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Snippet from the article:

Heredity has been blamed as one of the main causes of hair loss but a recent study found that, for about half of those going bald, genes have nothing to do with it.

The Korean Hair Research Society traced the family records of 1,220 people suffering from hair loss and found that only 41.8 percent of their fathers had the same problem. About 47.1 percent seemed to have been affected by their father’s genes and about 10 percent are assumed to have been affected by both of their parents, but neither appeared relevant in 41.8 percent of cases. The team tracked the hair loss status of the subjects’ parents and grandparents.

Read the rest — Hair loss not as hereditary as believed

If the Korean Hair Research Society just looked at parents and grandparents, it might not tell the whole story since the genes for hair loss can skip generations. The article does go on to say that stress, extreme dieting, and some medications can cause hair loss… which I don’t think is a surprise to anyone that reads this site regularly.

Unfortunately, I don’t know that these percentages can be applied to a larger population, as I haven’t even seen the actual study. There’s no information on where or if this study was published, but even so, the numbers just don’t sound right to me. Though certainly there is a percentage of hair loss cases caused by factors other than genetics, I still believe the vast majority are cases originate from somewhere in the family tree.

What exactly is the risk to a finasteride tablet exposed to heat greater than 86F? Does the heat change the chemical composition of the drug? My room where I store my finasteride tablets has been very hot this summer. Accidently, I left my container where the sun shines through as well. Should I get my prescription replaced, or is this no big deal?

Ideally, finasteride should be stored between 59 and 86 degrees F (15 and 30 degrees C), but I do not know if just exposing it to temperatures above or below that would degrade its chemical composition immediately. While I doubt that it would be less effective, if you are worried you should replace it to be safe.

If someone has sebhoraic dermititus or Psoriosis, and the creams or whatever treatment prescribed do not totally remove the unsightly dandruff/scalling what should some1 do? If you just leave the dandruff alone will it go away eventually on it’s own? or w/ repeated applications of treatment? Or should I keep washing it? or apply more treatment? I never know what 2 do exactly.

The treatment of seborrhea is best in the hands of skilled dermatologists that specialize in skin conditions such as what you’re describing. I am not the right doctor to ask about it, as I am not a dermatologist.

If you don’t have a dermatologist in your area that a friend or family member can recommend, I’d try the American Academy of Dermatology’s doctor locator.

Snippet from the article:

One of the UK’s leading hair transplant surgeons - Dr Bessam Farjo - has conveyed his concerns surrounding the recent criticism of celebrity hair transplant surgery.

A number of tabloid publications have deemed Wayne’s surgery a ‘failure’ and pictures have been released showing the area where the surgery was performed.

Dr Farjo comments: “What the press are showing is images of the period of rest for the transplanted follicles, which may have broken off or fallen out. What’s important is that the roots stay inside the skin and will be working on brand new hairs that will start to sprout around four months after his surgery. A proper result can take as long as 10-14 months to fully mature.”

Read the rest — Leading hair transplant surgeon warns against media inaccuracies

Dr. Farjo is a contributor to BaldingBlog, but this article caught my attention because what he’s saying is absolutely true. As a population addicted to reality TV and dramas, we are becoming critical of things that we often do not understand. Media inaccuracies regarding hair loss or hair restoration are nothing new, but they’re making tabloid headlines in the UK lately since a number of celebrities have gone public with their surgeries (like this one).

As Dr. Farjo states, transplanted hair needs time to take to root and if you catch it in the various stages of growth, it may look incomplete as one area starts to grow before another. I always tell my patients that they must have patience and wait 6-7 months to see the hair go through its initial growth cycle. By 8 months, the average patient will have hair that is 1-2 inches in length.

Hi Dr,

I’m a patient of Dr. Pak who came to the office in March. For the past year or so, I have been using a combo of OTC Nizoral and T-gel to combat an itchy scalp. I alternate between the two each day.

However, I can no longer find Nizoral anywhere — it’s gone from Amazon, drugstore.com and any physical pharmacy I’ve gone to. Any idea what happened? I can’t find any substantiated reason for the disappearance online. Also, in the absence of Nizoral, do you have a suggested replacement I could put in my routine?

Many thanks.

I haven’t followed the sales or availability of Nizoral (ketoconazole) shampoo. I’ve had a few readers ask about it, but I’ve not been able to find any news. I have no suggestion on a replacement shampoo. Have you contacted the manufacturer?

So I’ll open it up to the readers — have you read anything about why Nizoral has disappeared from shelves?

Hey Doctor.
I use Vichy Dercos Aminexil energy spray for like 2 month and im pretty sure I got some nice shedding from it. is it possible to have shedding from aminexil? Cause I saw that you wrote it acts in similar ways as minoxidil and this one has a known shedding effect. one more question is if there is any difference between the aminexil energy spray treatment and the aminexil sp94.
thank you.

I really do not know much about Aminexil, nor do I have any patients on it that I can recall. I do know some people use Aminexil topically to treat hair loss, but I do not know if it works or if it causes shedding.

In theory, if Aminexil is similar to minoxidil then it may cause the similar shedding you sometimes see with topical minoxidil use.

Is it possible that if you are one of the people who didn’t respond to propecia that your hairloss is unrelated to DHT? I’ve read the Diffuse AA can look like diffuse patterned baldness and even chronic TE can end up looking like thinning on top. I’ve tried propecia for a long time now coming up on 16 months and my hair on top is gradually thinning.

a little background for you, I have lived with anxiety, stress and depression problems for a long time and think that having these problems chronically has lead to hair thinning. I only have slight recession in the temples but everything else is evenly thinning on top. In summary, for the 10 percent or so that Merck reported as not responding, could they have hairloss unrelated to DHT? Thanks.

As you suggested, there are many causes of hair loss that are not DHT related. I have no way to know the reasons for your hair loss, though. That being said, there are patients with genetic hair loss that just do not respond to Propecia and this can be tested for with the HairDX Finasteride Response test (written about before).

You need to get a proper diagnosis from a good, caring doctor. I can not help you without examining you, at which point I could map your scalp and conduct a hair bulk analysis in our office.

I know you guys know about the MEP-90 laser and its manufacturer MidwestRF, I was looking around on the internet and I found something rather interesting.I found a page that goes somewhat in depth about the methodology as to how the MEP-90 received its clearance.

Apparently the MEP-90 study wasn’t double blinded and the the only explanation that the report gave was this: “However, a sham/placebo study is not applicable to the long term required treatment of female androgenic alopecia because too many variations exist that would make it unfeasible to run a large number of experiments and it would constitute unethical treatment of the subjects.”

Interesting considering that the Hairmax lasercomb recently recently received clearance for the treatment of androgenetic alopecia in females by use of a double blinded study. This report also stated that Midwest RF has been manufacturing hair lasers since 1999 but all records I could find indicate that the only thing they manufactured were MRI components. It’s also interesting to note that for some reason this company received stimulus funds why I have no idea. Here is a link to the report: here.

tell me what you or someone familiar with clinical trials thinks about it.

I generally do not trust clinical studies that are not double blinded, or have researchers with something to gain from the results. Most studies in the low level light area have failed to prove that there is a scientific result that is clearly positive.

I’m not a laser expert by any means, so I’ll defer to our readers that have more experience with this.

Dear Dr.
I recently went through a stressful patch and now I’ve lost a quite disastrous amount of hair in a very short time frame. If this hair loss is related to stress how long will it take to recover after the stressful period is over?

Thanks!

Stress related hair loss may generally take up to one year to grow back for women, but for men it may reflect an acceleration of the genetic pattern that they are destined for.

Labor Day is observed on the first Monday in September… and that is today!

We’ll be back tomorrow.