I know what mpb and TE and CTE is but can there be other involvement with miniaturization of a follicle? Like toxins, emotional stress for a long period, extreme lack of nutrition etc.
Add to your list: aging (senile alopecia), a deficiency of various vitamins (vitamin A, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, beta-carotene, biotin, vitamin C, calcium, vitamin D, inositol, iodine, iron, magnesium, niacin, pantothenic acid, selenium, zinc), and a series of many autoimmune diseases.
The list goes on and on.
Snippet from the article:
Andemariam Beyene sat by the hospital window, the low Arctic sun on his face, and talked about the time he thought he would die.
Two and a half years ago doctors in Iceland, where Mr. Beyene was studying to be an engineer, discovered a golf-ball-size tumor growing into his windpipe. Despite surgery and radiation, it kept growing. In the spring of 2011, when Mr. Beyene came to Sweden to see another doctor, he was practically out of options. “I was almost dead,” he said. “There was suffering. A lot of suffering.”
But the doctor, Paolo Macchiarini, at the Karolinska Institute here, had a radical idea. He wanted to make Mr. Beyene a new windpipe, out of plastic and his own cells.
Read the rest — A First: Organs Tailor-Made With Body’s Own Cells
I found this article and was blown away with excitement, so my first instinct was to share this with our readers. Imagine building organs with the help of the body’s own tools. That was done here and saved a life. One day, this will become common, for this I have little doubt.
Hello,
I am wondering if I am beginning to undergo male pattern baldness. I am 29 years old and have never noticed any hair loss until recently. I have been shedding like crazy, and can see my scalp, mainly around the top of my head where the hair “swirls” around my part.I saw a dermatologist and he said he didn’t think it was male pattern baldness (there is no significant recession around the front of my hairline…I have been looking at old pictures and feel like there has maybe been a minimal amount in the past year…hard to really say for sure). He did a pull test and said it was not telogen effluvium, unless it was the earliest stages. The increased shedding started a little over a week ago. I’m kind of depressed over this.
I have noticed that some of the hair that has come out is of the finer variety and I feel like my head as a whole has finer hair than it did say a year ago, but once again since I don’t have any hair samples from then to compare it to, I can’t say for sure. The hair around the swirl has taken on a more light colored tone than that on the rest of my head. I can send pictures if you would like.
A photo alone is not likely going to help me determine what your hair loss is, especially after a doctor you saw in person stated you likely do not have genetic balding. You are more than welcome to send us a photo for all the readers to comment, or visit our BaldingForum.com site and post photos there. You could also just get a second opinion from another local doctor.
Otherwise you can make an appointment to see me at my office in Los Angeles for an in-person, private consultation. At that consultation, I will look for miniaturization on your scalp hair and I will perform bulk analysis of your hair in various parts of your scalp.
When the thinning that precedes balding occurs, the bulk of the hair in the impacted area has hairs that are thinner than the hair from the back and sides of the head. The pattern of this thinning hair is measurable and that will point to the diagnosis of male pattern baldness. You need to have these tests, and have them done in the hands of an expert hair doctor.
Hey doc, I noticed your blog here presents us with numerous demonstrations of surgeries, where a receding hair line is being restored to a full-blown NW1. However, the impact of surgery on donor area (whether FUT or FUE) has drawn me to weigh the benefits of smaller improvements.
But I don’t remember seeing here any pictures of patients who could easily (graft-wise) afford a Norwood 1 transformation, but have chosen a minimalistic path (for example, going from a Norwood 3 to a 2 or simply increasing the width of the forelock a bit to eliminate the steepness of its shape). Such visual representations will surely educate us about our options with surgery.
I’m sure we’ve posted examples of patients that didn’t want a fully restored hairline on this site in the past, and I know there have been plenty of men who have had surgery for a “minimalistic” path. A patient must give us permission before publishing their pictures, so we’re only able to post those that have given their consent. Not every patient wants their photos shown to others.
There are comprehensive before / after pictures in our NHI photo galleries that will show various examples of hairline restoration.
After using regaine foam extra strength for few years, am now told at over 49 years old i cant anymore. Any problems if carry on?
I do not know of any age limit for using Rogaine (minoxidil). The packaging may include information about studies being done on people aged 18-49, which just means that it wasn’t studied as a hair loss treatment for those 50+ (not that you necessarily have to stop at that age).
This is the last part in the series about follicular unit extraction (FUE). Here are the previous posts in this series — part 1, part 2, and part 3.
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Neograft:
We have heard a great deal about the Neograft automated system. This system has two components to it:
The advantage of the Neograft system is that an implanter is offered, which is not present in the ARTAS system. Traditional implantation with forceps requires specialized skills and the greatest cause for failure or death of the grafts occurs during the implantation process. The neograft implanter, can be used effectively by an inexperienced person, therefore it is relatively easier to learn when compared against the use of forceps. The inexperienced surgeon or technician will probably get better graft survival with the implanter. When compared with a skilled experienced technician’s competence with forceps, I suspect that the two techniques will be comparable.
The manual drill requires expertise, and with the unit as designed the grafts have a tendency to dry out, possibly killing them before they get implanted as they are held in a chamber that has a high hair movement in it. As discussed before, air kills grafts as they dry and this killing process may take only seconds when there is substantial air flow in graft held in a chamber. Neograft associates with a private group of technicians that perform much of the procedure for the unskilled doctor, creating the illusion that the doctor is skilled in the process. If these technicians drill out the follicular unit, they will violate the laws in most states. Most doctors who use the Neograft system depend upon the technician teams to do the actual transplant procedure.
Other drills are supplied by a variety of device manufacturers. Dr. Harris employs a dull drill and his device is amongst the most popular of the devices that are manually driven with great success. He offers training for doctors who purchase his system. Drills with sharp edges are many and they differ only marginally from each other. Extraction speed varies with each surgeon and each instrument. There is no substitute for skill, and the skills for all instruments on the market (other than the ARTAS system) requires possibly years to perfect. Speed of extraction depends upon the surgeon’s skills and it varies between 200-1200/grafts per hour on average. The damage to the grafts varies with the surgeon, so speed tells you little about the skills of the doctor as some doctors kill more than 50% of the grafts in the extraction process.
Technology vs Skill:
The New Hair Institute uses a specially designed serrated system that is not connected to a drill. This instrument was designed by Dr. Pak and it is made by a machine shop that specializes in fine stainless steel instruments. We have gotten good value with this tool, pacing ourselves at over 1000 grafts per hour and producing little damage. Our speed of extraction in 80% of patients, exceeds the speed of almost all other such extraction tools in our hands.
All too often, patients focus on the technology, not the skill of the surgeon. Only the ARTAS system does not require surgeon skills as the robot cores out the hair grafts with minimal involvement by the surgeon as the robot does it all once it is set up. The ARTAS system does require manual graft removal and the difficult job of graft placement must be done by people with extensive experience in the field using forceps or possibly an automated commercial system called the Choi Implanter. Generally, it takes between 1-3 years to develop placing techniques that allow speed and minimize damage to the grafts.
I can not end this story without discussing the integrity of the doctor. Doctors tell you what they want you to hear — that they are the best at FUE, that they get less than 2% transection rates, that their vast experience makes them better than everyone else. Can you or should you believe what the doctor is telling you? I know for certain that many doctors claim expertise in FUE, promise minimal damage to the grafts, or even close to 100% growth rates, etc. The reality is that every patient getting FUE differs in their results and we published these differences in patient dynamics in a medical journal publication, which is the only such formal publication out there. I have seen some awful results with FUE and failures close to 90% in some patient. The proclamation of the doctor’s skills by the doctor is a reflection of their integrity. There is an old adage that if it sounds too good to be true, it is.
So in conclusion — be skeptical, use your skills in evaluating your doctor’s integrity as your guide as to what you can believe and what you can not believe. I look forward to comments from our readership.
Doctor there was a topic about pro hockey player ryan getzlaf.
this is my question:
if ryan getzlaf had taken propecia at the first sign of hairloss, do you think he would still be to where he is today? or is there a good chance he could of of maintained what he had or freezed the hair loss clock by a decade or so?
my other question is: how come alot of people who show the first sign of hairloss dont go on propecia? I mean its proven to work, why not take it? how come they just let the thinning continue? I see alot of celebrities young males and pro athletes who are losing hair, and why not just take propecia? I mean they can afford it.
Propecia is an elective medication and it is only available after consultation with a physician after a good examination and understanding of its limitations, risks, and benefits. It may not always happen this way, but it should be. Propecia does not necessarily stop hair loss or reverse hair loss completely, but it does work to buy time for most. In the end, your genetic predisposition will eventually catch up and you may lose hair despite being on Propecia. This does not mean the medication is not worth taking or that the medication has stopped working.
Finally, it is not as simple as taking Propecia at the first sign of hair loss. You need to be followed by a doctor who can give you a Master Plan for the hair loss.
Snippet from the article:
A teenage alopecia sufferer from Northamptonshire will complete a trek of The Great Wall of China to raise awareness about the condition.
Alice Frost, aged 16, of Denton, has been suffering from the condition, which causes severe hair loss, for about three years. She will take on the nine-day expedition with her 18-year-old sister, Sally, in September, and the pair hope to raise £7,200 for the trek and for the Alopecia UK charity.
Alice first lost a large amount of her hair while on a school trip to China and she said the expedition would take her back to a fitting place.
Read the rest — Teenage alopecia sufferer in China trek
The article wasn’t clear on what kind of alopecia she has, but it appears to be totalis or possibly universalis. I congratulate young Ms. Frost on her courage and her desire to raise awareness.
Hi,
I would greatly appreciate some feedback regarding my frontal hairline. It appears that my corners have thinned/ receded during the last couple years. I am 23 years old male. I’m concerned about my hair line at the moment and questioning what would be an appropriate approach to take. Would Propecia and Rogaine be a smart idea? I currently live in an area which does not have local access to a physician regarding hair loss, although this is something I’m looking into. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Click the photos to enlarge:
It does appear that you are experiencing early hair loss with a Norwood class 3 pattern showing at this time. There is erosion of the corner hairline with thinning present. At your age, the best treatment would be finasteride (Propecia or the generic form of it) as it would be likely to stop the process. Your family doctor can prescribe finasteride 5mg to you and then you would cut them into quarters and take 1/4 per day.
My neighbor is in his 50s with no known history of hair loss until about 5 years ago when he first noticed he was developing gray hair. He had his wife pull out every gray hair he could see daily, and it could’ve been as many as 20-30 hairs a day over the years! His daughter researched the condition of trichotillomania and does not feel he fits the diagnosis as the pulling was not done by him.
He claims he is not compelled or driven to have his hair plucked, and that as soon as he realized he was visibly thinning, he had his wife stop doing it. At that time he began to color his hair at the suggestion of his daughter. He states there has been no plucking for the past 2 years now and he has more hair on his head now than 2 years ago, when the plucking was stopped.
This sounds like maybe trichotillomania by proxy (like Münchausen syndrome by proxy, a well known phenomenon)… but I’m not sure that would fit either.
It usually takes quite a few “pulling sessions” to produce the traction required for permanent hair loss, often over years. So if his hair has regrown over the past 2 years, it sounds like he was lucky that the loss wasn’t permanent.
