Month: April 2008

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HVT Dietary Supplement Claims to Stop Hair Loss and Restore Thinning Hair – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Have you heard anything about “HVT” from New Health Products in Brewster, NY. Their propaganda reads like many dietary supplement products: stop hair loss, thicken hair, regrow hair. Most of their “so called” testimonials primarily mention “fuzz”. I have used other products before that have given me more fuzz, but the fuzz never matured to “typical adult scalp hair.”

I did search your archives. I could not find anything using your search. Using a google search brought me to your blog in the first place. It found one message asking about HVT in the middle of a thread for a different product and the HVT question did not seem to get answered. (The person should have probably asked the question separately.)

http://www.new-healthproducts.com/hvt.html

Some of the vitamins and minerals that are used in this product are things that I take daily (like folic acid), but I do not see any evidence that this has any value for treating hair loss or regrowing hair. You are right to call it propaganda. A lot of hype without proof.

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Discolored Recipient Area Months After Hair Transplant – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

It has been 3 months since my hair restoration surgery of 1600 grafts in my hairline. I am experiencing a prolonged purplish discoloration in certain areas of my recipient site. I can even visualize the line that was drawn for my new hairline although none of the new hairs have grown in. I am a Fitzpatrick type 4 skin type. It seems like the discoloration IS fading but slowly. Is this normal? Will it continue to fade? What can I do to speed up the process? I greatly appreciate your input and expertise. Thank you

Discoloration rarely lasts months as you report, but as you report it is fading and I would expect it to do so. Ask your hair transplant doctor about it. Good luck.

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Hair Loss InformationPlucking Out My Old Hair Plugs – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I had one procedure done around 10 years ago. I was young, and like many, I jumped without doing too much research. I’m glad that I stopped at the one procedure. Now I’m looking for a way to reverse the whole thing. The scar is hard enough to keep hidden, but the hair plugs are even harder to deal with. Is there any way to get rid of the transplanted hair besides shaving it or tweazing it? Tweazing the 600 grafts takes too long, and like a beard, they grow back a few hours later after shaving them. I thought about lazer hair removal, but I’m worried that it will permanantely damage the dormant follicles, and with just my luck, they’ll find a cure a week later!

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I really do not know your specific problem and the extent of the “pluggy” appearance to give you a personalized opinion. However, it may be almost impossible to completely undo old (or new) hair transplants, because a hair transplant is permanent. It goes to stress the importance of good research and being able to see the results of patients from the doctor as well as the medical group you are having the surgery with. Even 10 years ago, the pluggy transplants were not standard care.

You can try laser hair removal, but you may be left with scarring if the old grafts were the large plugs. Large plugs often leave a cobblestoned skin and depigmentation where the plugs were. Sometimes, these can be cored out, but an experienced hair surgeon needs to evaluate you for this option. Otherwise you can attempt another hair transplant to disguise the old plugs.

For more information on repairing old hair plugs, please see:

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Numbness Months After Hair Transplant – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

I am still feeling numbness over the area of my surgery 2 months after the procedure. Is that normal?

I assume you mean numbness in the donor area (back of the head). Your doctor should check for numbness over the distribution of the major occipital nerves if the numbness is very wide. Most people who feel some numbness are experiencing the cut cutaneous nerves just above the incision. These should not extend more than an inch and they should return in time. Best to check with the doctor who performed your surgery.

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Minoxidil and the Sun – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Hello Doctor,

I am a 24 year old Caucasian male. Since my early twenties I started noticing a little hair loss. Now it has gotten to the point that I find hairs everywhere. I work on a computer all day and I constantly find new hairs with what seem to be roots attached to them on my keyboard, up to 50 a day. And that is just on my keyboard… I can’t imagine what happens when I shower or go running outside.

Also my scalp is terribly itchy all the time. I have spoken to my doctor about my premature hair loss and the itchiness and he told me the only thing that works is Minoxidil 5%. I have been using that for about 3 months now and I do not notice any improvement. Also I live in a very sunny part of the world and I read somewhere that coming in contact with sun a lot when you have Minoxidil applied isn’t very good. Is this true?

The thing that gets me most is that my father now 65 has a head full of hair, and also my mother’s father still had a head full of hair when he was 80. Only one person in the entire family has hair loss problems and that is one of my father’s brothers. And that only started when he was 45. I must say I am quite a hairy person (back, chest, legs ect) and I live a stress free life as far as I can tell.

What could be causing my hairs to fall out so early in my life? Is it all in my genes or is there something else at play? Also what would you suggest? Keep using Minoxidil or maybe start using something like Propecia?

Minoxidil can cause irritation to the scalp making it itchy, but there should be no impact of sun exposure for a person who uses minoxidil as directed. The hair loss gene (or genes) can come from either the paternal or maternal side of the family and can even skip generations, so although it might not be immediately apparent, your genetics may still be in play with regard to the hair loss you see.

I can’t suggest prescription medications like Propecia without knowing whether you have genetic hair loss. Minoxidil is an over-the-counter medication, so if you use as directed you should be fine. Many men have experienced substantial benefits from Propecia, but you should first get your hair mapped out for miniaturization to find out if you have male patterned baldness (MPB).

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Math Problem — Making a Class 7 Look Like He Has No Hair Loss – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

This is a follow-up to last week’s How Many Grafts to Give Dick Vitale Hair Like Brad Pitt?

Doctor by saying you would need 40000 hairs to give mr Vitale the coverage mr Pitt has, do you mean that 40000 hair could produce the coverage but not the density? Cause otherwise the numbers don’t add up. A head like mr Pitt’s has at least 100.000 hairs right? Now, assuming that Vitale has kept about 10.000 hair at the back of his head : 40.000 + 10000 = 50000

What am i calculating wrong?

We at NHI have produced wonderful, full-looking heads of hair with a total of 50% of the original density. If Brad Pitt would allow me to pull out every other hair behind his hairline, I don’t believe that you would be able to tell that he lost 50% of his density. One doctor actually did this on a human volunteer and found (using good photography) that in this white male with black hair, observers and photographs could not tell the difference. The contrast of the black hair against white skin is what makes this most interesting.

This is an important observation, because if 50% is the amount of the original density a white male with black hair needs to appear full, then a white male with light brown hair may only need 20-30% of his original density, and a white male with blond hair may only need 10-20% of his original density to look full. The color contrast also extends to dark skinned people who have matching hair colors and they may behave just like the blond hair white skinned man I discussed above.

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Does Propecia Reduce Body Odor? – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Dear Dr. Rassman,
I am a 32 year old male currently on Propecia for the past 6-7months. I know this might sound a little strange but my wife and I have noticed that ever since the first month of taking Propecia I have had significantly less body odor (particularly in the armpits). I still sweat a lot in sports (and sex) but I rarely require the use of a deodorant like I used to. Have you heard of such a side effect in your experience? I am pretty sure I am not imagining this and it was also confirmed by my wife (who is blessed by a rather well developed olfactory system!). I have not changed my diet or anything else in my life over the past few months that might trigger this. Not that I am complaining about it but apart from this rather beneficial side effect I seem to be perfectly normal!

Thanks for your help.

Interesting. I have not heard about a decrease in body odor from Propecia (finasteride 1mg), but if that is what happened, it sure does sound like a benefit.

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Diffuse Hair Loss – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

(female) Dear Drs,

I was told that I most likely am suffering from Diffuse Areata, the thing that directed my doctor to this diagnosis is diffuse all over hair loss, brow and lash shed and short tapered hairs shedding out. I can find nothing on the subject, nothing on the net and my doctor admitted he did not understand the disorder.

Could you provide me with information regarding the diffuse form leaving no bald spots but diffuse loss all over the head. What is the general prognosis etc?

Thanks for your help

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First, I want to tell you that clinical medical science is a descriptive science in many situation. This is important because what we see is what we are reporting when we diagnose diffuse alopecia areata. What doctors are saying is that there is a diffuse form of the disease that mimics classic alopecia areata, except that it is found all over the head. Some doctors question if this is the same disease, but because it looks like the same entity when the skin is biopsied as localized alopecia areata, the conclusion is that the diffuse variant is different in ways that are not understood. Most people believe that it is an autoimmune disease and we see evidence in what we call chronic and diffuse alopecia areata of the microscopic changes seen in autoimmune diseases.

Second, I can point you to some sites of interest so that you can learn more (but hopefully not confuse you):

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Would Propecia Make Me Fail a Drug Test? – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Would I fail a drug test if i’m taking nothing but Finasteride 1mg? Would it show as a negative drug for the workplace, school, or even military?

Thank you

Unless they are specifically testing for DHT blocking enzymes, I doubt you would fail a routine drug test. A routine drug test screens for illegal substances. Propecia (finasteride) is not illegal in the workplace, school, or even the military, though it is on the banned list for professional athletes and for people who want to donate blood.

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Reader Says He Discovered the Hair Transplant Miracle-Gro! – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Hello! I’m a 55-yr-old guy who’s had several HT procedures over the past 20 years. My last two were performed by different surgeons (both well-respected in this field), and both times I was surprised and delighted to note astounding growth of newly-grafted hair which I believe resulted from my coincidental use of a unique nutritional supplement. At six weeks following surgeries, I already had a solid half-inch crop of thick, colored new hairs which continued to grow like crazy. My current HT doc is starting a small trial with this supplement next week. Would you be interested in hearing about this? I think I accidentally discovered HT Miracle-Grow!

Sure, please keep me in the loop. I try to keep an open mind.

Update:
The person that sent me this email has told me that he’ll send me updates when he can, so I’ll post more information as it becomes available. In the meantime, take the above for what you will. Anyone want to wager a guess as to what this supplement could be?

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