Month: January 2023

No, these drugs kick in quickly but it may take months to see the value of their use.

Hair growth has been reported with PRP (Platelet Rich Plasma) injections which utilize many injections into the scalp and doctors are now doing this wold wide to induce hair growth where there is great need for it. I have been hesitant to accept this treatment because there are no good studies that prove it works. Maybe it does in some people, but clearly not all people, so that is the problem.

Nicole E. Rogers, M.D. reported (in the Hair Transplant Forum, January/February issue, on some research done in India where doctors used a roller micro-needling technique to produce multiple wounds in the scalp to see if it grew hair. Each session lasted 20-25 minutes. These treatments were given every week for 4 weeks, then every other week for 11 sessions for a total of 15 sessions. At the end of six months, three patient reported a greater than 755 increase in their hair. The forth patient reported a 50% increase in his hair. At the end of 18 months, all patients reported that they maintained their new hair.

It was interesting to note from Dr. Rogers, that PRP is like the micro-needling. So I ask: Is is easier and less intrusive to do micro-needling with a roller rather than PRP?

So like any good capitalist, I went on to the Amazon website and found you could buy a dermaroller which essentially does the same thing as I discussed above, for under $20. Of course, you cold come to my office and I could charge you $1000 for each 20 minute needle treatment, but you won’t get a dermaroller to take home to try to save you the money the next time (the material I wrote here on the dermaroller is written to be funny, of course). Is this Black Magic?

“Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified 19 cases of nontuberculous mycobacteria wound infections among US residents who had undergone cosmetic surgery in the Dominican Republic.[1] Fourteen of these patients required hospitalization in the United States, with corrective surgery and long courses of antibiotic therapy.” This was quoted from Medscape June 24, 2012.

Surgery overseas (medical tourism) reflects a multi-billion dollar business today. Because of the high costs of medical care in the United States, many consumers are traveling to other countries to get their surgical care, which can often be less than 10% of the fully loaded costs seen in the United States. It is critical to determine if the facilities are accredited, as that adds some modicum of safety in the decision to travel. Failure to do your research, can produce problems as defined in the CDC statement above. You must plan for such an endeavor asking yourself about the language of the country you selected, finding out the credentials of the doctors, the track record of the facility (infection risks should be documented by the facility), the risks of traveling after the procedure, how you are going to follow-up after you leave the country. etc..

Return air travel should be delayed long enough to ‘cover’ anything that goes wrong. Traveling after a procedure can increase the risk of blood clots in the legs and clots that travel to the lungs from a long flight after surgery as cabin pressure changes during the flight home. This is particularly important if a general anesthetic is administered. To learn more about these risks, see: www.cdc.gov/travel

The field of hair transplants are applicable here as doctors outside the US offer transplants for less costs than here in the US; however, where is their track record to be found, one might ask? FUE in particular is a common offering outside the US and competitive pricing, but once you leave the US, you loose the ‘legal’ protections offered by the US Court system. As it takes a full 8 months to see the success of a hair transplant, what if the doctor had not mastered the technique (very common amongst all doctors in the US or outside the US). We see failures at 8 months that are not uncommon as patients come to us to determine what they should do after a failure has occurred. There is little legal recourse for these patients and many of the doctors in the US are not compassionate about answering to their FUE hair transplant failures.

Would it be reasonable to restore a hairline to look like the actor in the picture i’ve provided? would you say that the actor is balding? if so, what norwood pattern? assuming the texture is the same.

It would be reasonable to restore a hairline as in the photo but it would depend on what you are starting out with. If you are starting out with a Norwood 3 pattern it would be relatively easy. If you are completely bald (Norwood 6) it would be very difficult unless you have a very high donor density. You would likely need multiple surgeries as well.

Dark hair against light skin (when the hair has a medium weight) can be hidden with good styling and 50% loss. Hair color also makes a difference, for example, blonde men can lose 85% of their hair before seeing it, or men with dark skin and dark skin are in a similar situation with low contrast between hair and skin color.

So over Christmas break, I was on supplements called chromium and alpha lipoic acid on large doses. Both are known to cause hair loss. I came home, got a haircut, hair looked fine. Then i took these supplements and i noticed hair falling out. Like i could grab lose hairs of my head and hair came off into my hand in the shower, maybe like 10 or 15 strands. Finally a month later i connected the dots and stopped the supplements and the shedding soon stopped. Thing is, I got the exact same haircut again from the exact same person, and I feel like there’s less hair around my temples and more of my forehead is showing. Like It caused thinning in that short amount of time. Thoughts?

Generally hair loss takes time but your detecting it might be in a day when you look at yourself and stop denying what you have been seeing for sometime. Most people just don’t notice it until it passes a threshold. A doctor in Denver 30 years ago, pulled out 50% of the hair on one side of a black haired, white skinned man. He couldn’t tell which side was 50% with photos or independent observers. That tells you that you can lose a lot of hair without seeing it. That is why I perform HAIRCHECK tests to measure what can’t be seen. Hair loss rarely happens overnight.

You don’t lose your hair overnight, but you recognize it after you stop denying that you are losing your hair and that can be instantaneous.

Yes, we often see strong forelocks in family lines that stick around into old age. David Letterman has such a forelock which holds his minimally balding look. The forelock may have a completely different genetic code when it comes to balding.