Month: May 2006

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Liposuction – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Some people tell me that liposuction could leave them with an imbalanced look. Might fat “go elsewhere” if I undergo liposuction?

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If you regain weight after liposuction through an imbalance between diet and exercise, the body will find remaining areas of fat cells (that were not removed with the liposuction) to enlarge to take on additional fat. This may be unnoticed if it spreads through several regions, but it could be localized, creating a new bulge or area of thickening in an undesirable area. If there are not enough fat cells in the ‘love handle area’ that was removed in a previous liposuction, for example, fat may accumulate in the under-hanging arms. Liposuction is often performed by region and with some regions untouched, it could pick up the excess fat you eat and store if your gut liposuction was successful.

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I Want Even More Hair (with Photos) – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I have wonderful results from the transplants you have given me, but now I want more hair in the crown. Can I do it one more time?

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This is not an uncommon question. I have shown his before and after pictures here, with permission. He has received 3,218 grafts in three procedures. The first procedure was a limited FUE surgery placed into the corners with 484 grafts. This gave him a nice result, but he wanted more fullness so another procedure was performed in the front to finish out the hairline reconstruction. Had he elected to allow me to dense pack the frontal hairline and use a more traditional approach (strip harvesting), I would have done the entire procedure in the front (1391 grafts) in a single procedure, but the FUE limited the harvesting in the early days (2001) when this was considered a large FUE procedure for me. He elected to come back a third time now to address the top and back of his head. His third procedure had 1,827 grafts and it achieved wonderful, natural results. Now he wants a tighter swirl in the crown and a second procedure into the crown (a 4th procedure overall) will finish the job.

A good Master Plan might have reduced his entire process to two procedures (front and back), but sometimes it takes a slower approach to make the patient feel comfortable with the process. He now has 3,218 grafts total and will receive another 1000 in the crown in the very near future.

Before (click photos to enlarge):


After:


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Minoxidil Tablets – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

In Australia, there’s a hair clinic that’s been supplying Minoxidil tablets once a day in their offerings to young hair loss sufferers for a long time now. Reports indicate that maybe 50% of them have astounding scalp hair growth with a few side effects, but this medication when administered orally in tablet form, is not approved for this purpose by the FDA.

One reputable doctor does reports using the Minoxidil pill for severe psychological suffering in the young man and adding to it lotions containing finasteride and Rogaine. He warns of side effects and requires careful monitoring, which must be explained to the patient and the parents when minors are involved, and to use the medications only as a short term bridge for those young men with severe psychological dysfunction, until they can surround the dysfunctional state. There is caution suggested when side effects show up, because they can be life threatening. Of the ten or so young men reported by this doctor who received the pill in a 15 year period, one patient had excessive body hair and one developed occasional heart flutters. Stopping the medication stopped the heart flutters, but the excess body hair seemed to stay with the one patient that had it.

Minoxidil was originally developed as an antihypertensive agent to treat high blood pressure. If this medication is given to people without high blood pressure, it could drop the blood pressure enough to produce more than a heart flutter — like a heart attack or stroke — in some individuals who have other underlying conditions that lie dormant. Just remember, Minoxidil taken orally is NOT approved as a hair loss treatment. It may drop your blood pressure dangerously low and may cause strokes and even death.

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Motivation for Cosmetic Surgery – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I feel that if I tackle what bothers me about my looks I would be shallow and superficial. I don’t like the absence of a hairline, the skin that hangs from my chin, or the rolls of fat (love handles is a poor name for it). IS there something wrong with me for wanting to look younger? What drives people to get cosmetic surgery?

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Aging is not easy and not a graceful process as we might think it is. Often, some precipitating factor motivates a person to seek a return of his/her youthful look. With the many wonderful techniques that are employed for cosmetic surgery, change is easier than most people realize. It is not unusual for men and women to seek cosmetic surgery consultations as they approach a decade birthday, when they anticipate divorce or after discovering that they are being divorced, when they look in the mirror and see their body fat distribution has changed with or without weight gain, or even for women following menopause complaining that their face and neck skin has dropped. In effect, the person in the mirror is not who they think it is and they may not like what they see. You are not a freak and provided that you are not afraid of change, you can empower yourself to look further into how to get that younger look.

This piece was answered in part by Jon Perlman, M.D.

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My Doctor Suggested These Things For My Female Hair Loss – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Is there anything that can be done for hair loss in women. Mine has been determined by my PCP that it is hereditary. I have seen a Derm physician specializing in this area. He mentioned the following:

1. Do the Rogaine lotion (but do the 5% not the 2%)

2. Finasteride, but instead of the 1 mg do the 2 mg. This is Propecia though right? My PCP had mentioned that it should not be used in women or women that are pregnant, but there is no chance of that at this point. Or is it for all women that it is not recommended? He said the 1 mg is FDA approved by 2 mg is not FDA approved.

3. Mesotherapy (Keractive)…also not FDA approved. Right now used more for skin rejuvenation. Injections into the scalp of vitamins.

I’m desperate. I’m a 41 year old female and need some answers. I’m treated at one of the biggest hospitals in MI and no one can seem to help me. I’m tempted at this point to see someone at the hair loss club, or something like that. What do you think about the above. I have the rogaine but it seems to dry out my scalp/hair. Making things worse.

SUGGESTIONS!!!! I will send some photos to the email below.

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What I can comment on is that finasteride (1mg or 2mg) is not approved by the FDA for use in women. If you should become pregnant on this drug, your child will have a high risk of sexual deformities and there may be effects on certain types of female cancers like breast, ovary, cervical or uterus. I’ve written previously about Mesotherapy.

Female hair loss is unfortunately a difficult problem without clear and definite solutions and many desperate women collectively spend millions of dollars a year trying to find a cure. If you are seeing a specialist, and have a good rapport and understand the treatment limitations and its risks, it is your ultimate choice. Be careful in selecting who you see as many people and their sales staffs may just want to sell you things like transplants or wigs that may not be in your best interest.

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Hair Loss InformationMiniaturization Mapping Is a Gimmick? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

After reading your blog, I went to a dermatologist office near home and asked him to tell me how much miniaturization I had so I could have a diagnosis and measure the status of my hair loss. He told me that miniaturization mapping was a gimmick, a rouse and that I should not start believing everything I read. What do you think about his advice?

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Even in modern times, there are those out there that believe that the world is flat and it is only about 5,000 years old. If your dermatologist is still living in the middle ages, find one that is not. Click here for discussions about miniaturization and its value.

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Years After Transplant, I Want To Shave My Head – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I had a hair transplant at 22 years old in Dallas. I have to admit, it did look pretty good to begin with. But after some years, I continued to lose my hair. Fed up with the look and not wishing to continue with surgery and the additional potential scarring, I decided to shave my head.

Turns out that I have the “head” for a shaved look and got many comments on how good the look was for me, leading me to wishing I had never done the transplants to begin with. To anybody else I will always say “try the shaved look first before going with transplants – it’s permanent!” But I’m definitely not knocking transplants. It’s just no longer for me.

My dilemma now is two-fold and from looking around at the various posts, I see that you’ve answered my questions in various forms, but I guess I’m not clear as to what I should do from here.

  1. I want to reduce the donor scar as much as possible. It’s wide from left to right, starting about the middle of my head – and noticeable (of course).
  2. Next, the pitting and scarring left on the recipient site is noticeable under flourescent lighting and bright lights (not necessarily sun light). Is there any way to reduce this scarring?

Are you able to “correct” this situation? Should I send photos?

Again, I understand that I can never get back to perfect form and, granted, it doesn’t look too bad as it is now. Yet anything to reduce the scarring would be helpful.

Thanks.

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I always tell people that transplants are forever and that is why selecting a doctor and taking the time to make the right decision is something that can’t be taken lightly and shouldn’t be done when you are in such an emotional state. You need to have a long term plan and this should have been discussed with you when you started at the age of 22. As a rule, 22 year olds do not make the right decisions (there are exceptions, however), so good doctors do not do this surgery unless there are clearly indications and an excellent doctor/patient relationship is made.

You outlined the problem well. You might extract the grafts using FUE, or excise them if they are localized enough. The donor scar can be minimized, depending upon what you present with. Good photographs would help me so if you send them, please include many views with some good close-ups and mail it to me at at the address on the Contact page. Once I see your photos, I might be able to give you more information and suggestions, but now I have no way to tell exactly the extent of the problem.

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Why Can’t Hair Be Transplanted Person-To-Person? – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Can hair be transplanted from another person? Is this even remotely possible or in the possible future at all? We transplant skin, organs, etc from other donars. Why not hair?

Medical science has made it possible to transplant human organs such as heart, kidney, liver, or other critical organs from one person to another. However, the recipients of these organs have to be on life-long immune suppressing medications, which make them prone to life threatening infections. Otherwise, the transplanted organs would be rejected by the recipient’s immune system. Even the face transplant that hit the news recently required these dangerous medications to prevent the rejection of the face on that particular patients.

Hair, being an organ, can be transplanted from one person to another; however, to stop your body from rejecting the hair, dangerous drugs would have to be taken. As balding is not life threatening, taking these dangerous drugs may produce life threatening infections and this risk makes person to person hair transplants not acceptable by medical standards.

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Photos from Laser Hair Growth Article – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

I went into the articles you posted last week about the laser hair treatments and followed the links. Those pictures are amazing. Why are you so sure that these are not real results?

Just to be clear to all readers, you’re referring to News Articles – Laser Hair Growth.

I am not certain that what you are seeing is fake, but are the effects the results of the laser alone? How much is photographic views, lighting, head positions, etc. How much is because the hair is now longer? How much of what we are shown is the result of the laser alone, or minoxidil or Propecia, wigs or attachments, or scalp coloring agents. I can make a photo do anything, but you need to know far more than these simple photographs show.

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Iron Levels and Hair Loss in Men – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

The relationship between iron levels in the blood and hair loss have been a known cause of hair loss in women for years, but there is a suggestion that low iron levels may play an important part in hair loss in men as well. Women lose blood every month (menstruation) and that blood loss depletes iron levels producing anemia, a direct result of depleted iron levels. It is not clear from the article (see below) how men get reduced levels of iron short of some bleeding disorder or some malnutrition. The article is worth reading, but be careful that you do not blindly take iron supplements to treat your hair loss, as overdoses of iron have dire consequences. Red meats are rich in iron and is the source for much of the iron your body needs, so if you are a meat eater, it would be doubtful that most men reading this would have an iron problem without some digestive abnormality present in their gut.

Balding Forum - Hair Loss Discussion

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