Month: March 2006

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Desperate for a Transplant But Low on Money – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

I have been loosing my hair for about 8 years now but did nothing due to lack of finance. I went to a hair transplant facility and they said that they could help me for about $8000. With that in mind i throw in the towel because i could not afford it. Recently i had a free cosultation at another clinic in Manhattan and i felt they were more honest with me for less. The team said that i could get about 1,000 grafts but i also had a limited supply of donors. He suggested that i tried monoxydil at this time before considering the grafts. My hair is still thinning in the top of my head and i’m still low on funds but desperately need to do something fast. He said the 5% monoxydil would be better than the 2%. Please reply with helpful advice. THANK YOU

Be wary of doctors who are willing to transplant hair, matching their recommendations to your budget. I do not like your desperation, because you are a set-up for being taken advantage of. Hair transplantation in women, such as yourself, rarely works as well as you’d hope and putting money into such a procedure for a female without good cause and a solid diagnosis is just plain foolish. Your first stop should be your primary care doctor or your dermatologist to possibly find a medical cause for your hair thinning.

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Anything New with Alopecia? – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

what’s new in the world of alopecia? I am a 34 year old woman and have had alopecia universalis (alost 100% hair loss) for 10 years. Should I get laser treatments? What about DPCP – is it even safe? What immune system enhancements could I do to boost hair regrowth? Or should I just be content to live without hair for the rest of my life?

Why does this happen? Is anyone doing research?

The last question is the easiest, as it is purely a genetic process now being mapped out by the science of genetics. When the research advances with a solution to the genetic defect, then you and many other people (even those without the complete loss of hair) may benefit.

For those of you interested in the subject of alopecia universalis, see: AlopeciaAreata.com or BaldingBlog – Alopecia Universalis

There is nothing now on the horizon though, sorry.

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A Chair to Grow Hair, Follow-Up – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Hello Dr Rassman,
I read your blog on the “Hair Chair” and you seem to focus on electro-magnetic therapy for bone growth. From my understanding, this is electro-static therapy. Low intensity pulsating static energy to be exact. I called the company that makes the chair www.current-technology.com and they referenced me to an oncology study that’s posted on their website. There was a lot of medical jargon but the general gist is that 12 of 13 women undergoing chemotherapy retained their hair…quite impressive. Also, their chair is medically approved in Europe for hair regrowth. Current Technology referred me to a Dr Morris Westfried in NY who referenced me to an article in DermatologyTimes and pointed me to a salon in NY with a chair:

DermatologyTimes

I’m convinced that this technology holds some merit and promise. I’ll let you know the results if your interested.

I’m definately interested, so please do give me a follow-up. I think that I learn as much from my audience as I teach on this site. Thanks for the information.

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Happy 34 Year Old Taking Propecia (with Photos) – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I wanted to share these photos with the blog readers. This 34 year old man came to my office in late 2003. He has short hair and when he let his hair grow out, it was puny looking, without bulk or body (see first photo). He went on Propecia and one year later, his hair grew out thick and full (early 2005 – see 2nd photo). I had asked him to cut his hair short when he came in again for a better assessment of his balding pattern (early 2006 – see 3rd photo). His miniaturization partly reversed with the Propecia, and he is one happy guy!

I apologize for the quality of the 1st photo. It was taken with a Polaroid camera, and the photo came out slightly blurred. However, the photo does still show the sparseness of his hair, which is the only point I was trying to make by showing it.




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Hair Loss InformationScalpMed Causing Shedding? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I am a 38 year old mail in good health and good physical condition, however like most men my hair has begun to thin. I saw the infomercial for “ScalpMed” and it looked promising, so I thought…what the heck, i’ll give it a try. Now, my question is this, it appears that I shed more hairs in the morning when I wash my hair (using a a ph balanced DHT reducing shampoo) after using this product. Can minoxidil cause one to shed more hair since I know this product contains this? If I don’t use scalpmed at night, the next morning when I wash my hair I have fewer hairs in the tub- about 14 without Scalpmed, and 20-40 with Scalpmed).

I also would like to make a comment to the medical industry. If one wants to try and find a cure for baldness, maybe they should research the italians or greek bloodline and see why the majority of those men have their hair way into their 40’s, 50’s, if not later years. Maybe they should research those genetics???

Thanks for your time and insight.

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It is normal for one to lose 100 to 150 hairs a day. It is also normal for one to be concerned about hair loss and be proactive as you to try with products such as “ScalpMed”. Unfortunately there is no way to tell if these products actually work. That is why most are not sold as medications or FDA approved products. If ScalpMed is causing you to lose hair, I can not comment on it for there is no real information on the issues of safety or effectiveness.

Minoxidil has been studied as a topical treatment and shows good promise of hair growth in some individuals. To date, there are only two medically proven ways to treat male pattern baldness where it is not really ‘hit or miss’.

  1. Hair transplant, which works 99.9% of the time
  2. Propecia drug regimen (which may or may not work for you but it met strict FDA requirements) is more reliable, the earlier the hair loss is seen. In men under 30 with thinning and not recession, the reversal in my experience is significant. Reversal of a receding hairline, however, is highly unusual (even in the young man). The key to this drug is to start on it early if you have genetic balding and get to the hair while it is miniaturizing and before it falls out.

To more specifically answer your question, counting 14 vs 20 hairs lost per day seems insignificant (at least from a medical perspective). As stated, we normally lose on the average 100 to 150 hairs a day. ScalpMed may be contributing to the extra 6 hairs that you are losing, but there is no way to really tell.

Finally, the hair loss gene spans all races and cultures. The study of Italians and Greeks has already been done and there it still almost 50% of men in these ethnic patterns that have hair loss.

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Dandruff and Hair Loss in 16 Year Old – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

My son is 16yrs old. I noticed when cutting his hair he had a thick piece of what seemed like caked dandruff it was there for the longest time. Then one day when cutting his hair the thick piece of dandruff was gone and ther was a bald spot. As I looked at his head I noticed there was a thin straight line of baldness then off to the right was another little spot. I took him to the dr. who did a blood test for his throid and that came back good. His spot is getting bigger and it doesn’t look like any hair is growing back from where I orig. saw the spot. There is not balding in either of the families. I checked his head tonight it looks like there is flakey dandruff all over his scalp and even some broken skin like he had been scratching. I have made an appointment with a dermotoligst but what should I expect. Do you have any idea what this is?

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What you are describing may be a localized area of psoriasis or seborrheic dermatitis which crusted and then with the crust ‘ripped’ off, the hair came out with it. The loss of local hair from an acute traction episode, could be responsible for what you are observing, and if this is the case, the hair will return if your son leaves it alone. What appears like dandruff may turn out to be seborrheic dermatitis, eczema, psoriasis, alopecia areata, or some other dermatological inflammatory disease of the skin. Your planned visit to a dermatologist for further evaluation is a good next step.

On a separate, interesting note, doctors have recently pinpointed the Psoriasis gene: Forbes.com

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Taking Propecia with Saw Palmetto – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Is it safe to take propecia and saw palmetto together, and if so how much saw palmetto? Can either of these effect facial hair growth or acne?

BerkeleyWellness.com states: “Because dietary supplements are essentially unregulated in the U.S., you can’t be sure what you’re getting when you buy a saw palmetto product (or any supplements). There are many preparations on the market (with different amounts of fatty acids, for instance, and some in combination with other ingredients of questionable benefit). They may not have the same effects.”

For the same reason, there is no way of knowing how much saw palmetto is actually in a tablet even when a specific dose is written on the bottle. Furthermore the exact mechanism of how and why saw palmetto works is not well understood. It may have an effect on DHT like finasteride, but nobody knows for sure as the science has not defined the actions. It has been sold in natural food stores for the treatment of benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH), treating men who can not urinate well. One may argue that it may also help with male pattern baldness (MPB), but there are no medical studies to support either claim.

There is no way to tell you if it is safe to use saw palmetto with finasteride (Propecia) or if it will affect facial hair growth or acne. If saw palmetto is really a blocker for DHT as some feel is the case, then you could be increasing the dose of DHT blocking to the point of decreasing your libido (a bad trade). I do not recommend saw palmetto for MPB for the aforementioned reason.


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Smoking Cannabis After Hair Transplant – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

First off let me say I find your answers to be very informative.

My first question is: Will cannibus affect my hair transplant I had on Feb 08/06? I don’t smoke cigarettes but cannibus helps me deal with my occasional back pain.

Secondly when can I resume my normal jogging of a couple miles in the morning? As well as doing chin ups and push ups? I have been told exercise of these sorts will only expand the the donor scar.

Thank you and i appreciate your advice.

Medically speaking, smoking cigarettes (even the cannabis / marijuana kind) promotes poor wound healing by decreasing blood circulation. It may have an impact on your hair transplant, however, I do not know how much of an impact it will have.

Exercises such as sit-ups that may have a potential to stretch the back of your scalp will also have an impact on your donor scar. Running 1 week after surgery is not a problem. Although you can probably resume most of your regular activity after one or two weeks post surgery, the scar takes about 6 months to a year to completely set and in the first 3-6 weeks, the wound structural elements that make for good solid healing change and build. I generally tell my patients not to do the type of exercises that stress the neck muscles like body press or sit-ups for up to 6 weeks. A few of my patients even ran marathons a few weeks after surgery without any negative effects.

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Removing Transplanted Hair for Corrective Procedure – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

What are the options in dealing with transplanted hair that you no longer want-is there any procedure that would remove the transplants but still athestically feasible?

The second related question is what is the effectiveness of corrective procedures that thin down some transplanted areas, moving the hair to other parts of the scalp that now need it.

As you can guess, I am dealing with a transplanted “head” of hair that is actually mostly comb-over because I have lost so much hair behind my orignal transplant. I can fake it at the present time but I am getting tired of being the world’s biggest user of hairspray and worrying about the wind

I have written extensively on the subject of repair and have many patient examples of repairs on our website. Also see Dean’s Story for a good example of things that can be done and how it was done on this particular patient. Removing grafts is usually the best thing to do if the grafts are in the front.

Heavy rows of grafts may be best removed just like a ‘brow lift’ surgery and then 2-3 months later, you can transplant the area and create a completely normal frontal hairline like the patient example above. I have also found the FUE / FOX Procedure to be very effective in thinning out transplanted hair and moving them to other locations to produce better coverage. However, not every patient can be a candidate for this procedure. I would need to see you first (or you can send photos, which will be treated confidentially). For FOX redistribution, I need to test each patient to be sure that this approach will work.

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Regrowing Hair Lost from Stress – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

I recently went through a difficult divorce and have been under a tremendous amount of stress. Within weeks of this starting I noticed my hair falling out rapidly. When I run my hands through my hair in the shower 50 – 100 hairs will fall out. I am 28, male, and had a thick head of hair in October. By Dec I noticed extreme amounts coming out. By feb and now march it is looking thin and I dont know how this could happen so quick. I was thinking Telogen Effluvium due to the stress. Do you think this is likely. If so will it regrow? I do see some small hairs starting. It appears to be thinnig across the whole front of my head. I was thinking this happened to rapidly and spontanously to be MPB is that a fair assumption?
Thanks in advance.

If you have male patterned genetic hairloss, severe distress may accelerate the process. First you need a diagnosis and mapping out your head for miniaturization is critical in determining what is going on. Environmental factors like stress from a divorce are one of the leading causes of acceleration of the hair loss. If it is genetic, then it would be unlikely that it would return. Considering your age, reversal with Propecia or slowing down the loss is something that I would expect. To conclude: Get a diagnosis and start treatment with Propecia if you have genetic hair loss.

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