Month: January 2023

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Haircheck and Density

I have been doing some research regarding scalp hair density. Currently, hair transplant doctors use Haircheck device to observe changes in density as well as caliber in comparison to the donor (control). Most doctors say haircheck numbers should be exactly the same at various points of the scalp for a nonbalding male. After doing some light research, I learned that you are born with a finite amount of hair follicles, and never develop any more hair follicles.

In my theory, and please correct me if I’m wrong, for your hmi number from haircheck to be exactly the same at all points of your scalp, your head would have to grow perfectly symmetrical to the way it was shaped at birth. If your head grows more in length than width, this would create a slight variation of the top of the scalp vs the donor area, as it is stretch further. What are your thoughts? I have to say from reading your blog you seem to be the most down to earth, a straight shooter in the industry.

The Haircheck measurements are a mechanical measurement which is slightly error-prone. I generally take 10% variation of the measurements in consideration as I use the instrument. Still, a 10% error rate is acceptable, but I do believe that hair is uniformly spread around the scalp.


2018-06-19 10:14:40Haircheck and Density

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Hair Washing and Hair Loss

I’m a 36 year old male with no visible hair loss…..yet. For around 6-8 months now I’ve been following a very lax hair washing routine. I had a girlfriend who had adopted the wash less routine in an attempt to achieve healthier looking locks. Apparently her stylist told her it was the latest trend. She used dry shampoo powder and only washed once a week. At the time I thought it seemed perfectly logical so I too adopted the routine. After we broke up I carried on with the same hair hygiene but with less dry shampoo washing and more and more infrequent regular washing. For the last 4 months I’ve been going on average between 7 and 12 days without a shampoo. It gets greasy and a little itchy but I often wear a hat so aesthetically it doesn’t look bad. Recently my new girlfriend noticed that my head “stank“. When I told her that I was on this infrequent washing trend she told me that it was a terrible idea and that it was proven that non-washing leads to hair loss. Of course I was freaked out and started doing some research on in. The internet is awash in conflicting information but it seems that some doctors believe that sebum build-up can have a negative impact on hair growth and that it can even plug follicles and cause permanent hair loss. On top of that, non-washing is known to cause bacteria growth, inflammation and irritation, which in turn leads to hair loss. Oh, and there’s the old “wearing a hat” thing as well. Now I’m confused and becoming convinced I’m either showing signs of thinning or have done damage to my hair that will manifest itself in hair loss later down the road. As of now my only signs of negative impact are a dry flaky scalp, plus some itching and irritation. Your professional opinion on this whole infrequent hair washing thing would be greatly appreciated. Thank-you.

stinky hair

You do not need a professional opinion.

If you want to keep your current girlfriend, consider maintaining clean hygiene and washing your “stinky” hair.

The frequency of hair washing has nothing to do with genetic male pattern balding.
Bacteria and fungal infection from poor hygiene can cause hair loss.

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Hair used to sew facial wounds

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/885777?src=WNL_trdalrt_171017_MSCPEDIT&uac=209383MV&jobid=1458470&faf=1

Here is an interesting article that discusses the use of hair as a suture that is easily available on the person’s own head. You can use the hair if you find yourself in the woods needing suturing but don’t forget cleanliness and sterile conditions

 

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I Had a Hair Transplant One Year Ago and Picked off My Scabs After About 7 Days.

The crusts that you had clearly must have pulled out your grafts during their critical period when they were being secured in their recipient sites. If the crusting remains, the grafts are not secure for up to 12 days after the surgery and any attempts to pick off the crusts have the risk of pulling out the grafts, including the growth centers. See our article on this, which explains this risk here: https://baldingblog.com/wp-content/uploads/pdf/mp-2006-graft-anchoring.pdf.


2018-12-01 08:39:08I Had a Hair Transplant One Year Ago and Picked off My Scabs After About 7 Days.

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Hair transplants without finasteride, what are the risks?

I would like to have your advice on hair transplant without finasteride do you think hair transplant are relevant with patients who don’t want to take finasteride at all ? Because i have seen people report that without finasteride even the transplanted hair are getting hit by dht and the result after ~10/15 years are not esthetics do you have case to share with us ?

Yes, you can have hair transplants without taking finasteride. The problem is two fold: (1) if you are in your 20s, the risk of shock loss (loss of miniaturized native hair) is higher than if you are over 30, less even over 35 or 40, (2) you might get to your final hair loss pattern earlier which means that your hair transplant treatments may come in a shorter time-frame. As the transplanted hair are protected against DHT, you don’t have to worry about them falling out.


2020-12-04 11:59:05Hair transplants without finasteride, what are the risks?

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Hair Transplants with Scalp Micro-Pigmentation (with Photos)

This is a hair transplant patient who wanted his hair thicker, but had depleted his donor supply so that more transplants would not be productive. Many doctors would try still another procedure, but this was not my approach. Instead, I put pigment into the areas where he wanted more thickness. He loved the results of his transplants for his Norwood class 6 pattern and over the years he received a total of 6,905 grafts for that pattern, but as with many patients who have advanced hair loss, the supply did not eventually sustain the demand for hair.

With the addition of scalp micro-pigmentation (SMP) to augment the fullness, he felt that the results were exceptional. After his first SMP session he used a hat, but slowly and cautiously he showed off his shorn scalp to his friends without creating much fanfare. In a social setting, his friends saw the new look and all he got was compliments on how good he looked with his new hairstyle.

The first photo (left) is of the patient’s hairline after all of his transplant work (last procedure was almost 4 years ago); The next photo (middle) is immediately after shaving his head; The last photo (right) is 2 weeks after his first SMP session. Click the photos to enlarge:

 

He came in for his second touch-up SMP procedure, but this time we went a little denser with the pigment. The key in the plan I put together was that the SMP would be placed in behind the leading frontal hairline that we created with transplants so that he could let his hair grow out whenever he wished. As the interval between the first and second procedure was 2 weeks, he let his hair grow out over that time to sense what it would look like when he let it grow out long. He could not have been more pleased with the result! I’ll post some photos of the results in the coming weeks.

Since my post from last week, I have come under fire on some forums and even on this site for changing my stance on scalp pigmentation (from being somewhat negative in past posts to my current enthusiasm). Really, the change in my view reflected a better command on the art, something that I hadn’t previously seen when I made my earlier comments about the tattoos that I saw in my office over the years. I realize now that I should’ve been more open-minded to possible advancements.

Nothing is perfect in this world. This patient would have rather gone the transplant route or have taken a magic pill that would get him his hair back, but it was not a reasonable option for him… so as a second best option, SMP more than met his goals. Now I must note that due to his nearly 7000 grafts that were transplanted, he does have a linear scar in the back of the head. We’re still working with him to cover it with SMP and will post resulting photos soon.

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Update Mar 8, 2011: More photos here!


2011-03-08 13:08:05Hair Transplants with Scalp Micro-Pigmentation (with Photos)

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Hair Transplants Were a Bad Decision for Me!

I wish I had done more research prior to letting a surgeon talk me into a hair transplant. I am 21 years old, and very depressed about my thinning hair. I answered an ad and when I visited the medical office they said that they had a cure for balding. What was probably a salesman working for a doctor and he seemed to know all of the answers and he told me that If I had hair transplants, it would be like an insurance policy to keep hair where it was balding. He told me that they were running a special promotion and I could buy the transplants for $2000 less than they are normally priced if I signed up that day. That was almost a year ago when I received 2689 grafts and now I am more bald then when I started. A few of my friends who were also balding, decided to shave their heads (one actually clipped it close like a military hair cut) and they looked surprisingly good. I realized that if I shaved my head or even cut it short, I would still have this scar on the back. Can I go back and be bald again? Can the scar be reverse?

Part of the problem with doing hair transplants in a 20 year old is that they make more of an emotional decision than a logical one. For you the right treatment would have been Propecia (assuming the diagnosis of genetic balding is correct) and to wait at least a year to see if the balding (thinning hair) would reverse. There are many reasons that someone of your age should be treated with medications (like Propecia or minoxidil) including:

  1. Seeing how bad your hair loss will become. The pattern of hair loss for a man is usually not exposed until after the age of 26.
  2. See if the medications alone will solve your problem by reversing it or stopping it.
  3. Living with the problem and continued research by you in this area may give you more insight into your problem.
  4. Time to build an adequate war chest of money, which is often a problem for someone of your age either in college or just into the workforce.

These problems are blown up for you because you are a young man who is acting on hair loss that may or may not be in your future.

Although most of the clinics use some professional salesmen (people who know how to sell, because that is what they do for a living and have a financial incentive to sell you, although illegal in many states), some doctors are no better than the salesmen when their objective is to get you talked into a transplant. A good doctor would have your interests over his own financial interest because that is the oath he took when he became a doctor. With that said, some rotten apples got into the barrel of good apples and became con-men for people like you. I would have no hesitation saying that if you were pressured into having a hair transplant and had not been started on Propecia, this is malpractice and possibly a felony on consumer protection issues and medical board ethics. You should report that doctor to the medical board.

With regard to your desire to reverse it, that would be highly improbable with today’s technology. Laser hair removal will remove the pigment of the skin where each graft is individually hit with a laser to kill the hair one at a time. Even follicular unit extraction (FUE) will not address the recipient area. With regard to your donor scar, it might be made skinnier but still not skinny enough for shaving your head. I always tell patients that the good and bad news about a hair transplant is that it is permanent. I would be happy to see you for a second opinion.


2007-09-12 14:48:33Hair Transplants Were a Bad Decision for Me!

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Do Hair Transplants Produce Scars? (from Reddit)

Every surgery causes scarring. In a hair transplant, there are two types of scars: (1) the strip scar which is a linear scar from an incision in the back of your head, and (2) an FUE scar which is very small punctate scars less than 1mm each. Most young men we perform a hair transplant on want FUE because they don’t want a “line” scar. I had three hair transplants with an incision (strip) method and no one can find my scars. Each time I had the procedure, the previous scar was removed. I happen to also be a very good healer. If any doctor tells you that his surgery will not produce a scar, he is not telling you the truth and may only be trying to tell you a bill of goods. Take a look at this video:https://youtu.be/koPZdjdO4Ng

Do transplants cause scars? from tressless


2018-09-24 06:21:53Do Hair Transplants Produce Scars? (from Reddit)

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Hair Transplants on people with fine hair?

So I am 31/M and have been considering a hair transplant. Not going to get into the details too much but every site I have seen the ‘success’ photos are dudes with major black and thick hairs and any that I have seen that would be considered thin follicle hair just look like they have added on a couple more years before you have to shave it anyway.

So I am asking is there anyone here who has what you would call ‘thin’ hair had a successful hair transplant that doesn’t look completely terrible?

I use a construction metaphor for explaining fine hair vs a coarser hair. Think of fine has as lumbar 1 by 1, and medium hair as lumbar 2 by 2 and coarse hair as lumber of 4 by 4. If you were to build a fence, you would opt for 4 by 4 first for the fence as there is more wood in a 4 by 4 than a one by one. Fine hair reflects a one by one measurement of lumber and a fence made of 1 by 1’s take more 1 by 1’s than if you had 4 by 4 wood boards. A hair transplant with fine hair means that less hair volume will be moved per hair shaft transplanted. Men with fine hair always had fine hair, so that they are not surprised when then get a hair transplant with their own fine hair. I just don’t want a new patient to expect that they will get the results of a man with coarse hair if they get a hair transplant with me. Setting realistic expectation is what it is all about.


2020-06-17 12:35:01Hair Transplants on people with fine hair?

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Hair Transplants in the Frontal Hairline, Hair System Up Top

I have used a hair system for a few years. Some seem to be better than others,but I am looking for the most undetectable result. I thought of having partial hair transplants done in the front- this is the area most detectable as fake. Have you any ideas of the best possible solution for me?

What I can tell you is that the combination of hair transplants in the front and a hair system behind it works for many people. You are correct in that the hair systems are generally easy to detect in front, so if you have a good hair transplant in front of the hair system, you will have considerably more freedom in styling your hair.