Month: January 2023

I don’t get it!!! Doesn’t every strand of hair for men have a genetic life cycle that eventually runs out in some areas?? (Hairline, crown). How can a male have unlimited replenishment of hair?

Good question. In every one of us who is balding, the pattern of balding we inherit determines the extent of the permanent hair on the side and back of the head. Because we can’t predict the pattern we inherited with absolute certainty, I assume that only the fringe area in a Class 7 patient is the permanent area. This area has a finite amount of hair (about 20% of the total birth hair population on the scalp). You can have this 20% area (called the donor area) harvested over and over again until the area has lost 50-70% of its hair density. Then, the donor area is depleted and no more hair can be harvested without producing balding in this area around the back and side of your head. Each hair has both a hair cycle (Anagen and Telogen) and a limited number of hair cycles that it can have in your lifetime. For the balding Class 7 patterned patient (with only 20% of his hair remaining in a rim around the back and sides of the head), the hair that was lost underwent apoptosis (an effective cell death). These men often have fewer than 10 hair cycles (as few as 6-7) of their anagen/telogen cycle. We know that these hairs, which are absolutely gone to the naked eye, are actually in some stem cells located where each hair used to be. One day, some doctor/researcher will find the switch to turn on these hair stem cells to create new hair. I believe we may actually see this breakthrough in the next few years.

Patient reports: I believe that I was a victim of hair loss in the few months that I was given Oxycodone/Norco medication for my back pain. My hair has not grown back.

It is not generally believed that these two medications can cause hair loss; nevertheless, with your comments as well as a few similar comments on a recent Google search (I suspect like all medications), hair loss is always a risk, even if it is a small risk.

Yes, beard hair can be used as a donor source; however, the beard hair which is usually taken from below the chin, will be depleted and result in less hair present there. This is a good source for hair provided that you want to shave or not develop a full beard below the chin. The photos shows the result of using the area below the chin as a donor source. Note the thinning of the beard from under the chin which reflects the beard hair that was removed. If this man lets his beard grow longer, the lower density may not show just as it would not show if he shaved daily and didn’t grow out a beard.

The photos (taken from an internet site called Imanscape) show a man who used Minoxidil for 3 months and the effects of the drug which clearly thickened the beard hair. Everyone who has this problem should try this solution first before having a beard transplant, especially for men under the age of 25. Many men are late beard developers, so waiting until you are 25, using Minoxidil as shown here, may be a reasonable approach.

If you recieve an anesthetic, SMP can cause shedding because a temporary impact of the local lidocaine on the blood supply of the scalp can cause shedding of the advanced miniaturized hairs. This is distincly a male problem in our experience.

Yes, we have been doing beard transplant for many years. We use both scalp hair or sometimes, hair from under the chin or in the upper neck if the scalp hair is a distinctly different in hair caliber than your normal beard hair. Doctors must be attentive to specific nuances when doing a beard transplant to avoid skin problems that make the transplant detectable. Here are a few examples of beards we have transplanted: https://newhair.com/before-and-after/beard/#results

I have an abundance of neck hair, hair that almost goes to the top of my back. I’m used to shaving that part of my neck (genetic I guess as it’s something some of my family has) Could this be used as possible donor hair for FUE if you have long hair and aren’t comfortable with shaving a typical donor area location?

Neck hair is not permanent hair in many man. Worse still, is that incisions of any sort that are made in the back of the neck has an increased risk of scarring and scar stretching. Some people taking finasteride find that their neck hair disappears (not always).

I have only really lost majority of my hair at the crown, some came back due to dermarolling. I’m not on fin or min ( body to sensitive also plan on having kids in the next 4-5 years). It it possible that if I improve my heart health, I can get some more hair back on my crown? Heart Health is proven to effect crown.

The finding that people with pure crown balding get heart disease is an observation in a number of publications. Putting hair in the crown doesn’t impact your heart or change the statistics, sorry!