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Our office is closed today and tomorrow to celebrate Thanksgiving with our families. We’ll be back on Monday!

I’ve been taking Propecia for around 6 months. Recently, I’ve noticed that there seems to be improvement in my diffuse crown thinning - however, this coincides with the recently colder weather. Would the less sweat from summer cause that big of a difference in perception of thinning? If I recall correctly, I don’t sweat that much from my scalp.

In some animals, the fur coats get thicker in the winter. We have never recognized that hair cycles change based upon seasons, so the official answer to your question is that no, it should not get thicker in cold weather. That being said, many patients have told me that their hair appears thicker in the winter, so that suggests that the scientists should get better data on human moulting.

Humans have an asynchronous hair cycle, which means that we grow and shed our hair in cycles. The shedding cycle for head hair (catogen) lasts 3-6 months and the growing cycle (anagen) lasts 2-4 years depending upon the age and sex of the person. In body hair, the catogen cycle is often the length of the anagen cycle, and I would expect that the anagen cycle should be longer in winter if the body hair cycle responded to cold weather.

So in conclusion, animal hairs respond to cold, but human hairs do not (officially) respond to cold weather. I don’t have any idea if you have more or less scalp sweat today than you did in the Summer months, or if it makes a difference in your crown’s appearance.

Snippet from the non-hair-loss article:

If you are a lady, and you think you might be pregnant, you can take an at-home test to find out. You simply pee on a stick. Whether the results are measured in pink lines, blue lines, plus and minus symbols, or a “pregnant”/”not pregnant” digital readout, all the home pregnancy tests on the market are really looking for the same thing — Human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG).

HCG is a pregnancy hormone. It’s produced by the placenta, a temporary organ that only forms in female bodies when an embryo has attached to the uterine lining. And so it was kind of weird when a male friend of a Reddit user known as CappnPoopDeck peed on a home pregnancy test and it came back positive.

Read the rest at BoingBoing — Positive pregnancy test diagnoses man’s cancer

Wow.

Your blog has stated Asians typically has an average of 80,000 hair while Caucasians have 100,000 hair on their head.

I am from North India quite fair skinned. What would I be classified as? Indians, I believe, are genetically classified as Caucasians.

Unless I am getting too old not to notice the continents drift apart, last time I checked India is part of the the Asian continent. In England, they refer to Indians as Asians. There is some debate about whether racial categorizations are medically valid, but if we measure race based upon hair count, we see groupings by geography. Asians cover Korea, Japanese, and all of China and points south. There, the average total count for hairs on the head measures 80,000 hairs.

Most Europeans average 100,000 hairs on their head. As our geographic tour takes us south into North Africa, the total hair counts start mixing between 80,000 - 100,000 total hair count. Moving more into Asia, the hair counts seem to move towards the 80,000 number.

Taking our tour south into the African continent and the dark skin, kinky hairs starts showing up, the hair counts drop further to the 60,000 range. One can rationalize that the African kinky hair type, reflects accommodations to the heat of the African savannah, where the scalp is a major heat loss organ, acting like a radiator which allows air flow through the hair to dissipate heat.

Hello Doctors,

My husband (42 y.o.)is bald, and about a year ago he developed some bumps/sores on his head. They started at the top of his head, and worked their way from there to the back left and back right side of his head. They progressed to his ears, eventually on both sides, and came together at his nose. They are quite painful, itchy, and red. Often they develop dry skin patches with them, especially on his ears. They have never pussed up, but will at times open up and then scab over.

He has seen a dermatologist 4 times, and has been on 3 rounds of Monicycline, which seemed to help some. He’s tried creams; has changed to shaving with a straight razor, using a new and clean blade daily; has used Hibicleanse daily for months. He’s been off of the antibiotic for 3-4 weeks and now the bumps on his nose and the back left of his head have returned.

I am concerned that this could be cancer. We do not know what type of doctor to turn to at this point, and would be deeply grateful for your help.

Many thanks

I do not know how much I can be of help if your husband already has seen a doctor. Perhaps he should seek a second opinion from another doctor. Some people suffer from chronic infections of the hair follicles and may need a biopsy.

Snippet from the article:

People who had three to four signs of aging — receding hairline at the temples, crown balding, earlobe creasing, or fatty deposits around the eyelid — also had a 57 percent higher risk of heart attack and a 39 percent higher risk for heart disease in a study presented today at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2012.

…

Using data from the Copenhagen Heart Study, researchers analyzed 10,885 men and women 40 and older for visible signs of aging and, over 35 years of follow-up, heart disease. By the end of the follow-up period, 3,401 participants had developed heart disease and 1,708 had suffered a heart attack.

Read the rest — What Hair Loss Says About Heart Disease

Hello doctor, sort of an unusual question for you.

I have been noticing that when the wind blows and it blows my hair, I feel a pain in the line where the hair parts. It’s hard to explain exactly what I mean, but when the wind blows, it causes my hair to stand up (as the wind would do) and it feels like something is being poked. I have longer, curly/wavy hair and have been noticing this only happens sometimes but not always. Any idea as to what this could be or if it’s cause for concern?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I do not know what you have, but I have heard this complaint before. Perhaps your scalp is sensitive from an undiagnosed scalp/skin condition. You should see a doctor for an examination if you’re concerned or if the pain becomes too much.

Hello, I have a question regarding finasteride. I have heard that there are correlations between intelligence (IQ) and testosterone. Now if I take finasteride, it will lower my dht, but apparently it will also increase the testosterone slightly. Now, which form of testosterone is related to intelligence and what would an increase/decrease do to the intelligence.

thank you in advance for any anwser.

This is a new one for me. I haven’t read anything about testosterone and intelligence being related, and I don’t know where you picked that up from. If you believe everything you read on the Internet, Elvis will be your neighbor and the world will come to an end shortly.

Sorry, but I wouldn’t be concerned about your testosterone affecting your intelligence.

Caleb Followill - the lead singer of popular band ‘Kings of Leon’ is showing signs of balding. He is a norwood 2.5, maybe even a norwood 3. Now, I’m not sure if you know this, but Kings of Leon consists of 3 brothers and 1 cousin. Caleb is the *only* one showing any signs of balding, and he isn’t even the oldest of the brothers (yes he is one of the brothers, not the cousin). Is it possible the rest of the family members escaped the balding gene? Or could they have had medical intervention to tackle balding?

There is also an interesting story of Caleb commenting on his baldness here.

Anything is possible, I suppose. He might be the unlucky one that has the balding gene, and his brothers were spared. Perhaps the rest of the family is taking medication and he isn’t. Maybe he does feel added stress, which has accelerated his genetic hair loss.

There’s no way for me to know with absolute certainty why the one brother is losing hair and the rest of the siblings aren’t, but I’d say it is just the genetic cards he was dealt.

Can Adderall increase testosterone in men? Thanks drs

To my knowledge, Adderall does not affect testosterone levels. Adderall is prescribed for patients with ADHD and its mechanism of action has to do with dopamine uptake.