2021-07-19 01:13:082021-01-27 14:45:50What is happening to my scalp and hair?
What Is Happening to My Face?!
In the past year or so I’ve slowly lost my facial hair. First it started with a small patch then grew bigger. My wife looked up what could this be from and came to he conclusion ring worm. But at the time I had no round red ring on my face. Interesting though the very next morning I woke up to a very obvious red ring on my face. I bought lotriman and applied to my face as more then recommended. Then my skin was dry and red and then the baldness spread to my neck. I started seeing a dermatologist at this point 8 months ago and she prescribed cortisone cream and cortisone shots. Nothing and spread to other side of face. I’m not seeing her anymore and I don’t know what to do. It is very embarressing! Now on the opposite side of my face I have another suspicious red round mark with itching and dryness. Please help! Any, Any thoughts on why this is happening to my face?
You need to see a dermatologist. As you hopefully know, dermatology is a specialty and the doctors trained in this field are more familiar with this type of presentation than I am. Emailing a surgical doctor 3000 miles from you, unfortunately, is not in your best interests.
What Is ‘Hair Thinning’? Is It Reduction in Thickness of Hair, or Reduction of Hair Density? or a Mixture of Both?
It can be both hair shaft size reduction (miniaturization) or reduction of hair numbers. A good doctor will tell you what it is.
2020-05-15 04:00:442020-05-11 09:05:44What Is ‘Hair Thinning’? Is It Reduction in Thickness of Hair, or Reduction of Hair Density? or a Mixture of Both?
What is Hair Bonding?
What is hair bonding? Can it give a natural look?
Any treatment available to people over 60 years of age, with long standing baldness?
You may be taking this term out of context. Glues that are used to attach hair systems (wigs) are said to be bonded to the scalp. These can cause damage to weak hair, leading to further loss. They may look natural, but they also could take a lot of work and money to maintain that natural appearance.
Hair loss treatments that I recommend include transplantation and medication. Your options depend on a variety of factors, but since I have no info about you (aside from age) I couldn’t begin to list what those options might be. But yes, generally there are treatments available even at 60 years old.
What is going on in my donor area
The question I ask is: Is this shock loss or donor site depletion?
How many grafts have you had? This is likely donor site depletion. At 8 months any shock loss will have reversed. If this does not reverse, the only treatment for this that is effective is Scalp Micropigmentation (https://scalpmicropigmentation.com/) which, although it is not hair, will make the donor area look normal. This is something we do all of the time.
2020-07-13 03:44:122020-07-13 20:21:11What is going on in my donor area
What is FOX Negative?
What does FOX negative mean?
Thanks.
We coined the term “FOX” at New Hair Institute back in 2002 for FOllicular unit eXtraction. We thought FOX sounded better than FUE. We also published a paper on follicular unit extraction, describing how some patients are good FOX/FUE candidates and some are not.
I realize FUE is performed at many clinics without any pre-testing on all patients who want to have the surgery, however at NHI we pre-qualify potential patients with a FOX/FUE test to see if they are good candidates. A very small percentage of patients will have high transection rates with FUE and these are the FOX negative patients we are talking about.
We generally do not recommend FOX/FUE surgery if the transection rate is approaching 20% or more. If the patient is FOX negative, it is an inherent problem to the patient (not the doctor or clinic or machine). As we wrote about our experience with NeoGraft a week ago, the machine could not successfully harvest a known FOX negative patient.
What is Dandruff
Dr. Thomas Dawson wrote a good description of Dandruff in the Hair Transplant Forum May/June 2017 issue as follows:
WHAT IS DANDRUFF?
Normal scalp has few flakes and healthy appearing, smooth skin. Dandruff is characterized by loosely adherent flakes and itching. Specifically, dandruff has no inflammation and is confined to the scalp, while seborrheic dermatitis has yellowish, piled adherent flakes that can extend beyond the scalp to beard, moustache, and eyebrows accompanied by visible inflammation.1 Seborrheic dermatitis is more than superficial flaking, including hyperproliferation, excess lipids, and poorly differentiated corneocytes across the scalp.4 Dandruff requires three factors: fungi (Malassezia), sebum, and individual susceptibility. While there remains much debate in the current medical literature, upon review, the vast majority of evidence points at the very least to a fungal “initiator,” most likely Malassezia fungi.
2020-08-10 03:37:122020-08-08 09:40:16What is Dandruff
What is Dandruff and Why Do I Have More of It Than My Friends?
What is dandruff and why do I have more of it than my friends? I can’t wear any dark shirt without snow on my shoulders. What can I do about it? Please help me understand what is happening to my scalp!
Skin is not static. It changes and we shed it like a snake sheds its skin, but we do this a little each and every hour of the day. In two weeks, the average person will shed their entire skin surface and replace it with new skin. Scalp skin takes about a month to turn over, so the process is a bit longer. To understand dandruff, let’s take a quick look at psoriasis. “Psoriasis is a skin disease that causes scaling and swelling. Skin cells grow deep in the skin and slowly rise to the surface. This process is called cell turnover, and it normally takes about a month. With psoriasis, it can happen in just a few days because the cells rise too fast and pile up on the surface.” (source: NIAMS). Dandruff is like psoriasis in that the skin turnover is faster than normal (not anything as fast as psoriasis) and before it can be shed, it cakes up to form the flakes that you are observing and complaining about (dandruff).
Skin on different parts of the body shed at different rates and as we age, it is the genes in our body that determine how quickly the normal aging process occurs in our skin and the turnover rate of that skin for our age. The rate of aging and the daily changes in our skin can be influenced by extrinsic factors that can act together with the normal aging process to prematurely age our skin. Sun exposure is one of the most important factors that cause our skin to age but the way we use our body also impacts us. Exposure to varying environments will change the rate of skin turnover as well as the moisture that our skin has in it. Other external factors include things we do, like smoking, which has a duel effect, not only aging the skin and changing the water content of our skin, but it also decreases blood flow to some part of our skin anatomy (scalp). Over time, exposure to the sun damages our skin and impacts our ability to repair itself. Much of the damage is probably related to our exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light which damages our skin’s ability to repair itself. The skin which envelops our body becomes loose as we age and this process is accelerated when we do not protect our skin from sun exposure. The rate of skin turnover varies between people and dandruff is probably a reflection of the rate of skin turnover of our scalp skin for the flakes of dandruff are actually pieces of our skin which are shed prematurely. The higher the turnover rate, the worse the dandruff and the more frequent will be our complaints (e.g. itching, dryness) which plagues many of us.
The best way to manage your skin is to develop a sensible skin care routine. The scalp is no different. The use of moisturizers will soften and wet our skin; conditioners made for dry skin and dry hair will help restore moisture that is lost from the shampoos we use, which remove many of the protecting oils made by our sebaceous glands (sebum) that are designed to hold in moisture. Most important of all is the way you protect your skin from sun exposure, which can produce structural changes in your skin that are permanent. Older skin does not hold on to water very well, so older skin dries easily. Our outer skin layer (stratum corneum) may shed less as we age and the normal texture of the skin changes to reflect the loss of the supporting structures below the top skin layer. An older person’s skin appears dry and crinkly and this reflects a slowing down of collagen production as well as the fibrous elements that we call elastin. Elastin brings the recoil that returns the skin back to its normal position if we pull on it. In the typical aging person, the skin does not recoil very well when pulled upon and as such, it stands up after being pulled upon and it is also more fragile to injuries and environmental factors. Aging is a continuous process that normally begins in our mid-20s when most of our skin is healthy and hopefully not yet damaged by environmental factors. Dead skin cells do not shed as quickly and turnover of new skin cells will decrease as we age. The signs of aging are typically not visible for decades and this reflect the fact that our skin can take considerable abuse before it shows its age.
The dandruff on your head reflects many of the elements discussed above and the scalp skin is constantly exposed to drying from air and UV exposure, building up more damage over time.
Our body’s ability to replace itself varies significantly by body part and organ. For example, the outer layer of our skin completely replaces itself in about 2 weeks (scalp 4 weeks), while the lining in our intestine does it every 5 days. Our red blood cells replace themselves every 4 months (about 1/120th per day) and our bones about 10 years. Our chest muscles last 15 years, and our brains, well the part of it reading this blog, is as old as you are. So next time you get frustrated over the dandruff, think about what you have learned here, as it is a lot easier to moisturize and protect your scalp skin from sun damage than to simply ignore it as most of you do now.
What is Considered the Frontal Hair (Since Meds Don’t Work Well There)?
I hear a lot about how Finasteride and Minoxidil do not work well in reversing frontal hair loss, how far back is the hair considered frontal hair. To rephrase the question, by what Norwood are you considered to have no frontal hair? Also, even if Finasteride wont reverse frontal hair loss, will it at least help me keep the hair in my hairline and at best help thicken it up?
The area that balds in the Norwood Class 4A is the frontal area (see art at right). Finasteride might slow the loss down in the front, but rarely reverses the hair loss in that pattern. Minoxidil might regrow hair in that area, but it would be extremely rare.
What is Confusing About The Dr Gho Patient Diary on Hair Regeneration?
Dear Dr. Rassman,
you stated in a previous post that the pictures of the Dr. Gho patient is “confusing”. Could you be more elaborate on this topic? Why do you say so? In your previous post concerning Dr. Gho you stated that a follow up video would be nice. Aren’t these photographs followup documentation. It clearly shows regrowth. I used photoshop to lay the before and after images over each other. It is definately the same hair region displaying how the follicles are regrowing from the extraction sites. Why do you still consider this deceptive?
Regards
For those that missed it, the original post is here.
Has anyone ever stopped and considered that maybe the regeneration you are seeing is just regular hairs (missed FUEs) growing back? I mean, what about the photos of the recipient site? Did anyone count the number or percentage of transplanted hairs that actually GREW?
If 1000 hairs were harvested, 700 of the transplanted hairs grew in the new location and 300 hairs regrew in the harvested donor area, would you consider this regrowth or hair multiplication or hair stem cell transplantation? Of course not! But you can take pictures of the donor area and show regrowth, and take pictures of the transplanted area and also show growth. The observer could think, “Wow! This is regeneration!” — but the observer would be mistaken. To show regeneration, duplication, cloning, stem cell transplant regeneration, or an outcome that showed splitting of the hairs, you must account for ALL the hairs that were taken out and ALL the hairs that grew back (not just a sample section). Otherwise, it is just hairs that grew back after being plucked.
Basic high school science teaches us about conservation of energy or mass in the universe. Many have tried to invent the perpetual engine or create gold from lead with no success. If Dr. Gho really figured out a way to clone hair, then he will be famous. If you would like to believe in it, that is your prerogative… but simply looking at someone’s diary or posts on the Internet is not a way to validate or document science.
The method and presentation of Dr. Gho’s study has serious issues and it does and (will) confuse many readers. A credible review by a third party should be something that Dr. Gho should want to do, if he is legitimate.
P.S. I understand that you’re very excited for my answer to your question, but sending a dozen emails and blog comments demanding that I answer right away is unnecessary.