Easy at home hair transplant. What do you think about this doc?
This is not as far fetched as it seems…
I once had a patient come in for a hair transplant. I believe he was a phone consultation with photos sent in beforehand. So on the day of surgery, when I washed his hair before the transplant, his entire frontal hair came off in the sink!. He had glued it in place. This man was very upset and I felt like a fool by not knowing that is what he had done.
He was an African American with kinky hair, and let his natural hair around the glued hair grow long. He did a really good job with gluing the hair in place, and had me completely duped. He was very upset with me and as I believe that the “patient is always right”, I worked like hell to re-glue that salvaged hair pulled from the sink after I did the transplant. It was one of those unforgettable moments in my hair restoration career.
Of course, I wouldn’t recommend people doing this — but for a parody video, it really hit close to home.
Hi Doctor. I am slightly confused. I have visited several balding forums looking for information about rogaine. Some members seem to be under the impression that rogaine accelerates hairloss by increasing blood circulation and therefore the amount of DHT that can reach hair follicles to miniaturize them. This seems rather counterproductive for a FDA approved product that is suppose to regrow hair…
can you please provide some knowledge and insight on this conundrum? Would taking Propecia for a couple months beforehand prevent this problem?
You’re not alone in being confused about this. I have rarely heard of this complication and have learned that it exists by my extensive reading on the internet. I see more reports online about minoxidil/Rogaine shedding than I’ve seen in my own patients.
Some say that it accelerates the anagen stage in the hair loss cycle, which means that it first has to go through telogen (hair loss phase). I really don’t have confirmation of this, though.
Hello,
Just a quick question about the 2011 Alaska meeting. You spoke briefly about Minoxidil and spironolactone used together by a doctor in Thailand with good results. Can you elaborate on this?Thanks a lot
Not much more info than is already all over the web separately on each medication. The study in Thailand was with systemic minoxidil, which is clearly not suggested for treating hair loss.
Hello Doctor,
I have had three hair transplants totaling to about 5,400 grafts. I am about 16 months into my third transplant that i had in March 2010. I have observed that i still see baby like fine hair, as they seem when transplanted hair start to grow, still in some of my transplanted areas of the scalp. And i don’t think these are my miniaturized native hair as alot of them are grafts of two, three or single.I am not sure if this is happening because i have had that many surgeries and there is lack of blood circulation for the hair to grow properly or the grafts were not transplanted properly by my doctor. I tried talk to my doctor about it, but he kept saying that they are probably my native hair. I am not sure what i can do to confirm this.
I generally want to see the patient 8 months after the procedure to get an idea what it looks like. By that time, I usually see 80+% of the growth that was transplanted. I wouldn’t expect to see blood supply problems.
Since you’re already 16 months in and not fully satisfied, then you should get another opinion from a doctor (in person exam). Hopefully you have detailed before photos to compare to your hair now.
Paid advertisements (not an endorsement):
Can a bulk analysis predict how bald a man suffering hair loss only in the ‘receding’ pattern will end up? For me, I’m almost 100% sure I haven’t lost any density or thickness behind the hairline so how would a bulk analysis predict where my recession will progress to?
Yes and no.
The hair that is going to be lost has a biological clock with a trigger point that starts the balding process. Let’s say that someone will become a Norwood class 5 pattern balding man and that the leading edge of his frontal hairline started at 18, the remaining part of the front started at 24, and his crown started to thin at the age of 22. That means that the predicted pattern will not show until the bulk starts to reduce in those ‘triggered areas’.
When the thinning starts, the bulk measurements are clearly impacted earlier than the eye can detect, so that is the “yes” part of the answer to your question. The “no” part may reflect the crown status at the age of 20, which will not show thinning (in this scenario) until he is 22.
I am a 46 year-old male and a loyal reader of your blog. Based upon the positive results you have seen with Propecia, I decided to try it, after consulting with a hair-loss surgeon. I have taken 4 pills thus far. I was more than willing to tolerate the side effects reported by Merck if it meant stopping my hair loss. However, I have began to experience possible side effects not reported by Merck, including difficulty sleeping, mental fogginess, breaking out in sweats, along with the more common side effects of decreased energy and drive.
After experiencing these, I began doing some research and ran across sites you may be familiar with, such as Propeciahelp, on which users complain of side effects such as these along with others (e.g., hypogonadism) even after stopping the drug. There are various reports that the drug alters the brain (e.g., mood and thinking) by affecting neurosteroids and can permanently alter the neuroendocrine system.
Obviously, I am freaked out about this and will probably stop taking the drug. I would like to know your opinion on the reports of these side effects, the possibility of permanent alterations of various bodily systems with use of this drug, and your opinion on websites such as these (Propeciahelp) in general. Thank you for your trusted advice.
Suggestions can produce side effects (see “placebo effect” and “power of suggestion”). Your gonads will not shrink in a few days. It is possible (albeit very remote) that there are brain effects, but you should discuss this with your physician and that is why a doctor’s prescription is required for this drug in the United States and many countries. Have an open line of communication with your doctor. If you’re unable to sleep and you think it is related to the drug, talk to your doctor about stopping it.
While forums can be helpful, one must remember that many times they are full of unverified claims and feed into irrational fears. I’ve written about this before here.
Hi, thank you for providing your blog as a source of information. I’m a 40 y.o. male and recently had an appointment for a transplant to correct some mild thinning in the frontal and temple area… approximately 800 grafts. I was literally minutes from the procedure when the doctor learned that I was diagnosed with Wolf Parkinson White syndrome as a teen and informed me that he would not continue with the transplant. From a providers perspective, is this the consensus of the industry as a whole or are there still transplant options available to me? Thanks in advance
There is no contraindication to an outpatient surgery (such as a hair transplant procedure) for patients with WPW. Moreover, if you were diagnosed with WPW in your teenage years, I would assume you have had it treated with ablation. If you were not treated with ablation, I would think you should be followed by a cardiologist.
For somebody with a tight scalp is a FUE procedure really the only hair transplant option?
If you have a tight scalp, you can “work” your scalp with an exercise program for 30 minutes per day for 3 months. Most people will succeed in getting more laxity with these exercises. We made a video of this here.
I’m sorry, but I can’t believe that the following picture on your website is true. There’s no way a class 7 can have so much donor hair and have results like this.
It’s absolutely true. This was a patient model of ours for many years, coming to every open house event in my office each month to show off his wonderful result in person for anyone that wanted to take a look. He had above average donor density that allowed for the amount of grafts we were able to get. So yes, there is a way… because this patient is for real. We don’t play tricks with photos of patient results.
His sons followed in dad’s footsteps and they are transplant patients as well. We showed one of the sons here.
