Pseudopelade and Hair Loss
Please supply info on pseudopalade and what are the chanches of hair transplants. This diagnosis was made by a local dermatologist in South Africa where I live.
Pseudopelade is a peculiar form of scarring alopecia resembling alopecia areata. It is unclear if it is immunologic (your body thinks your hair is foreign and kills it) or genetic in nature. Unfortunately the condition is not amendable to hair transplantation, because you would run the risk of more hair loss and failure of the transplanted hair to grow.
2006-07-19 12:34:262006-07-19 07:19:48Pseudopelade and Hair Loss
PRP write-up, very comprehensive
With this detailed description of the use of PRP, nowhere in the document is the use of PRP recommended for hair growth. That is interesting considering that PRP is being offered in hair clinics across the world.
PRP Treatment Still Unproven?
There is a doctor in Australia who is offering to remove some of your blood, centrifuge it and 30 minutes later inject the platelets back into your scalp to make your hair grow. I notice that Bioscor also has offices in N. America as well.
I am thinking of reporting this to the medical board, but I would value your input before doing so. Another rip-off for the gullible.
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is used by some surgeons to speed up wound healing, and some hair transplant clinics have been advertising this as a way to speed up the healing along with promoting early growth. One of my patients is a dentist and he said he uses PRP regularly for his oral surgery patients.
I’ll rehash what I’ve written about this treatment in the past: the greatest issue stems from the fact that there are no controlled scientific studies showing PRP does anything of significance. I’m not saying it’s a useless procedure, but until there are proper studies done it does seem a bit gimmicky to me. I’m also not sure what the FDA has to say about the claims made regarding PRP treatments, and the NY Times had an interesting write-up about this earlier in the year — Popular Blood Therapy May Not Work.
As for the Bioscor company in particular, their Australia site advertises PRP treatments, but their US site doesn’t seem to mention anything about them. Maybe that site isn’t updated or they just don’t offer it in the States. However, the US site does talk about how the founder of the company apparently made a name for himself by selling his “all-natural” hair lotion that contains a “secret formula” of Chinese herbs. That’s all the site seems to be promoting. Even the most casual reader of this site should know how I feel about these magic hair potions with secret ingredients. I’m all for protecting trade secrets, but there’s no magical blend of vitamins and minerals that will make your hair regrow.
PRP – Is It Really Any Good?
I know honest doctors who use PRP (Platelet Rich Plasma injections). Many of these doctors are unimpressed, so they may be doing it because patients want it. There is considerable hype on the internet that this procedure does wonder for hair loss. We’ve heard “universally good results” and “very effective in my hands” comments from doctors doing PRP. However, PRP has no standardization, and it has been around for more than 25 years without any absolute proof such as a clinically valid ‘Double-Blind Study’ with objective measurements of the results. What we hear among many of the doctors offering it are glowing comments, and some even say “I’ve seen a tiny handful of impressive visual results,” but is this really true? Most good results occur when PRP is used in combination with Finasteride, Minoxidil, etc., which is an important variable, scientifically, and something to keep in mind if you are considering PRP.
PRP is a very profitable business for the doctors who offer and perform it. How popular would it be for doctors pushing it if it were not so profitable? Would they believe in it as much as they do now? When a person spends a few thousand dollars getting PRP treatments, they often rationalize that they are better. After all, it cost a great deal. However, it would be better to be able to tell a patient, who had PRP that their hair bulk was checked with the HAIRCHECK instrument, “You Mrs. Jones, had a 30% increase in your hair bulk since you started your PRP treatment.” Yet, the HAIRCHECK test doesn’t seem to be offered to these patients. I ask, why not?
You can tell from this post that I am not a fan of doing certain procedures that I don’t believe, nor something that I can not see or objective measure. So, I don’t offer PRP to my patients.
2018-07-13 06:57:192018-07-18 13:43:32PRP – Is It Really Any Good?
PRP-Only Treatment for DPA?
Hey guys I hope you are doing well. Could one of you please explain the pros and cons of trying out a PRP only treatment for Diffuse Patterned Alopecia. The pictures you see on line look like the treatment is beneficial, and it seems like if done on a yearly basis it could really help in the uphill battle which is hairloss.
I’ve still yet to see a shred of evidence that platelet rich plasma (PRP) will benefit those with alopecia. I’ve written about PRP before.
2011-03-02 08:44:022011-03-01 14:01:52PRP-Only Treatment for DPA?
PRP Is High Cost, Low Value for the Treatment of Hair Loss
I called this one place in Vienna, VA that says they have the “Best” Centerfuse and the Harvesting Kit known as “Terumo, which she also said is the top of the line and the best of the best for PRP hair loss. She said it’s $1,500 for PRP w/out A-Cell and $2K for PRP w/A-Cell. Expensive per treatment because of the top quality they use. Is it true because everywhere else in Northern VA and Washington, D.C they have packages of 3 or 4 treatments for $2K or $2,500.
My title page says it all: PRP is High Cost, Low Value for the treatment of Hair Loss.
2020-02-12 04:00:202019-12-09 16:18:11PRP Is High Cost, Low Value for the Treatment of Hair Loss
PRP associated with hair transplants have no benefit
I have always felt that this was something that made money for the doctor but gave the patient no benefit. This article seems to prove it.
Article can be found here: JEADV-2019-2618.R3_Proof_hi.pdf
2020-03-05 10:38:482020-03-05 14:34:18PRP associated with hair transplants have no benefit
Prozac and Hair Loss
I’m 38, just had an HT and plan to have at least one more. Propecia gave me the beginnings of gynecomastia, so I stopped it. Currently I’m using minoxidil and shampooing 2x a week with nizoral, also using a laser comb 2x a week. First of all, is there anything I can add that will help, secondly, you mentioned that lexapro causes hair loss, does prozac also? Are there any SSRI’s that don’t? Will hair grow back once you’re off them? Thanks.
I think that all SSRI’s can cause hair loss; Prozac can. For men that lose hair from drugs like SSRI’s, the loss is rarely reversible if the patient has genetic hair loss. I would not count on it regrowing. I do not believe that the laser comb really works, but I do not see any negative from using it. the rest of your routine is reasonable and I can’t see any negatives with these either.
My best advice is that you need to see a good doctor who can manage your hair loss with you. I can understand that Propecia is not working for you and the breast side effects are rare, but they do happen. Breast enlargement or painful lumps in a male breast of any size are good reasons to consider stopping Propecia.
Proxiphen
Dr Rassman,
Can you please comment on the product Proxiphen as compared to plain Minoxidil. Thank you
Proxiphen is a cream that consists of minoxidil, phenitoine, spironolactone, varied types of SOD, NANO, arginine, allantoine, NAC and more. It contains more than 5% minoxidil (reported to be 5.5%). You asked about comparing Proxiphen to regular Minoxidil, but I can not state the value of the Proxiphen combination of medications, as there are no independent studies to document it. However, there are clearly wonderful endorsements by those that profit from the sales of it.