Month: September 2005

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Hair Loss InformationAvodart – An Update – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I would like to know what you found out in regards to Avodart at the hairloss convention. Please get back to me when you get a chance.

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There is a strong suggestion that Avodart will work better than Propecia from what I heard at the meeting. There are, however, many questions not answered such as:

  1. What is the appropriate dose considering that there is a half life of 6 weeks for the medication in your body? Nobody seems to have a good answer to this question.
  2. Some think that Avodart may stay in the tissues for over 6 months, so what effect could this have on your system?
  3. What is the long term safety of Avodart taken by young man? All of the documented studies are on men over 50 (old-‘farts’ like me)

These are the reasons that most doctors do not want to prescribe Avodart ‘off label’ (not FDA approved for hair loss treatment). From a medical-legal point of view, as well as a licensing issue, I can not really prescribe it. Also, my expertise is in surgery, not medications (although I try to use medications I command and know forward and backward). There are some dermatologists, internists, urologists and family doctors that would prescribe this medication, and if you want to go that route, you should try to find one of them to prescribe it for you. With an off-label use, the issues of safety are risks that you must take.

The preliminary studies that were presented indicate that it works to grow hair when Propecia fails to do so. Still, Propecia should be the first line for the medical treatment of hair loss. What does concern many doctors, however, is that there may be a Vioxx type of hidden side effect in the young man that is not known. Will it produce cancers or heart disease or some other problem that is not yet identified? This is the reason we look to the FDA, to define safety and effectiveness for us. So far, the safety is not clear and the effectiveness appears to be coming into view through unofficial channels.

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Lost Leg Hair – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

i have lost the hair on the front of my lower leg below my knee. the rest of my legs have hair except this part. can you tell me why this is and ways to get the hair to grow there again. i am a 35 year old male. thank you.

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This is unusual. You should start by checking your Testosterone and DHT levels. Body hair is a ‘benefit’ of DHT. That includes leg hair (and the appropriate target genes), nose and ear hair, and body hair. Many men in our modern society do not look forward to the increase in these hairs!

Checking with a good dermatologist would be a start for leg hair loss. Is this a pattern in your family?

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Hair Loss InformationMaximum Number of Transplanted Hairs – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

HI DOC, what is the average number grafts a person has to transplant from the donor area???

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This is a difficult question, because it depends upon donor denity and donor laxity (assuming the strip method of harvesting). On average, I would suspect that the total number of transplantable hairs is between 15,000 – 20,000 assuming an average density and average laxity. Those with high density and laxity may push these numbers to double (30,000-45,000 hairs). I gave this answer in hairs not grafts, so based upon an average of two hairs per follicular unit, that number may be half in grafts.

If the FUE technique is perfected, then this number might change, but without more clinical experience, I could not answer this part of the question as the technique changes.

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How Many Grafts Per Procedure? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hi Dr Rassman,
I have lost my hair since i was 25. I had 2 procedures so far with xxxx Medical Group for a total of about 1700 grafts and it seemed like every time after i had a procedure, my hair fell out even more. I am class 4 now and i am not really happy at all with my results. I am now interested in another procedure and I wonder how many grafts you can do per procedure? Please respond and thank you for your time.

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Hair transplants in young men, often accelerate hair loss unless they are on some protection like the drug Propecia. The hair loss associated with a hair transplant impacts the original hair and is called an Anogen Effluvium. After the first transplant, an Effluvium rarely occurs again provided the second transplant is performed in the next 2-5 years.

In my practice, we can perform as many as 5000 grafts in a single session provided that the scalp is loose and the densities are very good. We routinely perform at least one procedure each day in excess of 2500 grafts, but this is a matter of matching donor supply and recipient area need. The correct balance between these two, will minimize just how many surgeries one might need. We do like to put the highest densities in each session to minimize the number of sessions. Most people get what they want in one or two sessions, unless they are really extensively bald.

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Los Angeles Open House – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Just a reminder to those in the Los Angeles area —

We are having an Open House at the New Hair Institute office in LA tomorrow. This is a good chance to meet many past NHI patients and see a live procedure. Plus, attendees get a $200 discount off their procedure (please ask an NHI rep for full details).

Thursday, Sept 8 from 4pm – 7:30pm (TOMORROW)
9911 W. Pico Blvd, Suite 301, Los Angeles CA 90035
Click here for driving directions, courtesy of Yahoo Maps

Any questions, please feel free to call us at 1-800-NEW-HAIR. I hope to see you there.

If you aren’t going to be able to make it to this event, we have events like this every month in our Los Angeles and San Jose, California offices. The event list can be found here: Upcoming events.

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Can Scars Be “Cured” with FUE? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Can scars be cured with FUEs?

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I do not like your use of the word ‘cured’. FUE (Follicular Unit Extractions) can be used to fill in scars found in the scalp, eyebrow or beard. The more that are placed and the closer they match the surrounding hair, the more they will cover a scar. Scars do have a different vasculature than normal skin, so at times we must reduce the densities of scars to get the best growth.

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Can I fix my high hairline? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I’ve had an abnormal hairline from birth. It is at least one and a half inches too far back. I have to wear wigs and extensions to cover it all the time. How can this be fixed? Can my hairline be brought forward like everyone else in my family? I would love to be able to wear my hair back without bangs for a change.

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High hairlines are common in women and men and moving them down is basically a surgical procedure. With progressive balding, moving the hairline down is best performed with hair transplants because if more balding occurs more transplants can solve the problem. For most women the hair transplant fix is permanent and they don’t have to worry about progressive balding so that (in most cases) a reverse brow lift type of surgery works best.

If you still have any questions, I highly recommend you look at some of our other postings on this subject.

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Microscopes in Hair Transplantation – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

There is a lot of talk about the need / not the need for microscopes in hair transplantation, but as I visited various groups performing transplants, only a few use the microscope. Is it really important?

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We published an article about 7 years ago, (Dissecting Microscope versus Magnifying Loupes) which showed that using microscopes reduces waste, which means that more viable donor hair is available from every square inch of scalp that is harvested. The wastage is not a minor issue; those with white hair may find as much as 40% more hair can be obtained by using a microscope for dissection. The average person gets 20-25% more usable donor hair if a microscope is competently used in the dissection process. For those who are very bald, once hair is lost or damaged through inefficient dissection, that precious hair is never retrievable.

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Dealing with Hair Loss – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

i’m a 32 y/o male suffering from hair baldness. i still have some good quantity of hair on the top side of my head. i am using now saw palmetto trying to stop hair loss, i am now very interested to use your method and looking to strength the hair i still have. can you please tell me whats your procedure to deal with hair loss and does the hair you transplants grow like a normal hair

To answer this question would take a book, which I have already written. In fact, you can receive the book, The Patient’s Guide To Hair Restoration, which is available from me free of charge by mail or by download in PDF format.

Baldness can be treated with medications and surgery. Medications slow down, stop and sometimes regrow the hair. Hair transplants move hair that is permanent (from the side and back of the head) to the balding area. As a general rule, these transplanted hairs grow naturally and last your life time. The problem with hair transplants is that people often lose more hair than they can transfer with a hair transplant so that the supply of donor hair is inadequate to meet the need of the balding area.

You need to arrange for a visit to a good doctor who specializes in this type of field to find out what are your options and balance them against your need and your budget.

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Do Linear Donor Scars Widen? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Do linear donor scars stretch (widen) over time?

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You are asking about hair transplant scars from the rim of permanent hair that is found around the back and sides of your head. This area (donor area) is generally not prone to stretching if the incisions are made in the horizontal plain (side to side). The scalp has some degree of redundancy so that there is ‘extra’ scalp which you can easily slide up and down on the back of your head. This makes the scalp loose in most people so when some of it is removed, there should be enough excess scalp to close without tension on the wound. When there is minimal tension on the wound, it usually will close without stretching in people with normal healing tissues. If either the scalp is tight, or the body’s tissues are not strong, then these wounds may stretch. The more surgeries you have, the more the potential to develop stretched scalp scars.