelashes grow and grow thicker,would you think it would help hair grow on the scalp used with minoxidil.It is listed as a side effect that it could grow hair on other parts of the body if it is put on the skin in that area. I would think that if minoxidil grows small hairs in one area that putting on Latisse applied before minoxidil would be a big help to hair growth.

See Scientific American for info on this drug. At the cost of $120 for a month, hair applications might be prohibitive. You can imagine a month supply will probably be an extremely tiny tube, since it is meant for your lashes. I will prescribe it when it is available.

I met with a patient last week who had a spectacular head of hair. On examination of the scalp there was absolutely no miniaturization anywhere, indicating that he had no genetic balding.

He was an obsessive young man who wanted to be sure that he was not going to go bald, as some of his male family members had. Because he needed the advise of a doctor to determine if he was losing his hair and what his future might be, he went to a hair transplant surgeon who determined that he might go bald and needed to do something about it. The young patient showed some maturing of his hairline only in the corners and even that assessment (by me) may be overstated, but because of the power of the doctor’s magnetic personality, the young man was convinced that he needed a transplant and got 800 grafts into the corners of his frontal hairline. The transplant clearly did damage, so he lost hair around the transplant area and many of the grafts did not grow.

Too many young men are receiving hair transplants when they are not indicated, even showing no balding. I would suggest that everyone considering a hair transplant to map out their own hair for miniaturization and if there is none, you can then confidently say that you are not balding and not fall for traps like what this young man fell for. It is unfortunate that many people are preyed upon by surgeons looking to pad their wallets, but you need to be smart about what you’re getting yourself into. Educate yourself and use the tools available online to be able to better understand things. The patient story I described above ended up leaving this young man worse off than before he ever went to see that surgeon. This site is free for anyone to use and learn from, and I am an outspoken member of my community simply because I don’t like to see people taken advantage of. I routinely turn patients down for surgery if I can see they are not candidates or a simple daily pill could be the solution they are looking for.

Do you know if pomades/hair dressings like brylcreem, Layrite, Royal Crown, or Murray’s, many of which are vasoline type products, can contribute to hair loss? Also, what do you make of the hair loss theory in the old advertisement i.e. dry hair causes dandruff and dandruff is forerunner of thinning hair and baldness?

Old ad here: Brylcreem

Dandruff is not a forerunner of thinning or hair loss or baldness. Dandruff just means you have a dry, flaky scalp. There are plenty of old advertisements that show doctors recommending cigarettes, too. Medicine and science have come a long way… not to mention the laws that are in place to protect consumers from fraudulent advertising.

Hair products do not generally cause hair loss (unless there is an allergy or other sensitivity). With that said, using pomade or other wax may cause hair loss if you are rough with your hair — pulling on it, for example. You can use a good shampoo which will have surfactants in it to help get rid of the pomades, though it might take more than one washing to get your hair clean of them. Bottom line, on their own these products do not contribute to genetic hair loss positively or negatively.

I have lost a good 50% of my hair in the past 3 weeks. I have been weaned off Metoprolol recently and stopped Pravastatin on Christmas Day in an effort to see which, if either, are causing the massive loss. How long might it take for the Pravastatin to clear my system and if Pravastatin is the culprit, how long before my hair stops falling out. I am a 60 year old female who previous to this had a very good head of hair. I had a triple bypass in September and e-coli sepsis a few weeks later. I was hospitalized for 5 days of intravenous Avelox but not very sick with the sepsis so I’m assuming it was caught early. If my hair loss was caused by the sepsis would it fall out in such large amounts and so quickly. Thank you!

I highly doubt any drug is the culprit of your hair loss, but to lose 50% of your hair in only one month is definitely not normal. There may be medical issues that you are not aware of. You need to see your physician and discuss your issues with him/her. It seems you have gone through some serious illness and surgeries in recent months. Acute telogen effluviums can cause this problem, but the real question is what caused that? I would strongly urge you to be followed by your physician regarding your medication regimen, as I trust your physician is aware of you stopping or weaning off certain medications.

Snippet from the article:

So keep an eye on Thomas Whitfield. The 27-year-old Oxford biochemistry PhD is working on a venture called TRX2 (derived from the Greek word for hair, Trichos. “The two for second – your second generation of hair,” he tells me). It promises to make “hair loss a thing of the past”.

Still in stealth mode as the intellectual property is in the process of being protected, Whitfield plans to have his “product and service” on the market within 12 months. His only guidance is that it is not based on “gene therapy” – an area being explored by several other British start-ups.

Full article at Telegraph UK

It is easy to make claims, but the proof will be in the product and the research that is released. The good news is that European patent filings are published 6 months after receipt of the application so we will all not have to wait 12 months find out what the secret is.

Hi. I’m 13 years old and i’ve been having a lot of white hairs. about 5-10. I’m not sure if its because of stress. but i’ve only started to notice when i was about 11-12. Do you think it’s maybe generic or something on the lines of that? because my dad thinks i have an illness…

Getting white hair at an early age does not mean you have an illness. Some people will see their hair turn white or gray at a very early age. It is genetics. In very rare instances, if there are gray hairs in a patch it can sometimes signify a rare genetic disease such as Waardenburg Syndrome, but you are not describing that problem.

thanks for your time.
I am a twenty year old male and I have been on Propecia for about 15 months. Around the 8th or 9th month the drug seemed to be working well, for i noticed much less hair loss. Yet also around that time, i began to take creatine monohydrate, and i saw a decrease in the effectiveness of the Propecia. I was on the creatine for 3 months, and after i noticed its negative effects, i immediately stopped taking it. Now, on my fifteenth month, I am not seeing much effect from Propecia as i did 6 months ago. My question to you regarding my real concern is if the Propecia will gain effectiveness in the next months, if ever? Or have I harmed my chances of regrowth with the taking of the creatine monohydrate?

You may have harmed your hair. Propecia will not pick up the pieces here and save you, but you will now have a new baseline to go from. So yes, Propecia should gain effectiveness in the coming months from your new baseline. I have discussed creatine before (see Creatine and Hair Loss).

How do you tell the difference between miniaturization and new growing normal hair or the beginning of regrowth from treatment?

New growing hairs are thick, while miniaturized hairs are thin. Under a microscope, a hair that is growing from the scalp will have the same thickness as a hair that is fully grown — it’ll just be shorter. A miniaturized hair will have a thinner shaft and will look more translucent.