If, over a period of time your body wins the battle over the effectiveness propecia has on hair; in the same regards won’t your body win the battle over the sexual side effects that propecia can sometimes pose?
There is no correlation between the two impacts of Propecia (hair growth and sexual side effects).
Dr. Rassman,
Does it matter what time of day I apply Rogaine? I like to apply it when I get home from work (6pm) and before I go to bed (11pm). Rogaine’s website says do it in the morning and the evening, but is that necessary?
Thanks
Well, if the makers of the medication tell you to do it once in the morning and once at night… I would try to follow their directions.
I’d assume the reason behind the morning/night instructions is so that the applications are evenly spaced. If you cannot do it in the morning and want to space it 5 hours apart, I think that wouldn’t hurt, so long as you are applying it twice a day.
I’m a 19 year old male and just recently I discovered my temple points are almost completely gone on both sides. Other than that, I have complete full head of hair. Is thinning in that area necessarily an indicator of future male pattern baldness or is it just something that happens with age? Thank You
This may be a forerunner of more advanced balding, because temple peaks disappearing isn’t typical maturation. What does your family line show?
I would want to examine your hair. During the examination, I would want to do a hair bulk analysis to see if you are correct in that there is no balding or thinning present at this time.
I had chemo last year. I didn’t lose my hair but it did thin out, especially at the sides. In december I got hair extensions, after the hairdresser assured me my hair was strong enough. My scalp was slightly red & itchy at the sides and front where the extensions were, but now suddenly my hair at the sides has thinned out even more and I’m almost bald in places. Obviously I’m going to have the extensions removed asap but will my hair grow back? I read recently that if the hair/scalp is traumatised the hair may not grow back. Help!
Hair extensions can produce traction alopecia (hair loss from constant pulling), which may or may not be permanent. Only time will tell. You may need to wait 6-12 months to know if the damage is permanent.
Snippet from the article:
A growing number of Koreans in their 20s and 30s are suffering hair loss due to stress, according to findings of the Health Insurance Policy Research Institute under the National Health Insurance Corporation.
According to the research institute, 88,004 people in their 20s and 30s received hair loss treatment at hospitals in 2009, which was 48.4 percent of the 181,707 patients treated for hair loss that year.
For the last five years, the number of people experiencing hair loss increased, especially for people in their 20s and 30s, research institute statistics showed.
Read the rest — Stress causing more young Koreans to lose hair
This article pinpoints young Koreans as suffering from stress-related hair loss, because it happens to be a Korean newspaper… but I’m not sure how the statistics compare to other cultures or races, or if these numbers even reflect just Koreans in particular.
I’m having trouble finding the study they’re referencing. Any help?
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Dr. Rassman,
With the advent of the Scalp Micro-pigmentation procedure, I’m wondering if it actually allows for more FUE harvesting from the donor area. What I mean to say is that one could only have a certain level of FUE grafting before you depleted the donor and left noticable empty spot in the back of the head.
I’m now wondering (if one so chose to)if you can in theory remove more grafts of real hair and simply fill-in the depleted donor area? This of course is assuming the patient wanted a low-cropped/shaved hair style. However, I’m not crazy about the shiny razor-shaved look. I prefer some natural looking stubble on top.
I understand you may think grafting hair on top of your head and shaving it might defeat the purpose, but that’s the look I like. Thanks for your time.
We have had one patient get follicular unit extraction (FUE) on top of the pigmented balding scalp to produce the feeling and appearance of stubble. It works.
You indicated you aren’t far from our Los Angeles office, so if you’re interested in setting up an appointment for a consultation, you can call our office at 310-553-9113… or attend one of our free monthly open house events. The next open house is coming up on Saturday, April 9th.
Doctor Rassman, I’m curious as to your thoughts on the following article. I just learned of the development process for Propecia and was shocked to find they intentionally engineered the drug to match the hormone profile of pseudo-hermaphroditic children because they had smaller prostates and a lack of male pattern baldness. I can’t see any patient willingly taking this drug if they were aware of its origins. The entire concept seems drawn up by a completely mad scientist.
Only page 1 is necessary to read, the rest is just sycophantic quotations regarding Merck’s profits.
I agree that what you read seems strange, but this isn’t only limited to Propecia/Proscar (finasteride). These types of discoveries in medication development are common.
Scientists often look to nature and outstanding traits/illnesses to understand certain diseases. When scientists found a group of a population with no prostate issues and no male pattern hair loss, they made a connection that it may have something to do with being pseudo-hermaphroditic, which led to the realization DHT had something to do with it. But the converse is NOT true: Just because you have low DHT does not mean you will be pseudo-hermaphroditic. Just because you take a drug to lower your DHT does not mean you will be pseudo-hermaphroditic. The hermaphroditic issues ONLY impact the fetus in the first trimester of pregnancy and not in boys or men. And even then, the dosage for this to occur in pregnancy is not understood.
Back to pharmaceutical discoveries — many drug origins are from strange findings. The common drug penicillin was discovered from molds. The widely used anti-wrinkle treatment Botox is from the poisonous toxin botulism. The flu shot many people get yearly is derived from viruses. The mascara that women put on their eyelashes are derived from earth worms. The first hormone replacement therapy drug to treat symptoms of menopause was made from the urine of pregnant horses. Certain blood pressure medications were derived from venoms of snakes. Coumadin is a rat poison that is used to thin the blood for certain patients to save their lives. My point is: medications can be very strange.
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This patient came into the office with a widened scar from a hair transplant we did over a year ago. The photo at the lower left is following his second transplant procedure (the first was with another doctor). The widened scar risk increases with each additional procedure. Only the central 2 1/2 inch portion of the wound stretched 1cm (as seen here), while the two 1/2 inch wounds on either side didn’t stretch. Donor scarring is a real risk of strip harvesting for FUT but usually the scar is under 3mm in width. After the second surgery, the scar may widen as in this man.
We suggested scalp micropigmentation (SMP) for camouflaging the scar and these photos below were taken 10 minutes after his SMP session was done. This is a typical scar treatment for SMP. Sometimes a second treatment is needed. Click the photos to enlarge.
BEFORE SMP (on left); IMMEDIATELY AFTER SMP (on right):
About a month ago, I sustained two lacerations to the scalp on the back of my head. They were closed with seven staples. The area was not shaved at the emergency room. The largest of these lacerations is about 20 mm long and 1 mm wide. However, the resulting bald area exceeds the wound width by approximately 5 mm (making the width of the bald area 6 mm). I know no hair will grow again within the wound parameters. So I ask you:
1.) Is the prognosis good for full hair regrowth outside the wound?
2.) How many weeks (or months) must pass before I could justifiably believe there would be no more significant hair regrowth?
3.) What are the potential surgical corrective measures (e.g. cutting open the scar and running hair from one hair bearing edge up through the scar tissue)?
Hair loss with laceration repairs is common around the wound. The size of the bald area will vary depending upon the direction of the wound. The scars will be less significant in the normal Langer lines direction (see here).
The regrowth will usually occur within the first 4 months or so and any hair that has not grown in 6 months may probably reflect some permanent hair loss. Scars from scalp lacerations that form are not easily amenable to excision, as they tend to recur (I am assuming that the scars were properly closed and that there were no unusual circumstances present at the time of the closure, such as dirt in the wound).
hello.
My question is, if shock loss is one of the side effects with a HT would the doctor insert more graphs in a particular area knowing that shock loss would occur? This way a patient doesn’t feel as if he or she didn’t get a proper procedure done and it looks as if more hair is there then the patient originally began with.As well, are the hair line and frontal areas more susceptible to shock loss versus the back, top part (Crown) and sides of the head?
The areas most likely to have shock loss are the areas where miniaturization is present. There isn’t one part of the scalp that is more susceptible than another. The more miniaturized the hair is, the greater the risk over time.
Shock loss doesn’t occur for all patients, and taking finasteride prior to surgery usually protects the body from hair transplant induced shock.
