The Ben Mulroney Show - Brad Smith with Dr. Soheil Gandhi on a miracle hair loss cure?

Episode Date: October 28, 2025

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And filling in for Ben, who will be back tomorrow, I'm Brad Smith. And before the break, I told you, and maybe not the best tease when you say, my biggest insecurity. I'm going to expose it in this segment. And it was. Which is pretty much the funniest thing I can tell you because it defines me completely. The irony that my

biggest insecurity growing up was losing my hair. If that was a possibility, it collapsed me. It brought me inward. It made me fearful. I got my mother at 18 years old to go to a salon and get me rogain. And ironically now, I have the thickest head of hair ever. But recently, scientists in Taiwan report a serum that can regrow hair in mice in 20 days. And here to talk to me about something like this is Dr. Soheel Gandhi, he runs his own practice, as well as he is the past president of the Ontario Medical Association and works at a clinic right now that does cosmetic treatments, including hair. Dr. Gandhi, how's it going?

Very well, thank you. It's good to be here. Oh, it's great to have you. And this is something that a lot of people don't understand from a male or female perspective, because, you know, there's a lot of, I think, 50% of women deal with some sort of hair loss at any point in their life. But for guys specifically, it's such a triggering thing growing up. So what are you seeing from new products, something like this, and the ability for guys to instill that confidence back if they had as big insecurities as I did? Yeah, so a couple of things.

I hate to say this, but I did look through the study that was done in Taiwan. I'm, you know, I certainly understand the insecurity that men have. I mean, I've got a little bit of it myself because I've got some hair loss. I understand why people feel that the way they do. I'm personally not convinced that this study that's come out and this treatment is going to be sort of the be-all and end-all. Right. And I think it's important for people to realize that when a study like this gets published in the media, especially when the author of the study, Dr. Sung Jan Lin, he admitted right off the bat that they didn't test these products in humans

and humans have different hairstyles and hair. Of course, I'd hope so. Right? What they're really doing is they're looking for venture capital firms to invest in them, give them some money to trial it further, right? That's the main reason for putting articles like this in the press. Okay, so Dr. Ghani, there is, you know, UCI out of, you know, a very famous college out of the states.

they've been developing products that they say are close to FDA approval. Is there anything out there that is close? Or is this something that is just a, you know, a far-fetched dream for us guys or people like, you know, my producer, Mike Jolet, we were talking about it before, a proudly bald man who grew up with the same insecurities that I did. But two things ended up differently, right? Yeah. So there are, the nice thing is that there are actually some effective treatments that are available right now. and there are hopefully going to be some more effective treatments that are going to be available in the next couple of years

that can work on the actual process that's causing the hair loss. Right. There are generally two types of hair loss. There's scarring and there's non-scarring hair loss. And in the non-scaring group, which is the male pattern hair loss, there's five different, five or six different subtypes of hair loss. So you need to treat the underlying condition itself. And so the short answer is there are treatments for all of the few different underlying conditions that are coming out that I think will be very, very effective. And there's some stuff that people can do right now that's also very effective in reducing the amount of hair loss.

And it's important to know exactly what kind of hair loss you have. So you do need to see a doctor, find out which one of the many kinds of hair loss you've got, and then treat that specifically. So what can they do? You kind of alluded to that. Yeah. So some simple things that will work for any kind of hair loss. So no matter which one of the many types of hair loss you have, some simple things are eat right exercise regularly. I know it's a cliche, right? But it works for everything, including for hair loss. It's important to make sure you're getting good vitamins every day. And please do not be pulled into some of the, you know, you can go to online and you can see these fancy vitamins that are like 150 bucks a month dedicated for hair. Hair, you know, hair regrowth. For women, honestly, a prenatal vitamin has all of the ingredients that you need. So even if you're 50 years old and, you know, past the stage of wanting to have a baby,

prenatal vitamins have everything that you need for hair regrowth. For men taking a once a daily vitamin helps. There is something called a laser cap. Like if you want to go out of the growth, those things are actually quite. Are they, is that real? Or is that an Instagram fad? because those things are all over everyone's explorer pages walking around with the red light therapy on. Yeah, so for hair loss, what those treatments do is they stimulate your blood vessels in the scalp.

They open the blood vessels up, increase the blood flow to your scalp so that your own body can provide the nutrients to the hair follicles that are necessary, right? Now, they're inconvenient. You have to wear this ugly looking thing for 20, 30 minutes a day. You know, it's, they're expensive. But, you know, as long as the cost benefit is there. I guess, you know, we're kind of leading to it right now. But you say there's, you know, so many fallacies out there on social media, you know, these biotin packs or these massive multivitamin kits. But what are the other ones?

Like, I'm thinking about the old wives tales type stuff where, you know, I grew up and it's, don't wear a hat. You're going to get bald because of a hat. Are there any other of those stupid colloquial things that we just run through life thinking that aren't actually true? Yeah. So unfortunately, there are stuff on social media that, and you're right, anything on social media, though, my rule of thumb is anything on social media that at the very end of it suggests that you buy a product, honestly, is probably not very good. You know, that's my general rule of thumb. They get me every time. You know, I do encourage people to see a doctor to find out which kind of hair loss. Because like I say, there's more than, one kind and some treatments don't work for others. There's some very effective medications for something called alopecia areata. And for men with male pattern baldness, one of the things I like to tell men so that they feel a little bit better is that the male pattern baldness

happens because of a byproduct of testosterone that turns off the hair follicle in your scalp. Right. So it kind of means you're heavily testosteroneated. Right. So you're actually kind of, you know, It's kind of a good thing that way. Feel good about yourself. I know, but Dr. Gann, I know all about D.H.T. blockers and stuff like that. But I think I want to get back to the, to end this segment, with the first kind of thing that I posed into the intro of this, which was the insecurity of it. I think that's what people deal with, especially, you know, talking to women who go through those periods where they experience it as well. It equally affects them.

You run a clinic. Can you speak to the, you know, the mental health aspect of it? and how many of your patients are worried about it on a daily basis? Yeah, I have to tell you that the two happiest people that I see at that particular clinic are the women who either, and it's so hair-related, it's either the women who get thicker and more lush hair and feel more confident about themselves or the women who actually lose facial hair in particular, right? Because it's funny how hair plays such an important role in our psychology,

whether too much in the wrong spot or too little in the right spot. It's ingrained, right? You know, it's just kind of ingrained and people feel shy. They don't want to go out. It affects their mood. So I do think there's a benefit if it's bothering you that much to get the right treatment for those particular areas. You know, people, you know, the women have come in. They walk straighter when they leave once they've got the treatments done.

They sort of present better. They just kind of you feel good about yourself. And when you feel good about yourself, you think, more positively about yourself and the world around you. Yeah. Well, I mean, you just kind of made me feel like so, not wrong for feeling that way for so many years. But when I grew up, it was that in that heightened, you know, celebrity was just starting.

Magazines were cut. People magazine was everywhere. You had to look like this. You had to be like that. And so when I was 18, I literally, doctor sent my mom to a salon to get me rogue game because I was terrified. And she's like, look at your grandfather. You're going to have a full head of hair, but that couldn't get out of my head.

So we have about 30 seconds here. Just if you could summate, if someone's dealing with something right now, what's the first thing that they should do? Yeah, so find out what type of hair loss that you have because, as I say, there are many different kinds and different treatments for different kinds. Take vitamins every day. Like, you know, and if you're a woman, prenatal vitamins, no matter how old you are, have everything you need. If you're a man, or once a day, vitamin is just fine. Don't buy something expensive. don't fall for something that's on the internet.

Look at a laser cap. I mean, you know, the laser caps, they're expensive, but, you know, and the other treatment are there's some shockwave therapy and ultrasound therapy that are done in various clinics that actually do a very good job. Yeah. Well, hey, Dr. Gandhi, I really appreciate you being here and helping me with some of my own insecurities. Thank you very much.

You're welcome. Take care now. You too. Okay, up next, I want to hear from you. Are you like me? Did you feel that tenseness when you came to that time where you're like, is my hair going to come out? And I'd love to hear from some females on this one

because it's not something we talk about a lot. This fall on Flavor Network. I'm actually on Top Chef Canada. It's super surreal being here. The search for Canada's top chef starts now. Let's go! Ten chefs are on a culinary quest. It tastes like fear, anxiety, all at the same time, but delicious.

Only one will be crowned. It's tough. One of the hardest things I've ever done. Two minutes shot! Top Chef Canada, all new Tuesdays on Flavor Network, stream on Stack TV.