I am 10 weeks pregnant, and about 3 weeks go I noticed most of my upper eyelashes are gone. I haven’t tried any NEW makeup or meds. It looks like stubble is there as if it is growing back, but it isn’t. It’s looked the same for 3 weeks. Could pregnancy cause this?

You may have a telogen effluvium of eyelash hair, but I would wonder why it did not impact the lower lashes as well. There is not much to do other than wait this out for the moment. If it is caused by your pregnancy, then you can look past the birth of your child to see if it reverses. Let me know please.

Hi Dr.

I am a male 37 years old and from middle eastern background. I have been suffering from pimples with white pus, mainly they appear on the back of my head or on the side, they come two to three in count in one time, then they go away and after 2 to 3 days other ones develop. I have been suffering from this for the past 1 year and 5 months. They are painfull when I squeeze them and let the puss out.

In my early years from 12 to 18 years old I suffered from acne especially in my face, it left some gentle scars but was a problem in my life back then.

I hope that you can help to diagnose my problem before going to a doctor for check up.

Thank you.

You should see a dermatologist. Unfortunately, I can not help you without examining your scalp. This could be recurrent folliculitis, but if it recurs and moves around, this is something you need a doctor for, because antibiotics may be needed.

i recently was browsing the internet looking for information about dupa and i came across this Canadian site which basically confirms DUPA is caused by DHT:

Diffuse Unpatterned Alopecia (DUPA)
DUPA is an uncommon variation of Androgenetic Alopecia in which the hair all over the head is sensitive to DHT and there is thinning everywhere. DUPA affects more women than men but the majority of women with AGA do not have DUPA. DUPA should be suspected if there are miniaturized hairs in the normally safe donor area. Hair transplantation is not an option for DUPA because there is no safe long-lasting donor hair.

I have my doubts that DHT is the cause of DUPA (diffuse unpatterned alopecia). I believe that there is a strong genetic influence behind DUPA, but if it was caused by DHT, it would be responsive to drugs like finasteride (Propecia) or dutasteride (Avodart). I have tried both on patients and the response has been very poor. So at this point, I will have to respectfully disagree with the opinion that DHT causes DUPA.

The typical female diffuse alopecias that impact all of the hair (including sides and back of the scalp) are not DUPA, but a genetic process which happens to have the same pattern (phenotype) as DUPA in males. It also does not respond to these drugs.

As I have mentioned in earlier blog posts, medicine is a descriptive science that often does not give us much insights to the cause of what we are seeing.

Results from FUE are variable while the strip procedure is predictable nearly 100% of the time-Does this mean the strip method is the better option as its more certain. And if this is true why would you tell people and/or use this method rather than the strip method at NHI.

I test everyone to determine how good their follicular units will come out with follicular unit extraction (FUE). I call this test a FOX Biopsy and I insist on doing this so that I am comfortable that wastage is not a problem. It is hard to match the quality grafts that a strip-method hair transplant can produce. With an FUE procedure, the bottoms of the follicular units can be stripped of their fat and supportive structures; in a strip procedure, the follicular units are all perfect. If you saw two follicular units side-by-side (one from a strip harvest and the other from an FUE), you would see a significant difference. I believe that when this problem occurs, the growth from an FUE with stripped infrastructure should not, in theory, grow as well or as thick as a strip graft. The benefit of the FUE technique, of course, is the lack of the linear scar in the back of the head, allowing for a very closely cropped haircut without noticeable scarring. We perform both techniques at NHI.

(male)
I stopped taking gabapentin due to hair loss;however after stopping it, I am still experiencing hair loss. When will it stop if indeed the hair loss is due to gabapentin?

I do not have any experience with this drug. Stopping it and switching it with another epileptic drug under your doctor’s direction would be the proper thing to do. You must wait it out. Neurontin (gabapentin)’s rare side effects list (see RXList.com) does include “hair disorder” — I suppose this could mean hair loss.

Generally, effluviums will last less than a year when the offending drug stops being used. Women will need a proper medical workup for hair loss. For more, see WebMD - Telogen Effluvium and Other Effluviums.

Hey Doc, I’m an 18 year old who has always obsessed over my hairline because it’s been around a NW2 since i was born, one side worse than the other. I’m wondering about what treatments, or even the possibility of a “cure” (Let’s face it, it’s not polio), you predict will be practical and available in the next 10-20 years.

I can be optimistic at times, but I do not believe there will be a “CURE” for genetic hair loss in the next 10 to 20 years. There may be better drugs or discoveries to slow or partially reverse the balding process, however. There are some exciting things happening with hair cloning / multiplication, but their viability still remains to be seen. Time will tell.

And for the record, polio isn’t cured. There is a vaccine to prevent polio, and most countries have eradicated it completely. Nigeria, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan still have a polio epidemic. I’m not about to write PolioBlog now, so I’ll leave the rest up to Wikipedia for all of your polio information.

Hi Dr. Rassman
Is there any risk of shedding phenomenon after FUE procedure at donor site(most of which is occipital area)?

You will likely not shed from the donor area, but I suppose there is a small risk with any surgery done on the scalp. The mechanism will be the same that causes a telogen effluvium from almost any stressful event. I am curious as to what is driving the question. Has something happened to you as a result of an FUE?

I recently retired from the Army. I used to let my facial hair grow on the days I was off and on leave with no problem. I would get a full beard over time. Now when my hair grows on my face I have bald spots. I have them on both sides of my side burns, on my left check, and on the mid part of my lower right neck. I have not shaved for about 2 weeks but the bald spots are still present. I am a 38 yr old caucasion male. Thanks for your time.

You may have alopecia areata, which appears as bald spots over different parts of the body, including the beard. See a good dermatologist to make the diagnosis, as I am only guessing from what you wrote and without seeing you myself, I can not really tell.

Is it possible that a relaxer triggered hereditary hairloss?? I’m concerned because after using a relaxer, my hair has been falling out for about 4 years now and I know it’s been since I used the relaxer.

It sounds likely that you damaged your hair when you used the relaxers, as they are known to cause hair loss. Much of the time these changes are permanent starting on or around the time of the injury. If your hair has been falling out for 4 years, you probably have another cause for it and it should be looked at my a competent doctor who specializes in this area.

I read that the FDA has issued a warning about the oral supplement Total Body Mega Formula being unsafe because of high selenium and chromium levels. So my question is why does the FDA not have control over the sale of these supplements, but they do have control over the recall of them?

I saw the official FDA warning and the Center for Disease Control advisory (PDF file). Apparently it took the Florida Department of Health to send reports to the FDA about the potential toxicity of Total Body Mega Formula and Total Body Formula before they were actually looked at by the FDA. The reason for this is because as dietary supplements, there isn’t a requirement of the FDA’s approval processes for safety or effectiveness. This is quite unfortunate, and just goes to show that you really don’t know what could possibly be in these supplements. So for these particular products the FDA found that, “In all cases, the reactions included significant hair loss, muscle cramps, diarrhea, joint pain and fatigue.” Yikes.

The FDA itself didn’t recall the product — after they issued their warning, the manufacturer voluntarily recalled the toxic products to avoid lawsuits and more bad press.