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Hi Doc,

I’ve been using Minoxidil 5% for around 18 months and although results are evident they aren’t miraculous…as to be expected. My question to to you is, I’ve bought some Follicare supplement to assist with my progress. DO you know if this contains any harmful chemicals or will it cause a reaction with the minoxidil? I;ve read the chemicals are natural but to what extent? I know that follicare sells a package containing minoxidil but I wonder if it is any different to Kirkland minoxidil.

Anyway thanks for your time

I do not believe there is anything harmful in a supplement, aside from the harm it does to your wallet. If the product contains minoxidil, that’s going to be the ingredient that regrows your hair — so I’d stick to the generic minoxidil. I would not double up on the minoxidil, using the generic and the Follicare at the same time. Follicare’s various sprays and lotions also contains botanical extracts, saw palmetto, vitamins, oils, and lots of other stuff. It might make your hair shiny, but I don’t see where the treatment for hair loss is in there.

I’m looking at the Follicare website now, and I am not impressed by the tiny and blurry before/after photos. Ever notice how so many of these various hair loss products for sale are often accompanied by lots of hype, little proof, and even smaller photographs?

Can chemical relaxers applied properly by a professional at a salon cause hair loss? It seems as though every question here about chemical relaxers involve doing it yourself or messing up and burning the scalp.

Professionals make mistakes on occasion so the use of relaxers always put you at risk for chemical burns. In the hands of experienced professionals, I would think that the risks are minimal.

With that said, I just met with a nice lady who had a professional use a relaxer on her hair about a year ago, and ended up with two thumb-print type bald spots that appeared after a 6 month course of treating open burn wounds on her scalp. I will be transplanting those thumb-print bare areas shortly.

Hi my question is about the HairDX test. If male pattern baldness can be inherited from either side of the family, is the Hair DX test only about 52 percent accurate since it tests the X chromosome only? And is it even less accurate in regards to actual hair loss because of the complex gene expression?

Men have one X chromosome and one Y chromosome so the impact for the test on a man’s only X chromosome is clearly from one parent or the other. The overall predictability is only about 70% and possibly the cause of the difference between 70% and 100% are the other factors associated with gene expression and possibly other genes not tested.

Dr,

I am hearing lot of ads about ‘Segals Solutions’ in India nowadays and heard that this product is from Canada and claims to be working well for a long. Does this really help in growing new hair or reducing hair loss? Appreciate if you could pick up my question and give your valuable review/response,

Thanks in adv

The Segals Solutions website says the product is “100% effective” and then just below it is says an independent study shows “67% noticed a reduction in hair loss”. So it works 67% of the time, every time? Uh huh. It then goes on to say that it is very convenient to use, in that you only need to rub their lotion on your scalp and leave it there for a minimum of 6-8 hours, then shampoo your hair with their product, and then take their pill in the morning. Where is the convenience?

I haven’t heard of this hair loss “treatment” before, even though they say it’s been made for 30 years. You’d think that with 30 years of success, there would be more than 2 before/after photos available on their site (and even those are smaller than my thumb, making it hard to see what’s going on). The lotion you leave on your scalp for 8 hours contains biotin, saw palmetto, B vitamins, and some other stuff, but the shampoo is just listed as containing “herbs”, and I have no idea what is in the pill. They say the entire treatment contains African “herbal technology” including rooibos, which is a tea common in South Africa. It goes on to discuss a French lab study showing hair benefits, but no further details are given, I can’t find the study, and I doubt it’s been peer reviewed.

I’ve gone over this before — there are two proven treatments that are FDA approved safe and effective, minoxidil (Rogaine) and finasteride (Propecia). If anyone wants to give Segals Solutions a try, by all means don’t let me stop you. Just keep in mind you’re probably wasting your time and money, as even their own marketing information sounds confused about what results you are “guaranteed” to see.

Dear Doctor,

You routinely advise people to stay clear of Scalp Med, Follicare, Spectral DNC and other similar products. Your reason is that all of the aforementioned products contain minoxidil and if they work, at all, it is simply due to the minoxidil contained in them. Your conclusion: Just buy plain minoxidil!

Well, I would agree that many products have probably a zero chance of working. Fabao, for example, contains nothing more that Chinese herbs and is formulated based on folklore and an ancient meta-physical concept of disease. I seriously doubt it does anything. On the other hand, products like Follicare and Spectral DNC take a known active ingredient (minoxidil) and try to improve on it. These products take many promising ingredients that have been shown to grown hair, to some degree, in certain studies, like Adenosine, Amenexil, free-form fatty acids, caffeine, etc. They also add other things like either DMSO (in Follicare) or nanosomes (in Spectral DNC) to increase absorption. Clearly, the makers are going all out to “turbo charge” ordinary minoxidil.

Although none of these ingredients are effective enough to be used as a stand-alone treatment, nor are any of them proven, they all, at some point, showed some degree of promise or effect. Dr. Peter Proctor, in a Q & A session on one of the forums, said that “any ingredient that has ever been claimed to grow hair, probably does to some degree — in some people.” With logic like that, these companies take the “best of the best” of the unprovens and add them to a proven ingredient (minoxidil.) With few exceptions, I think most of these companies have good intentions to make the most effective product they can with what is currently available to them. I think very few are outright, deliberate scams.

It seems clear and logical to me that when these extra ingredients are added to a proven minoxidil base, there is bound to be some beneficial, synergistic effect.

The Million Dollar Question: Putting aside cost and value, which I don’t think should be a factor in choosing treatment, do you really believe that one of these products is not likely to be more effective than plain minoxidil?

Could the opposite be true — manipulating the basic minoxidil may make it less effective? Where is the science here? I don’t believe everything I read and when someone or some company is self-promoting the product or process and then makes claims of benefits, what proof is there really? I need to see actual proof before I can even remotely consider giving something a thumbs up. And as you suggested, most of these products seem like they’re just combinations of every herbal that is rumored to have hair benefits, along with a proven treatment like minoxidil. So then when the minoxidil ultimately helps, they can say “See, our product works!” — but in reality, it’s just a more expensive version of generic minoxidil with added vitamins that may or may not be of any use to the hair growth process.

Good intentions or not, it is a buyer beware process and these companies are ultimately just out for your money (makes sense being a business). Cost might not be a factor for you, but I don’t think many people would agree with that notion, especially in this poor economy.

Two questions. I was at CVS and looking at the back of an olive oil hair conditioner product. It said that product, unlike petroleum jelly, does not clog hair follicles. So does petroleum jelly actually clog hair follicles and would this cause hair loss?

Also, this is not a new occurrence, but I often feel little bumps on my head that seem to be caused by dry scalp, but these feel like tiny pimples that cannot be popped. Does this have anything to do with MPB? Perhaps they’re inflamed hair follicles?

Although the popular theory seems to be that clogged follicles have their growth inhibited (hair being unable to grow because it is blocked), it is blatantly untrue. I do not believe petroleum jelly causes hair loss. The product you saw probably just had clever marketing and semantics so consumers will buy one hair conditioner product over another.

With respect to the bumps on your scalp, maybe it is pimples, and maybe you should have it checked out by your primary care doctor or dermatologist. I doubt it has much to do with balding, but I can’t tell something like that without an exam.

I reached out to a reader/writer/commenter that has previously sent in some great insights about FDA trials to get his thoughts on the latest Lexington HairMax LaserComb study that was released (read the abstract of the study here). He wrote back with a great overview, and although lengthy, it’s a worthy read for those interested.

Here’s his reply –

—————-

Dr Rassman

I am a physician-scientist (MD-PhD) with long-standing experience in the clinical development of drugs, trial designs, and interaction with drug regulatory agencies, and am also an avid reader of baldingblog. As such, I have been critical of Lexington in the past for failure to release clinical trial data in a peer-reviewed journal and in a timely fashion. I have also mentioned that their responses on your blog to questions by your readers (and information posted on their own web site) appear more likely written by marketers than scientists.

I am presently reviewing for your readers the recently published article that summarizes the clinical study supporting the safety and efficacy of the HairMax LaserComb (Leavitt M, Charles G, Heyman E. Clinical Drug Investigation. 29(5):283-292, 2009).

Read more of “Reader Checks in with His Thoughts on the Latest LaserComb Study”…

hi,
I have been taking saw palmetto for a year and I reckon it has helped not only my hair loose. but other problems such as depression,sexual desire this cant be a bad thing considering it has helped three things with one tablet. I know your goin to say it is not fda approved but how can it be so bad when I am feeling great again and able to tackle life without feeling suicidal and depressed. I reckon it is the greatest thing thats happened to me.

What you are reporting that you got out of saw palmetto are not known effects for the herb. It is mainly used as a prostate enlargement treatment, and I’ve never heard of it alleviating depression or suicidal tendencies. I don’t recommend saw palmetto to treat your hair loss, but it is harmless to my knowledge and if it works for you, certainly you are free to continue using it. Good luck.

Hi doc,
I am a 30 year male with seborrheic dermatitis. I have been shedding some hair for the last 3 years. My doc said that I am Norwood scale 2.

I went to a trichologist some days back and she gave me some “so called” FDA approved Saw palmetto capsules. I got some pain in the arm and dizziness after using the capsules. I have now discontinued the medicine. I know Minoxidil is the way to go for me but considering that I have SD, would it aggravate my SD? What other options are good for me?

Thanks again

Saw palmetto is not FDA approved, as it is a supplement. If your trichologist said it was FDA approved, she’s mistaken. It has known effects on reducing hair loss in some men, but it is inconsistent and it will not help seborrhea.

On the other hand, minoxidil will aggravate seborrhoeic dermatitis. Option-wise, Propecia is the only other FDA approved medication for treating hair loss (along with minoxidil), but it is available by prescription only.

Hey Doc,
Thanks so much for reading my message. I’ve been on rogaine + propecia for almost 5 months now and am not sure whether I am seeing results. Rogaine has definitely given me new and very small hairs which is promising, however the balding process still seems to be underway (although that might be my imagination. I hope is stops in any case).

As a result though, I’ve been looking to reinforce my regime. Firstly, do you think this is a good idea? Should I wait a little longer to decide? It is true that most of the hairs that I notice falling out are small, however my hair line seems to be receding still and I can definitely feel thinner hairs behind my hairline (I am in between NW 2 and NW 3 so there is still hope!)

Secondly what would you recommend? I already “Regentresse” which boasts a 3 step regime of an “anti DHT topical serum” as well as a hair follicle stimulator and a shampoo. The other alternative I was thinking about was a laser comb. Do you think one of both of these ideas are good ones? Are regenetresse or lasercombs good supplements to the FDA approved regime? I am 19 years old as of now and am not at all ready to lose my hair!
Thank you!

I’d wait a little longer before you see the Propecia benefits. I don’t think the Lasercomb does anything to help hair loss, and a topical anti-DHT serum doesn’t strike me as something I’d expect to work, but you’re open to try it. I’ve not heard of Regenetresse specifically, but the product’s packaging says “Compare to Nioxin“. As I’ve written before, I don’t see anything in Nioxin that would regrow hair. So if the two are similar, I’d expect Regenetresse to also not regrow hair.

At 19 years old with early loss, you should be having your scalp mapped for miniaturization every 6-12 months so you don’t have to play the guessing game when it comes to being sure about results. You’ll be able to see if the medications are working…