Month: October 2006

Hello Doctor,

I’m currently a 21 year old male with some signs of MPB. I would say that I currently am between a NW II and III and I do have a family history of MPB on my mother’s side.

My question is more for future reference as I know you advise against most people under the age of 25 to get hair transplants.

Now for the question, I’ve always had “fine” hair (much like my mother and her father). Would this affect my ability to get a hair transplant in the future since my donor area’s hair would be much finer and not cover as much as personal with “full” hair? Have you ever turned away a patient because of this?

Also, which technique of hair transplantation would you recommend for someone with “fine” hair? The FUE or the Strip procedures?

A transplant with fine hair will produce coverage that you have always had. The transplants bring you your hair, with all of its characteristics. Most people with fine hair have a see-through look when they at 12 years old, so a hair transplant will bring you back to the see-through appearance you had all of your life. Fine hair is not a contraindication for hair transplants. The harvesting mechanism should be up to you and your budget, the supply of the donor hair you have, and the size of the bald area you are transplanting. FUE is not a good surgery for extensive hair transplants in a very bald man, just because of the number of surgeries you have to go through to achieve the numbers of grafts.

I have written before, forgive the repeated question (I have not seen it answered to date). I’m 36, female, thin hair. Is there a certain amount of thinning hair that should have taken place to be on Minoxidil (generic Rogaine-women)? It’s over the counter, and I’m having hair shedding now, due to either childbirth (I had a baby 5 months ago) or medications. My hair is thin and my dermatologist recomended I take minixidil for three months, tapering off it at that point, to get hair jump-started growing. I’m scared to not stay on it once I start it for fear of losing hair again, and want to know if there’s anything wrong with being on Minoxidil if you are not really thin-haired or balding? What constitutes the need for it? Is it up to the consumer?

If you have lost hair from the pregnancy, chances are that your hair loss will reverse over the next 6 months or so. You might want to hold off on the minoxidil, just for the reasons you suggest. If the hair came back and you were on the medication, you might ascribe it to the drug rather than the normal reversal which you will probably experience. If after 5-6 months, you still have not had your hair loss begin reversing, then consider the drug at that time.

Dear Dr. Rassman,

First off, great site! Very informative.

I’m a 21 year old male, and am currently on Propecia. My hairloss isn’t noticeable yet, and in fact am not even sure I’m losing it yet (need to get it mapped out for minaturization), but I’m pretty sure I didn’t get lucky in the genetic lottery. When/if I ever need a transplant, I’m definitely coming to you.

Anyway, this is all unrelated to the question I wanted to ask you. I’ve begin to wonder recently what my head would look like shaved, and I think I’d look really awesome. I tried this stuff called Nair on my leg- and it removed the hair as well as any doubts I had about its efficacy. But, would it work on headhair? The directions instruct not to apply it to the face- but I’d like an alternative to shaving, as I have sensitive skin.

I always wondered about that myself. Beard hair is thicker, so it may be resistent to the way that product works on leg hair. If I were you, I’d follow the intended instructions and NOT apply it to the face. I just did some searching and discovered that there is a Nair Cream for Face that would probably be your best bet for the facial hair.

Hi. Dr. Rassman,
I had an eyebrow transplant a month ago and still have redness and bumps like goose pimples. Most of the donor hairs have fallen out but I haved had a few pimples in the donor area. I still have not been out in public since (work out of my house) it looks obvious something was done to my face. Am I one of the few that this procedure might not work? I’m starting to worry, and I do see my doctor next week for a follow up. Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated. By the way I’m a 47 yr. old male with fair skin. (Swedish mostly). Thank you

The best thing is to follow-up with the doctor who did your eyebrow transplants. It seems you may have local irritation and may have developed local folliculitis, which can all be a normal part of healing or it can be an infection of the new follicles. There’s really no way for me to tell if there is something wrong from just a brief description without knowing what was done and how it was done (only your doctor knows this information) and what it looks like to my eye.

have been taking Lamisil for 2 months now and that past week I have been losing hair in clumps. I read on the net that this is an all too common side effect. I wanted to see if you knew if my hair would grow back after I stop taking it. If so then I may suffer through one more month to never have to take it again. I am a 31 year old male

Lamisil is often used in the treatment of fungal diseases of the skin, such as ringworm (when impacting the scalp it is called Tinea Capitis). These infections often cause hair loss and if you use Lamisil for treatment of the primary cause of the hair loss (Tinea Capitis) then it is easy to assume that it is the drug causing the thinning, but this is not usually true. From my research on the subject, Lamisil only rarely can be correlated with hair loss (one to one relationship).

Can hairloss be caused by inflammation(in addition to DHT sensitivity)?

The word inflammation is too general a term. You must narrow down your question and let me know specifically what type of inflammation you are talking about. To understand how to target the question you asked, see Wikipedia – Inflammation.

Apparently, this is pretty old, but I don’t think I saw it before so it’s new to me and worth sharing. Actor Bruce Willis was quoted earlier this year as saying…

“I’m a man and I will kick anybody’s ass who tries to tell me that I’m not one because my hair’s thinning.”

Strong words. There’s not much more to the article, but here’s the link for those interested:

• WILLIS: ‘I’M A BETTER ACTOR BALD’

Hi Doc, I recently had a hair transplant, and just had my sutures removed (10 days post-op). My Dr. said that I can pretty much go back to normal on activities such as the way I sleep, shampoo my hair, etc.. All my scabs are off my head…

Can I blow-dry my hair now? Or should I wait unto my transplanted hairs shed within the coming weeks? Same for rogaine, can I start to reapply this to the transplanted area? I am starting to experience a good amount of shockloss, even being on propecia, so I want to restart my rogaine regiment…

Thanks! Great Site by the way

Your doctor should have covered this. Yes, you can blow dry your hair and use grooming adjuncts as you did prior to the transplant. Sleep any way you are comfortable. And if you were on Rogaine prior to the surgery and the hair is Rogaine dependent, do start it up or you will experience withdrawal hair loss.