Hair Loss

[jack]

I am currently on my 3rd month of finasteride 1mg. I am still losing hair. The thing that is bothering me though is that the shaft of my hair, those fallen, has uneven thickness. Towards the root it is alot thinner. It doesn't appear to be thinner about 1cm away from the root, but instead have normal thickness.

My grandfather who is in his 80's still has hair, though is balding but not totally bald. Probably due to his age. My dad in his 50's still has a handful of hair. My mom has totally no signs of balding maybe probably cause she's a female.

I have been experiencing severe acne and hair loss at the same time around December 2007. It all started when i did not shampoo my hair for 2-3 weeks. My dermatologist say its not related but i am pretty sure it is. Why the sudden acne and hair loss? Nothing i do is helping. My acne has not gotten down eventhough i had a detox diet and a only-fruits diet for 1 whole month.

My skin is itchy. Inflammation happens. Usually if i would have acne it would be at 1 specific spot. Now my whole face is always inflammed and red. Then it starts to itch and acne forms. My scalp has pimples too now.

I do not have thyroid disease nor diabetes. Is there any problem or disease related with not shampooing?

By the way, my hair loss is not totally concentrated at the crown or front. I noticed there are fallen hair from my side that experiences miniaturization too.

[Mark]

I am currently on my 3rd month of finasteride 1mg. I am still losing hair. The thing that is bothering me though is that the shaft of my hair, those fallen, has uneven thickness. Towards the root it is alot thinner. It doesn't appear to be thinner about 1cm away from the root, but instead have normal thickness.

My grandfather who is in his 80's still has hair, though is balding but not totally bald. Probably due to his age. My dad in his 50's still has a handful of hair. My mom has totally no signs of balding maybe probably cause she's a female.

I have been experiencing severe acne and hair loss at the same time around December 2007. It all started when i did not shampoo my hair for 2-3 weeks. My dermatologist say its not related but i am pretty sure it is. Why the sudden acne and hair loss? Nothing i do is helping. My acne has not gotten down eventhough i had a detox diet and a only-fruits diet for 1 whole month.

My skin is itchy. Inflammation happens. Usually if i would have acne it would be at 1 specific spot. Now my whole face is always inflammed and red. Then it starts to itch and acne forms. My scalp has pimples too now.

I do not have thyroid disease nor diabetes. Is there any problem or disease related with not shampooing?

By the way, my hair loss is not totally concentrated at the crown or front. I noticed there are fallen hair from my side that experiences miniaturization too.

I'll have to agree with your dermatologist. Unless there's something that you're not telling us, there is no reason that you should end up having long term hair loss issues and acne simply from not washing your hair for a few weeks at a time. You might get a really dirty scalp and have general hygiene issues, but nothing long term.

Dr. Rassman wrote a blog recently about hair that is shorter at the root. (http://www.baldingblog.com/2009/01/23/is-hair-normally-thinner-towards-the-root/) There are numerous conditions that can cause what you're experiencing and it's important for you to see your doctor about it. I know how frustrating it can be when you go to the doctor and they just say that they don't know and give you vague answers, but you really need to be persistent with your doctor. This is your health we're talking about here and if your doctor won't be proactive in helping you out, then you need to really get on him about it. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, as they say.

But basically, from everything you're saying I really don't think it's any sort of DHT related hair loss. This sounds like something else, perhaps an immune system disorder, that Finasteride will likely not help.

Again, keep on it with your doctor. And if he still doesn't help, try to find another one.

[jack]

Finasteride isn't helping. I realised that the hair i lose has uneven thickness near the roots only and is not straight or curly but have weird wavy pattern eventhough i do not apply any force or straighten/curl them.

Is there any disease or disorder related to not shampooing? It's too much of a coincidence. Weeks of not shampooing and then acne and hair loss happens immediately. The other thing is acne at puberty usually is concentrated at certain areas. But mine is totally random around my face. Besides i had my share of acne/pimples during my puberty. It's alot worse now.

I am in my late teens and my grandpa(80's) and dad(50's) probably lose less hair daily.

If it's my immune system who should i seek? My dermatologist is insisting that it's androgenic alopecia. It's highly possible i change doctor soon. They do not perform minituarization test here. Is there any tests that can be done?

[Plexsus]

Jack.... looks like your lacking in vitamins. For your acne/pimples your probably very sexsually active...try taking zinc, vitamin A and vitamin E all three.It sounds to me your in alot of stress For your hair loss try biotin, vitamin B and folate all three. This is just my opion.

[jack]

I'll have to agree with your dermatologist. Unless there's something that you're not telling us, there is no reason that you should end up having long term hair loss issues and acne simply from not washing your hair for a few weeks at a time. You might get a really dirty scalp and have general hygiene issues, but nothing long term.

Dr. Rassman wrote a blog recently about hair that is shorter at the root. (http://www.baldingblog.com/2009/01/23/is-hair-normally-thinner-towards-the-root/) There are numerous conditions that can cause what you're experiencing and it's important for you to see your doctor about it. I know how frustrating it can be when you go to the doctor and they just say that they don't know and give you vague answers, but you really need to be persistent with your doctor. This is your health we're talking about here and if your doctor won't be proactive in helping you out, then you need to really get on him about it. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, as they say.

But basically, from everything you're saying I really don't think it's any sort of DHT related hair loss. This sounds like something else, perhaps an immune system disorder, that Finasteride will likely not help.

Again, keep on it with your doctor. And if he still doesn't help, try to find another one.
I'm on my fifth box of finasteride now (30 tablets). Hair loss hasn't decrease. I had problems achieving erection totally a month or 2 ago but not anymore. Is that signs that finasteride had stop working?

I am losing hair on my sides too. I pulled some of it and there are minituarization towards the roots.

I am telling whatever i notice about myself. After that several weeks of not shampooing i shampooed like usual. Is there posibility not shampooing for a short period induce some kind of disease?

I hope you reply me as my doctor insists it's MPB. If it is not MPB what test can be conducted on me? Blood? Any x-ray or so? I am in great need of a solution if finasteride wouldn't stop the hair loss.

[Mark]

I'm on my fifth box of finasteride now (30 tablets). Hair loss hasn't decrease. I had problems achieving erection totally a month or 2 ago but not anymore. Is that signs that finasteride had stop working?

I am losing hair on my sides too. I pulled some of it and there are minituarization towards the roots.

I am telling whatever i notice about myself. After that several weeks of not shampooing i shampooed like usual. Is there posibility not shampooing for a short period induce some kind of disease?

I hope you reply me as my doctor insists it's MPB. If it is not MPB what test can be conducted on me? Blood? Any x-ray or so? I am in great need of a solution if finasteride wouldn't stop the hair loss.

To be perfectly honest with you, you've got a lot of problems going on. Not shampooing for a short period of time will not cause any disease. Acne and some hair loss are normal at that age (maturing hairline, etc), but you've got a lot more issues than that. The hair loss on the sides of your hair sounds troubling.

There's really nothing more that we can really tell you. You need to see a doctor, and if your doctor is not helping you, you need to find another one. There's only so much we can do over the internet.

There's the HairDX genetic test for the hair loss gene, but let's say for example that you do have the genetic marker to lose your hair... but there's some other process going on right now that is causing your loss and the genetic loss isn't going to start for years. HairDX will tell you if you carry the gene but not what pattern you'll get to or when it'll happen. Also not every doctor will do it... but go to hairdx.com for a list of physicians that will (NHI is on that list).

Best of luck,
-Mark