Hair Loss

The term "male pattern baldness" is familiar to most people. But many women, too, suffer from hair loss, says Lisa Earnest Ishii, assistant professor for facial plastic and reconstructive surgery in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine's department of otolaryngology and neck surgery. Everyone "sheds" or loses some hair; what do doctors consider "hair loss" that could lead to thinning of the hair or balding? In general, hair loss greater than 100 hairs a day is considered abnormal. Otherwise, it is based upon what you see: Obviously, if you start to see the scalp showing through the hair, that is abnormal.

Several years ago, Sara Taggart started noticing she was losing a lot of hair whenever she took a shower. As she combed it, more hairs would end up in the sink. Then one day she noticed a patch of bare skin on the back of her head - a bald spot.Taggart, who manages a private estate in Baltimore County, was distraught. Her mother had lost a lot of her hair in her 60s and 70s, gradually becoming bald. But Taggart was only 53."I was afraid this was going to happen to me, too," she says. "My family started noticing I was losing my hair.

Bill Gilmore's head is ground zero for what is shaping up as one of the drug industry's hardest fought battles for the hearts -- and wallets -- of American men.The 43-year-old Baltimore resident is one of the estimated 40 million American men experiencing hair loss, and willing to pay good money for treatments to address it.On one side of the battle line is Pharmacia & Upjohn, the British drug giant, and its new Rogaine Extra Strength topical solution for...

When her long, brown hair began falling out in clumps, Carolynne Dorsey wore baseball caps or hats to cover the bald patches. And she cried a lot."It was devastating," said Dorsey, a mother of three who was diagnosed with alopecia, an unexplained, often permanent total or partial loss of hair. "You can't even imagine what that does to your self-esteem. I'd see a picture of me with hair and burst out crying. I didn't want my husband to look at me. My son told me, 'Don't come to school unless you have something on your head.

WASHINGTON -- For as long as there has been baldness, it seems, there have been efforts to cure it: oils and creams, toupees and transplants, not to mention what hair stylists gingerly term "the comb-over."But as much as some men may have wanted one, there has never been a baldness pill -- until now.The Food and Drug Administration announced yesterday that it had given Merck & Co., the maker of crucial treatments for heart disease, osteoporosis and AIDS, permission to sell a tiny tan octagonal tablet that, experiments show, either promoted the growth of hair or at least stopped hair loss in 83 percent of men who took it.There are, however, some drawbacks: The pill, which will be marketed as a prescription medicine under the brand name Propecia, can cause birth defects, so it is not approved for women.

Beth Stein, a 39-year-old New Jersey advertising copywriter, began losing her hair at 19 -- presumably because of the genes that affect everyone in her family, male and female.Eventually, her hair became so thin it was hard to style in a way that covered her head."When this happens to people, especially to a woman, it's extremely emotionally distressing and socially crippling," she 11 says. "I tried a lot of phony treatments. I cried a lot. It was pretty devastating."Then, several months ago, she spotted an ad in the Yellow Pages for a New York doctor touting a new way to make hair grow.

BEIJING -- Zhao Zhangguang has great hair, a thick, wavy mane that rises three inches above his forehead. It's a wonderful advertisement, and he knows it.Mr. Zhao, 50, is one of China's most prominent private entrepreneurs. His main business is hair -- or, more accurately, the lack of it.The apparent success of his line of "101 Formula" hair-growth lotions is evidence that, if you claim a cure for baldness, the world will beat a path to your door -- no matter where you are.Mr. Zhao says his potions prompt hair growth after a few months of daily use. He claims he's helped several million bald people all over the world, with a 90-percent success rate and no side effects.

African-American children are at increased risk of a relatively new form of ringworm of the scalp, which is more difficult to treat than a previous type that caused epidemics among white children in the 1940s and 1950s, a Washington expert warns.Currently about 90 percent of those infected with this form of ringworm -- called Trichophyton tonsurans (T. tonsurans) -- are African-American, according to Dr. Rebat M. Halder, chairman of the department of dermatology at Howard University College of Medicine.

The way Dennis Fallon sees the Baltimore-Washington area, there are a lot of men out there needlessly suffering the bane of hair loss, baldness and wigs that just won't stay put.Mr. Fallon, and the company he works for, Kansas City, Mo.-based Apollo International, believe all that lost hair could be found money.That's why Apollo, which develops and markets non-surgical human hair additions and hair care products, recently opened its northeast headquarters in Columbia. The office will serve Apollo salons from Northern Virginia to Boston.

Q: At age 25 I am rapidly losing my hair, just like my father and brothers. My wife and I have seen advertisements for the use of Rogaine in the treatment of baldness. We would like to learn more about its effectiveness.A: When the drug minoxidil was first used to treat high blood pressure, it was noted that about 80 percent of patients developed an overgrowth of hair. A logical extension of this observation was to test the topical application of minoxidil (Rogaine) to determine whether it should stimulate hair growth at sites of hair loss in the scalp.

The term "male pattern baldness" is familiar to most people. But many women, too, suffer from hair loss, says Lisa Earnest Ishii, assistant professor for facial plastic and reconstructive surgery in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine's department of otolaryngology and neck surgery. Everyone "sheds" or loses some hair; what do doctors consider "hair loss" that could lead to thinning of the hair or balding? In general, hair loss greater than 100 hairs a day is considered abnormal. Otherwise, it is based upon what you see: Obviously, if you start to see the scalp showing through the hair, that is abnormal.

You have written columns suggesting use of sunscreens with microparticles of zinc or titanium. I read that some scientists are concerned about nanoparticles found in products such as sunscreen. These particles are so tiny, they could get into places in our bodies that larger particles can't. No one knows how dangerous this might be, but some experts suggest we exercise caution and avoid nanotechnology in products such as sunscreen. Shouldn't you warn people about the danger? The Environmental Working Group is a collaborative group of scientists that first raised a red flag about nanoparticles in sunscreens.

My husband and I want to start a family, so I take my temperature every day before I get out of bed. The record I keep lets us know when I have ovulated. The problem is the thermometer. It is an old-fashioned mercury thermometer we "borrowed" from his parents. He's very sweet about shaking it down and bringing it to me, but I am afraid he might break it. I worry that being exposed to mercury just before I get pregnant would be dangerous for the baby. He says other thermometers aren't as accurate.

I have read in your column that cholesterol-lowering drugs might affect hair color. I was relieved, because I was afraid I was going nuts. My hair has been pure white for years. Since I started taking Zetia, I have noticed that it has turned steel gray, with black mixed in. My doctor has never heard of this side effect. We have not been able to find any scientific documentation on this interesting observation. Nevertheless, we have heard from dozens of readers who have reported that their hair has become darker while they were taking Zetia, Zocor or other cholesterol-lowering drugs.

Baldness can be the result of heredity, certain medications or an underlying medical condition. The most common type - pattern baldness - accounts for about 95 percent of hair loss from the scalp and can be attributed to heredity. - Mayo Clinic

After an automobile accident that fractured my sternum and ribs and resulted in a herniated disk, I searched diligently for pain relief. Conventional over-the-counter pain relievers all had side effects. Then I discovered that evening primrose oil provided the pain relief I needed, with no bad reactions. Additional benefits include stopping hair loss. Since then I have found that my two cats will stop eating to have their daily dose of evening primrose oil. Their fur is very beautiful, and they don't shed nearly as much as they did before.

There's one comfort that Carole Ferguson wishes she could have provided for her mother before she died of breast cancer two years ago. "I regret that I did not know how to knit when she was sick. I was in the hospital so often with nothing to do with my hands," Ferguson said. She learned the craft months after her mother's death and developed such a strong love for it that she opened the Celtic Knot Yarn Shop on Ellicott City's Main Street earlier this year. Now, Ferguson knits "chemo caps" for patients receiving treatment for cancer.

My mother has Alzheimer's disease and hasn't spoken coherently in more than two years. She fell and broke her hip and was given a shot for pain. Like magic, she became lucid and responsive. This continued after surgery for several days. We had a hard time convincing the hospital that she actually had Alzheimer's, but after several days she gradually slipped back into the mists and fogs of her brain. I wish researchers would investigate this amazing phenomenon. Your experience is not unique.

Loretta Bullen watched large sections of her silverish-gray hair tumble to the floor in April as she combed, brushed or even ran her fingers through it. "It all came out in two weeks because of the chemotherapy," said Bullen, 78, who is being treated for breast cancer. "I didn't want to look like a baldy. " Yesterday, Bullen, a Gardenville resident, and other cancer patients joyously cut a pink and white sheet cake to celebrate a new state law that will give cancer patients who have suffered hair loss a $350 break on buying wigs.

Several years ago, Sara Taggart started noticing she was losing a lot of hair whenever she took a shower. As she combed it, more hairs would end up in the sink. Then one day she noticed a patch of bare skin on the back of her head - a bald spot.Taggart, who manages a private estate in Baltimore County, was distraught. Her mother had lost a lot of her hair in her 60s and 70s, gradually becoming bald. But Taggart was only 53."I was afraid this was going to happen to me, too," she says. "My family started noticing I was losing my hair.