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losing a little section of hair because of numbness in the back of the neck and head after getting injuried. what is wrong? i know its a little nerve damage but will the hair grow back???

Numbness on a part of your neck and head may suggest some sort of nerve injury. There can also be traumatic hair loss after a direct injury to the scalp. I don’t know what kind of injury you sustained, but usually hairs grow back in about one year of less. I would follow up with your doctor. This is not a place for medical diagnosis or treatment plans.

Hello,
I am a 20 year old African American who has experienced some hair loss for the last two years. There is no history of male pattern baldness on either side of my family so im pretty confident its not genetic. I noticed I only lose hair during the winter months, but the loss is significant. I believe it is related to a skin condition I have. My mother said it happened to me when I lost hair when I was a few weeks old, but it came back when she moisturized my scalp.

My questions: can it be due to the same condition? Is the loss permanent? Is there anything I can do to regrow my hair?

Thank you

On occasion, I have heard that a rare cycling of hair loss occurs when the weather gets colder. A possible skin condition that causes hair loss in winter months doesn’t make much sense to me. This isn’t something I’m familiar with, so I don’t know if the loss is permanent or if there is a treatment for it. Have you seen a doctor?

Hi there,

I have an appointment to come and see you guys in about a month or so (combining it with a California adventure) but I had a question that I wanted to send you in advance.

I started proscar 1mg/daily last September, but cut down the dose (and also took it irregularly) this summer. Over that time, I started to notice a lot of shedding - which I never observed before, even before the starting propecia.

I had cut down the dose at the beginning of the summer because I felt that I’d put some fat on my midsection and in my breasts - I’m in pretty good shape, so the change was noticeable - that I thought was due to the propecia. Since I didn’t know if it was even doing anything, I cut it out. And then brought it back! Since September, I’ve started again at 0.5 mg/day. But I’m still shedding.

What I’m wondering is if I should just stop taking the medication again so that I can establish a non-propicia’d baseline with you when I come for my consultation, which I neglected to do before starting the drug in the first place and which I regret. Or, should I stay on the 0.5 mg/day and then increase it to 1.0 after seeing you to see if there’s improvement?

Hope that’s not too confusing. I’m just trying to have something clear established so I can figure out what hair I’m losing and at what rate. I like the idea of having an empirical baseline. I guess I don’t mind the minor chubbification if I know that the propecia’s doing something. But I want to know that it’s doing something!

Just wondering if you had any thoughts. Anything you could offer would be appreciated. Thank you so much for this resource.

First and foremost, lets discuss the facts. Propecia is a brand name for finasteride in 1mg. Proscar is a brand name for finasteride in 5mg. For the treatment of androgenic alopecia (AGA) the recommended dose is finasteride 1mg (Propecia) taken orally once a day. Some take 1/4 pill of Proscar (finasteride 1.25mg) once a day. Ideally, you should cut it in 5 pieces, but that is difficult to do with a small pill. Taking more than 1mg of finasteride will not be of benefit with respect to your hair loss issues. More may just cause increased incidence of negative side effects. Taking less (finasteride 0.5mg for example) is about 70 to 80% as effective as the full 1mg dose.

In general, Propecia does not cause shedding. I realize other websites and forums state this (and we’ve published emails about this), but it is not something I usually see in my practice. If you are seeing shedding and you think it is from Propecia, then I will take your word. But you should also note these important facts:

1. Propecia does NOT stop hair loss forever.
2. It takes 6 to 12 months of taking Propecia before you see any effect with consistent use.
3. Your genetic predisposition will always win over Propecia in the long term (which could be years).
4. When people start taking a medication to do something, such as taking Propecia to stop losing hair, you will generally be more astute to any changes in your hair (that you would have never noticed).

That all being said, I can’t tell you what you should or shouldn’t do with your prescription medication dosage, as I didn’t prescribe it to you and I’m not your doctor. Talk to your prescribing physician to help figure out what you should do next and then when you come in for your visit to my office, we can go from there.

Hello,

What do you know about the connection between finasteride (or DHT inhibition in general) and reduced collagen production, or premature aging and wrinkle formation? I have browsed some studies that seem to suggest inhibiting DHT also inhibits collagen production, leading me to believe Propecia could be responsible for my hollow, prematurely aging 23 year old face. (I’ve been taking finasteride for almost 5 years).

I realize this is a site to discuss and post hair loss related topics and its treatments, but Propecia is not the root of all your problems. You are 23 years old and you think Propecia is causing you to have premature aging?

To be clear, I am not suggesting Propecia is or is not the cause of what you are experiencing. However, I think there are many other factors that would definitely cause MORE symptoms of an aging look other than Propecia. Such factors include excessive sun exposure, drinking, smoking, marijuana use, drug use, partying too much, not enough sleep… in other words, many of the things a young man in their 20’s would be partaking in. I don’t know enough about your routine or habits to speculate further.

Snippet from the non-hair-loss article:

Tadalafil (Cialis), currently marketed for erectile dysfunction, also may be used to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), the FDA said.

The newly approved indication includes both prostate enlargement by itself and when it occurs along with erectile dysfunction.

Two clinical trials demonstrated the drug’s effectiveness in BPH, the agency said. Men who took 5 mg of tadalafil once daily showed a significant reduction in total International Prostate Symptom Score.

Read the rest — FDA Okays ED Drug for Enlarged Prostate

I think that this is a terrific announcement. Many men do not want to experiment with Cialis for ED, so they do not know that their ED is treatable. With the use of Cialis for an enlarged prostate, many men will get the secondary benefit of better and more satisfactory sexual performance.

Snippet from the article:

For some, gray hair is a signal of distinction. But for many, it’s something to get covered up. Using dyes is an old practice, but now cosmetic company L’Oreal is working on an internal method to keep the silver at bay.

The company hopes to have a pill on the market by 2015 that will prevent oxidation stress, the process that causes hair to fade from jet black or deep red to silver or gray. The pill uses a fruit extract that does something similar to the body’s own enzymes that control hair pigmentation.

Read the rest — Cosmetic Company L’Oreal Developing Pill to Prevent Gray Hair

I personally like the gray change in my appearance. In my opinion, men who gray just look more distinguished. But for those that dye their hair, a pill may be more to your liking if all goes well with testing and it comes to market.

Hello Dr. Rassman

In one of your latest replies you suggested that transplanting grafts just to thicken the regions close to hair line is not advisable as it can damage existing original hairs. Also you said you have applied this to some actors. Didn’t their existing hairs get damaged as you said? Could you supply us some further information?

There are judgments that are made based upon experience. If a hairline is eroded or eroding and the person is on finasteride (Propecia), I would treat the hairline that has hair present in it, provided that the patient understands the nature of progressive hair loss. In the young man, the erosion of the hairline is just the beginning of the balding process, so keeping a fuller hairline with transplants and following the loss as it goes back is not unreasonable.

What I avoid is someone who has miniaturization in and behind the hairline, but the hairline is still normal. Getting to know the patient has a lot to do with what I do and I tend to be more conservative than most doctors are protecting the patient from unnecessary surgery.

From time to time, I see a person with a Norwood Class 2 pattern that received 3000+ grafts in the frontal hairline. As a Class 2 patient, unless the hairline is eroded I do not usually transplant these patients… but if I do, just a few hundred grafts usually work. To give these patient 3000+ grafts means that the doctor is money hungry, pushing aside ethics to get as much of the patient’s cash as possible.

Snippet from the non-hair-loss article:

More than two-thirds of men who contacted an email advice service run by a leading sexual advice charity had erection problems, which were frequently linked to loss of sex drive, according to research in the October issue of IJCP, the International Journal of Clinical Practice.

The study by UK researchers also found that a large number of men from the Middle East and Indian subcontinent sought email advice on problems with premature ejaculation and masturbation. Previous research has suggested that these issues are often related to arranged marriages.

Read the rest — Email Sexual Advice Study Highlights Problems Raised by Different Ages and Cultures

This isn’t about hair loss, but it’s interesting nonetheless. The frequency of libido or erectile dysfunction (ED) problems reported are far more common than previously thought. Granted the results are just from email surveys, but the report just scratches the surface of a common problem.

The real question is — how much of this reflects the physiology of these men? I suspect that the ED problems reflect not just the physiologic changes of aging, but of the social fabric that men fall into. Such things like alcohol consumption, depression, marriages that lost their vitality, etc… are amongst the problems that cause the libido and ED problems.

One particularly interesting bullet point from the article says that most of the masturbation related worries come from India, and I’d estimate 95%+ of the “masturbation causes hair loss” emails I get come from the same area (even though I’ve written over a dozen times that it is just a myth).

Hello Doc, following is a brief summary of finasteride experiment on myself, maybe you share it.

Age: 25
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Hair: Light Brown / Fine hair
Hair Loss: Norwood 2

Treatment: Propecia (3 months just finished), Minoxidil (Over a year), Nizoral Shampoo

Sides: Watery Semen and decreased volume of ejaculate, slightly weight gain. No loss of libido. I think watery semen is much more common than %2, at least %40 in my opinion.

Recovery During Medication: After 3 months semen is looking dense as before, volume increased. Body weight is back to normal. These are my observations however, i dont exactly know drug effect and my body reaction to it detailed.

Hair loss: I believe this drug works. I dont see hairs in my hand as before. I dont think i even shed 100 hairs a day which is even normal. However my expectation is high and i expect new hair growth. With the help of minoxidil there is slight but visible hair growth on my corners(hairline)

Thank you for sharing your experience.

You are correct in stating the “watery semen” phenomenon probably occurs more than 2% of the time. I suspect it is in the 20% range. I’m sure you’re still losing the normal amount of hair daily as your hair cycles (perhaps in the shower or even when you walk down the street), though.

Hello there,
I hope you can help me please? I am 51 yrs old and over the last 20 years have had about 8 hair transplants, the last one being a FUE procedure in London approx one year ago. I have an average height hairline which had around 1400 grafts to thicken the frontal area.

Under normal light my hair (which is quite short and brushed back) does not appear thin, but under sunlight and house lights I can see through virtually the whole top. I have a good crown and temple peaks which have not receded at all.

My Q’s are - could the hair be taken from my temple peaks and from the front hairline to move it approx one half inch back on my head then place all these hairs on the top to thicken that area further?

Also, could a small area, say half a centimetre be taken from around the bottom rear of my hairline extending over my ears, with a view to putting these hairs on the top of my head too ?

Thankyou for any reply you send me. Regards

That seems like awfully too many hair transplant surgeries. Added to that, if you are still considering having more surgeries it sends a huge red flag. I read your requests and it seems a bit too drastic, but also note that I do not know your history or even know your ultimate expectations (as 8 surgeries in the past did not fulfill them), so I am just speaking in generalities based on your one email.

Perhaps you are trying to set a goal you will never achieve or had surgeons that never developed a Master Plan for you? Again, this is a generalization and I really cannot answer your question in detail without a private consultation. You may have many options once you are evaluated, such as Scalp MicroPigmentation to increase the appearance of fullness (see example) if you are running out of donor hair to harvest.

We do not harvest hair from 1/2 centimeter around the bottom of the ear and hairlines.