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Hello there

I have read many studies about the effect of ECGC (commonly found in green tea) on hair growth. While I realize this is not an FDA approved hair loss treatment, I neither reside in the USA nor care for what the FDA approves. So in short I would like to create a topical forumula containing ECGC to apply to my scalp. I have some high quality ecgc extract (Teavigo 98%) but of course it contains some bulking agent. I would love to hear any ideas about what would be an effective way to create a topical solution from this and will happily report back my results.

Thank you

You can do whatever you want in making medication for your own use, even in the United States. The FDA only protects the public from people or companies which:

1. makes claims about a product’s safety or effectiveness that can not be validated through proper scientific studies
2. produce a product without Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) in place

As I’ve mentioned before, I follow the FDA because I am a US-based physician. So while you may not care what they approve, I do. That being said, I do not know anything about creating medications that can be absorbed through the skin, so I can not help you. I’m just the wrong person to ask. If any readers have experience with this, feel free to comment with suggestions. Good luck and please keep me in the loop if you figure out a solution to the hair loss puzzle.

Hello Dr. Rassman,

So I have several questions. Firstly, I read somewhere that if the scalp is wet upon application of Minoxidil, that the Minoxidil would be absorbed better achieving better/faster results. I’m a little skeptical of this. Is this true?

Secondly, if I apply the Minoxidil before I blow dry my hair, how long should I wait to blow dry it to achieve maximum effectiveness? I’m kind of in a rush in the morning and so waiting more than a half an hour would kind of be impossible. If this were the case, I might abandon application of Minoxidil in the morning. How less effective would only one application of Minoxidil per day be?

This is perhaps a stupid question that I should have asked my physician a long, long time ago, but, how is 1 mL of Minoxidil supposed to cover my entire scalp!?!? A lot of it tends to run down my forehead as it is, thereby wasting it, but even if it were all put to good use, 1 mL only seems to cover several square inches before I no longer feel any left on my fingertips during the massaging. Is it there even though I don’t feel it or something? What am I doing wrong?

I don’t know if this is relevant or not, but after 4 months of using 5% Minoxidil and noticing no results, I decided to switch to 15% Minoxidil w/ 5% Azelaic acid.

Azelaic acid is an irritant and in using it is supposed to increase the blood supply to the scalp and therefore increase the absorption of minoxidil. Your point about coverage is well taken. It takes a lot of minoxidil to cover the entire scalp, so I generally advise patients to apply it only to the areas that are thinning. Minoxidil is best applied after a hot shower, as the circulation of the scalp is higher at that time. Waiting 5-10 minutes should suffice, but using the Rogaine Foam rather than the liquid could solve your styling timing issues and it may be more effective.

Many of your additional minoxidil questions have already been answered at Rogaine.com.

I love these photos! The international World Beard and Moustache Championship took place in Germany about two weeks ago and more than 160 facial hair combatants showed off their unique accomplishments. I believe this is just the German club’s awards, as the overall world champ is crowned every 2 years (unless I’m understanding it wrong). Here’s the official site of the World Championship here.

Nonetheless, check out the photos of this recent event at Yahoo!

Hello Doc,

Nice to know of this site. I appreciate your help in answering queries for hair loss victims. I am 27 yr old male and I had a hair transplant on my crown earlier this year and to date its more than 7 months. The transplanted hair looks good but its not covering my full scalp. I think I need an another procedure. I am on generic finerstride and minidoxil 5%. I wanted to check with you regarding the usage of rogaine. if I use the rogaine on my transplanted hair area, is there any chance if at all it is there to grow new hair in those gaps.

If there is a chance Rogaine (minoxidil) will grow hair between your hair transplants, it is a very small one… and if it does grow hair, it will not likely cover your bald area. Isn’t that why you had a hair transplant in the first place? Unless I’m misunderstanding you, why didn’t you try the medications before your first hair transplant to see if they might help?

Hi,
i recently left my hair unwashed for about 2 weeks, plz dont ask me why, when i say unwashed i mean i never even used water. eventually when did wash i had a lot of hair loss, probably aboyt 200-300 hairs and my hair was very oily too. is this normal? i also wanted to ask you, do you if someone living in the uk can ask their GP to write prescription for proscar.

Are you asking if not washing yourself for 2 weeks is normal? I’d have to say no. The hair loss you have seen is probably just shed hair (about 100 per day is normal or 1400 per 2 week period) and these are from the normal hair cycling which were trapped amongst other hairs. Hairs that get entangled on your scalp are normal if you did not wash, but washing your hair will free them up and it might look like a massive loss all at once. I’m speculating, of course, as I haven’t seen you or the loss you describe.

The oiliness isn’t surprising, as you hadn’t washed your hair or scalp in some time and the glands around each and every hair follicle secrets sebum (an oily substance) every minute of every day.

Finasteride is available in the UK, so I don’t see why you couldn’t ask your doctor for a prescription. If you don’t have genetic hair loss though, I doubt you’d get the prescription.

Hello, I just had a wonderful procedure. Their offices were clean, procedures were excellent, and the staff was very accommodating. In 2002 I had 800 grafts done by another group in San Francisco and then again I just did 3500 grafts. The follicles were transplanted throughout my scalp approximately 25 FU/CM2. I have a very nice NW2 hairline. Also, I had a very high number of 4-hair grafts. Over 400 of them! They excised a strip of 3500 grafts and got 3703!!!

Do most of your patients get about 25FU/cm2 and are happy with it? I think it will be ok but just need reassurance.

A normal person will have 1250 hairs or 600 two-hair follicular units. When converted to cm/square, that would extrapolate to 100 follicular units per square cm. If you received 25 follicular units in 1 cm, that would suggest that in one procedure, the doctor returned 25% of your normal density on the transplanted area. This is often not really the case, as some areas will have higher densities put in and other areas lower densities. For a person with average weight hair, olive skin, and brown hair, 50% densities overall should be more than enough to produce a full appearance. If you had a high number of four-hair grafts, then that might mean that your overall densities are higher than average. I generally target 25% density return on the first session, but at times I will go higher or lower depending upon other factors.

I took steroids for 2 months and it made my hair on the top of my head thin dramatically. I do not have a receding hairline but I have lost a lot of density up top. My question is did the steroids kill my hair follicle within 2 months and it is gone never to come back or did the steroids I take make the follicles go into telogen? I was under the assumption that MPB takes more than a couple of months and a prolonged period for the follicle to die. It makes a big difference to know whether this hair loss is temporary versus permanent!!! THANKS IN ADVANCE

Steroids do not “kill” your hair follicles, but they can accelerate androgenic alopecia (this is assuming that you have androgenic alopecia). Each person reacts differently to the steroid, so I really can not answer your question. Your doctor may elect to take miniaturization measurements of your hair, do a work up for telogen effluvium, and start you on finasteride (Propecia) or minoxidil (Rogaine) if he feels that these things will help return your hair to normal. The worst part of steroid use is it occasionally starts a latent state of genetic alopecia and moves it along faster. You need to be under the care of a good doctor.

Snippet from the article:

In the early ’80s, Robin Kettlewell had a thing for punk rock and a haircut that showed it: purple, with three stripes shaved into one side of her head.

So when she faced losing her hair during chemotherapy for breast cancer this summer, she knew what to do. First she had her long golden brown hair cut off for Locks of Love. That soon became a brush cut that she dyed pink. A few days later, that turned into a pink Mohawk.

Now though, 11 weeks into chemotherapy, she goes proudly and completely bald. Shopping. At restaurants. In her Saturn Sky convertible. But when riding on either of her two Harley-Davidson motorcycles, she always wears a helmet - always. She’s not going to do anything stupid, after all.

Read the full article: Breast cancer patient faces the disease “head first and no looking back”

Robin is taking back control of her life and is showing the world that even cancer can’t keep her down. She’s able to spread breast cancer awareness by being so brave. Check out the blog Robin created to share her journey.

We wish her the best of luck!

hey dr rassman,
thanks for answering all my questions. first off, my question today is about temporal hair loss and its relation to the maturing hair line process. is this loss (temporal) related to the maturing of the hairline? can one lose his temples and have his hairline only mature and not be considered genetic balding? or is the temporal loss due to more recession to come in the future?

thank you

The maturing hairline is as seen here. If the hairline goes up further, then it is most probably genetic balding. The appearance of a mature hairline has nothing to do with male patterned genetic balding and temporal loss doesn’t necessarily indicate future loss.