You mentioned in this link that certain chemicals and dyes can seep into the hair follicles and damage them.
My question is regarding sodium hydroxide, the most popular permanent hair relaxer around. Can this damage the hair follicles? I didn’t realize it could actually seep through the skin!
Yes, it could seep into the skin and hair follicles. At high concentrations it could be dangerous.
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Hello. I recently visited a very well known transplant surgeon. He’s all over the internet and on many of the blogs etc. I think you may have referred to his practice in some of your recent postings. The photos and testimonials on his website are almost too good to be true, I mean the results are consistently the best I have seen anywhere internet. I am a forty year old white male, with receding hairline at the temples, I’m currently a NW3. I’m mainly just concerned with filling in the temples.
Here’s the issue. This doctor recommended 2500 FUE’s to fill in the hairline, this sounds a bit high to me, but he assured me that I wouldn’t be happy with any fewer. Is it wise in your opinion to do 2500 in the frontal zone based on what I’ve stated, I’m surely bound to keep loosing hair. And, can this doctor’s results be REAL? Even if he was cherry picking his best patients, he has probably 75 patients on his website, most with unbelievable results. I’m wondering if it’s marketing hype or is it real? Maybe he’s only doing very young patients with results that look great today, but not in the future? In addition, since this clinic only offers the FUE procedure, it is extremely expensive and would require a loan for me to complete the transplant. Thanks for your time.
Getting a second opinion is a reasonable next step. Some doctors produce a terrific marketing image showing what patients they want you to see. We offer our Open House events every month where you can see patients up close, ask them about their surgery, and get comfortable with the physicians and staff. For example, in our Los Angeles open houses, we often have a dozen patients to show off, and many just show up to help educate our prospective patients. Maybe you should listen to your instincts and get another opinion.
I can not comment on the 2500 graft recommendation with FUE (in one session? hmmmm) for a frontal hairline without at least seeing a photo of your hairline. Send me a good picture or three and point out the area where the surgeon said he would move the hair to. Reference this post when sending.
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If I get a hair transplant do I need to take propecia to keep that transplanted hair from falling out or it will it be permanent?
The transplanted hair should be permanent if it is taken from the permanent zone (called the donor area)… and as long as you don’t have any underlying disease that causes hair loss in that area, such as alopecia areata. Propecia (finasteride) should be used by men to halt further loss in the non-transplanted area and to prevent shock loss from the surgery. But otherwise, the transplanted hair doesn’t need Propecia to stay in there.
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Dear Doctor,
I hope you are fine. I have a weird problem.
I am losing hair since last 4 years and I shave off my hair (completely bald) once in 4 months. Few years back, my dermatologist mentioned that I had Androgenetic Alopecia and I was thus placed on that medication for quite some time. After taking medication and doing relevant tests, it was found out that my DHT levels are low. But for some reason my hair still falls out!
Looking back at my history, my hair grows long for 3 months (and I dont lose much hair in these three months – 4-5 per day) and they start falling out rapidly in the fourth month (20-25 per day)! In the fourth month they become so weak that if one would gently smear on the head, my hair would come out on his hand!
My question is why does the hair keep falling out when it grows long, in spite of me being on the medication – dutasteride (0.5mg per day), rogaine foam (twice daily) and nizoral (thrice a week).
Doctor, my hair loss worries me quite a lot. In the last four years, you can actually notice that the density of hair on my head has reduced drastically!
I will be grateful for your advice and help.
Hair growth is unpredictable. Contrary to the cycle of hair loss and growth that you report, I am skeptical that you can see it in 4 month cycles. Measure it by mapping out your hair for miniaturization and then you can prove it either is happening or not.
Using all of the medications like a shotgun won’t get you more hair growth, and although not likely, it’s possible that your hair loss is from causes other than MPB and thus medication wouldn’t help anyway. Perhaps seeking out another dermatologist for a second opinion might be worthwhile. Also, it’s normal to lose around 100 hairs a day.
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Angiotensin II Receptor Blockers don’t seem to list hair loss as a side effect, even rare. At least these two don’t….These don’t have the combination of a HTC which can, Diuretic. Here are two:
I know anything is possible and you will say you can still lose hair on it. Heck you can probably say that about every substance on earth. It is reassuring that these two don’t have it listed and I think it would be helpful for your worried readers to look into which medications statistically have the lowest reports. Maybe that is something you can research.
Over 4000 people in the trials and no reports. The problem I find with post-marketing data is there are too many variables like other medications, consumer stress ect ect. Also since 40% of those people who need HPB medication also fall into the 40% of the population who lose hair. So what came first right?? Might be good for your worried readers to talk to their doctors about. I have read a few blogs that claim hair loss in one or two people but those people seemed to be on more than these two drugs and even had been on a beta-blocker recently which clearly states hair loss.
I though I would share my research with you. Also, don’t you think having HIGH BP for an extended period of time can cause diffuse hair loss over the entire head?(not to mention the other serious problems). I have often wondered if my untreated high BP could have caused my diffused thinning over my entire head w/out any real pattern of MPB. That is until now when I have gotten treatment. I guess I will find out if it thickens up. Thanks
The association of hair loss with any medication could be a cover-your-ass approach by various drug companies who find it easier to mention hair loss than ignore a possible association from a medical/legal point of view. As a hair transplant surgeon, I am not in a position to form an opinion of my own about this. You are correct that the incidence of high blood pressure is as high in the general population as balding, but these two observations are not necessarily connected. I am afraid that I can not shed more light on this.
You said much and I appreciate your research. I agree with what you said about worried readers talking to their doctors about these issues. The internet is a great, great tool, but even better is a one-on-one with the physician that is already treating you and has specialized knowledge based on your medical history.
Dear Dr,
I’m a man 38 years year old, writing from italy. I had an HT 2 years ago with about 2000 graft implanted FUT. I take 1 mg Propecia for 2 years.This is my problem:
I have very small pimples (less than 1mm) on each graft implanted there are very visible i.e. under the sun light.they don’t hurt me and seems like the hair is pulling up the skin. I don’t have any of them on non tranplanted hair… I searched on this site but almost all of the discussions I found are on bumps or normal pimples or pitting or scars. the most valid explanation I found is that it is due to the graft that was implanted too deep in the scalp.If it is true, what can I do for improve the situation? Dermabrasion or laser? may I start trying some remedy for folliculitis or is completely useless?pls give me some good hope on what I can do,I’m really desperate. the doctor who make me the surgery (in Mumbay while I was in a long trip for job…)after the first telcon, don’t reply to my calls or mails…however I don’t trust him anymore! I contacted another Dr who said that the only solution maybe is to make another transplant to hide the thin pimples, but I leave this as the last solution and I won’t make another bad transplant. pls tell me if there is something I can do for making less visible these pimples.Thanks in advance. sorry for my bad english. Best Regards
If what you’re describing is a cobblestone appearance (and not actual pimples), then please see this post. Without seeing you, it would be impossible for me to tell you what the problem is caused from.
Dermabrasion to the scalp causes visible scarring and only benefits the doctor’s pocket, not the patients who receive it. There are two types of lasers that can impact hair:
Neither offers much benefit to your situation. If you have bumps, some hair killed with the high powered lasers will just make what remains more visible and the laser itself can cause depigmentation (whitish areas) of the lasered skin. I would need to see you, but it is not an easy trip from Italy to my office in Los Angeles.
Snippet from the article:
Children with alopecia areata, a condition that causes extensive, sometimes complete hair loss, grew hair after being injected with stem cells drawn from their own scalp in a small study.
Most of the five girls and three boys who had widespread baldness showed regrowth of as much as half of their hair in a preliminary study from Marwa Fawzi, a dermatologist at the University of Cairo Faculty of Medicine. Before the experimental treatment, some of the children had splotches of hair and baldness; others were almost totally bald.
Read the full article — Kids Shunned for Hair Loss Get Help From Their Own Stem Cells
Keep in mind that this is a treatment for alopecia areata, not male pattern baldness. That being said, even though it was an early study with only 8 kids, it’s something to research further and I’m hopeful something will come of it.
i had my second HT 25 days ago. my grafts are growing and i can see the hair. is this a good indicator of my surgery? i feel most grafts are growing. my question- does this growth indicate a successful surgery and if i lost my hair after a week or so, will it grow back after falling out depending on this growth i see now?
thank you
That is great news! Good for you. Hair growth occurs immediately in about 5% of patients. In some patients, some of it grows fast while other grafts grow slower over the 4-5 month time frame. I know when my patients grow immediately, they (and I) get excited. I only wish I knew how to make this happen more often, but it will always grow if the transplant was done correctly and if it does not grow, just be patient and it eventually will appear.
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Hello,
My question in in regards to potential long term side-effects of finasteride/propecia? I was perusing an article on the internet about the possibility of the long term side effect of it. Then a doctor commented in an article that he questioned the prolonged use of finasteride and said something to the effect of “remember phen, fen?” and we don’t know the potential long term side effects of finasteride yet.So, did this doctor make a “blanket” statement or do we not yet know all we need to know about propecia?
I’m the kind of guy that doesn’t like to take medication unless there’s something “wrong with me”. So is this safe to start taking? I just didn’t like the reference made to phen fen. Thanks in advance.
Does anyone know everything about anything? The answer must be obvious, so even after 13 years on the market, there could still be surprises. They may not be all bad however, as there are always some good that comes out of such medications. In this case, we know that cancer of the prostate risks are reduced with steady use of the finasteride 5mg dose and many experts think that this will spill over with the 1mg dose. Cancer of the prostate and preventing hair loss (or slowing it) should be considered against the down side risks, of course.
We each need to make these judgments, but over and over again I hear men tell me that they WON’T take pills. Just the other day a 28 year old man demanded that I point him to an herbal for preventing hair loss with an emphasis on “certainty” motivating him. As he was demanding my herbal recommendations, I thought, “I am but a poor doctor giving advice, so please be reasonable with such questions.”
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i have had significant hair loss at my crown and have heard that the bp med aldactone has helped. i do have high bp and was planning on starting on meds for the bp. what are your thoughts on this. also what about avodart? i am 43 and have had a hysterectomy so have no chance of pregnancy.
This is a situation where you are asking for medical advice, but I’m sorry, this isn’t something I can answer. You can take anything, but taking medications recommended by your doctor will be part of your medical plan for health.
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