Month: January 2023

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Doctor Says After 10 Years on Propecia It Looks Like How You Were Before Starting

I read an article written by a Hair Specialist from Saratoga Hair Transplant Center that Propecia works great for the first 4-5 years for most men, and then slightly each year the hair gets worse again and by the time you been on the drug for 10 years you are back to where you were 10 years ago, this sounds really good to me! But is it really true?

I always believed that after 2-3 years you will start going downhill.

I don’t agree that after 10 years on Propecia, you end up right back where you started. Some men fully maintain the benefits from Propecia in the long term, and others just do not. Everyone is different and will react differently to medication. I have patients that have been taking the drug each day for over a decade and are still seeing the benefits from it.

Think of this as a war between balding and the drug holding onto your hair. May the better side win!

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Doctor Recommended Dandruff Shampoo for My Fungal Infection

Hi,
I have been losing hair on my scalp right at the centre. My doctor says its fungal infection and has advised me to use anti-dandruff shampoos. Is this ok? Can my hair be restored?

How do you know that you have a fungal infection? If you have a fungal infection, then you need to treat it with anti-fungal medications, not over-the-counter shampoos. You might want to get a 2nd opinion.


2006-09-13 09:45:49Doctor Recommended Dandruff Shampoo for My Fungal Infection

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Doctor recommended 10 sessions of PRP and I’m 22 years old.

The doctor recommended 10 sessions of PRP at $500/session. I would guess you might purchase a good used car for that $$ amount. So if you were shopping for a car, you would research it, right? Doubt that you will stop your hair loss with PRP and reversing it is another story! Some doctors are just not honorable. I can tell you that I would doubt that you would get much value from this PRP package.


2020-07-14 06:53:41Doctor recommended 10 sessions of PRP and I’m 22 years old.

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Doctor Rassman, there is evidence that Saw Palmetto works, see below

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12006122

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8142312

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7577710

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3218455

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=prager%202002%20saw%20palmettohttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12477490

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8922564http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6708534

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8876706http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8922564

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8876706http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20300369


2019-05-19 10:26:00Doctor Rassman, there is evidence that Saw Palmetto works, see below

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A Doctor Offered Me 8,000 Grafts in One Session (About 12 Hours of Surgery)

A doctor offered me 8,000 FUE grafts in one session, about 12 hours of surgery. Is this reasonable and safe?

There are many problems with that large number of grafts for a hair transplant, including:

  1. The length of the surgery
  2. The amount of time the grafts are out of the body and
  3. The access to your head with the team placing the grafts.
  4. Can the donor area support 8,000 FUE grafts without becoming bald?

I don’t believe that I ever met a patient who can support 8,000 FUE grafts. If you choose that route, you will have a see-through, possibly bald back of the head as most of the hair would have been removed there. You should ask to meet other patients who had the same number of grafts done in one session and to see the results, not only in the donor area but also in the recipient area as well. You might find that unless your density is more than twice the density of the average Caucasian, this will not be a safe or a productive procedure in terms of a complication-free hair transplant after the surgery.


2018-09-14 08:59:35A Doctor Offered Me 8,000 Grafts in One Session (About 12 Hours of Surgery)

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Doctor Gave Me Betamethasone for My Hair Loss

Hi I am 26 years old and I recently moved to a new country for the 6 months but I noticed that I have been gradually losing hair for the past year or so(even while I was still in my home country). I’ve seen a local dermatologist here in Taiwan but I am having some reservations about him. He did a hasty (literally) 2 min. check-up, where he just casually looked over my scalp and he didn’t bother to ask me any questions about my family history or my lifestyle hair. He just immediately related my condition to the stress of moving to a new country. Afterwards, he sprayed nitrogen of some sort into my hair, he told me to come back once a week and then gave me a prescription for betamethasone (apply 4 times a day) and polytar liquid to wash my hair once a day. I am wondering if it’s time to find a new doctor? What kinds of procedures should I expect in my first meeting with my doctor? How should I go about finding a good one? Thanks in advance

I believe that you are right to consider getting another doctor. You actually know what to look for in a doctor by your description:

  • One that gives you the time for him to ask questions about you and your family history of hair loss
  • One that does a thorough hair and scalp examination including a study of the hair for miniaturization analysis
  • One that answers your questions and engages you enough to give you the trust you need

Sounds like his treatments are everything (including the kitchen sink), but I think that you know that the kitchen sink will not bring your hair back. If you were my patient, I would advise you to stay away from betamethasone, as it is a steroid which might hurt you with regard to producing even more hair loss. Good luck.

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Doctor Charges Per Procedure, Not Per Graft

Thank you for taking the time to maintain this website. I met with a hair loss consultant last week for the first time. He recommended that I have 2500 grafs on my forehead area and a second transplant a year from now on the top of my head. Why not just have it all done at once? He claims that they dont charge per graf, but a flat fee regardless of how many transplants they do. Is this just a opportunity to make more money for a second procedure?

If the consultant you spoke with was not a doctor who does the surgery him/herself and is trained in hair transplantation as a specialty, then he/she is practicing medicine without a license and I would run for the hills. There are some clinics that promote consultants to recruit patients and I have seen some people get recommendations that are way out of line with their need. Doing more than 2500 grafts depends upon:

  1. The size of the bald area being treated
  2. The donor density
  3. The looseness of the donor area skin (laxity)
  4. The skill of the surgical team (only some teams are capable of performing 5000 grafts at one session)

Fees are generally priced per graft, but that is not a hard and fast rule. Whatever the basis for the charge, it should be both competitive to what a quality medical group would charge and show value for what you are going to receive (result focused of course). Selecting a doctor should follow the science I have outlined in How to Tell if You’ve Found the Right Hair Transplant Doctor.