Dr. William Rassman – Page 1032

February 8, 2012

I’m 18 and Finasteride Stopped My Hair Loss – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hey
I’ve been taking finesteride since september of 2011 and my hair loss has seemed to either slowed down or stopped and i don’t seem be having sexual problems really. I’m only 18 so is this a good sign?

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Did you need me to answer this? I must be missing something here…

Your hair loss slowed down (possibly stopped) and you have no side effects after taking finasteride for 5 months… and you’re asking if that is a good sign? Um, yeah. I’d say that’s a good thing. The medication you’re taking to treat hair loss is working and as long as you stay on it, it will probably keep working.

February 8, 2012

Is Minoxidil Only for Men? – Balding Blog

I am a 58yr old woman. My hair is falling. A hair doctor has put me on to MINOXIDIL TOPICAL SOLUTION USP 2% HAIROUSE-MX. 1ML 2 X DAILY along with multivitamin tablets. I have been on it since 45 days. But to know more about this solution i googled it. To my surprise i found out that this solution should only be used by men, not women. Secondly,when stopped hair falls again.

What should i do? i am worried. I dont want to use it for the rest of my life. How do i stop it and being a female using this, am i harming myself? Please help.

2% minoxidil is sold as Women’s Rogaine, 5% minoxidil is sold as Rogaine (for Men). It is the only medication that is FDA approved for treating female hair loss. Some doctors may prescribe the stronger minoxidil (5%) for women, but that is on an individual case by case basis. Besides, it looks like your doctor put you on the 2% anyway.

You do need to use it for life if you want to continue seeing the benefits, and stopping it will result in a disappearance of any benefits you saw from it. In 45 days, you probably didn’t notice too much of a difference, if any. You should talk to your doctor about your concerns.

Propecia (finasteride) is only for men, so perhaps you’re confusing the two medications.

February 8, 2012

My Mom Has Hair Loss After a Triple Bypass – Balding Blog

My Mother had triple bypass in August 22, 2011. She has had alot of hair loss. She has done well from the surgery but this bothering her. Can this be from the meds that she was given to put to sleep?

I’m not sure which medications she’s taking, but stressful surgeries can certainly cause hair loss. Most of the time this will reverse in a year or so. Just wait it out.

February 7, 2012

Hair Loss InformationMoving All Donor Hair to the Top of the Scalp with FUE? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Dear Sir,

Could one perform a complete FUE of all the donor hair from the back of the head to the top, i.e. create the exact opposite of MPB look? I think it’s just a matter of this encoded aging pattern in peoples heads that makes them think one is older than in reality. Just moving the hair around would confuse people enough to like that as a nice hairstyle. It’s basically the same thing as shaving the head completely bald – no hair, no pattern, monkey-brain has no recognition of aging. Different pattern is also just a big unknown to our monkey brains, so people would just get confused and interested rather than think ohhh this one looks old. It’s that obvious idiotic pattern that makes men look old. Am I not correct?

Just some illustrations to my message.

Now, Without hair: here
What it would look if I were healthy (i.e. not balding): here
My idea of solution (complete FUE MPB pattern inversion): here

Sorry for the quality, I’m not familiar with graphics software, but the idea is there, right?

Please, take it into consideration, Doctor(s)!

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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What you may perceive as a good look may be different for others. With respect to what you are suggesting, we do something similar for hair transplant surgery, just not to the extreme you’d like. We move the donor hair to create a non-balding look.

But follicular unit extraction (FUE) will still create small dot scars, and if you had all the money in the world and had every hair extracted from the donor area and placed into the top of your scalp, you’d still be left with thousands of these tiny dots all over the donor area.

February 7, 2012

Press Release – RepliCel Provides Quarterly Update – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Snippet from the press release:

RepliCel Life Sciences Inc. is pleased to report that the six-month post injection follow-up period of its TS001-2009 clinical trial is nearing completion.

To date, 17 of 19 subjects have had their six-month follow-up visit, during which time subjects had their overall health evaluated. This included subjective and objective assessment of verum and placebo injected sites and digital images were taken of the scalp and injection areas.

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Read the full text — RepliCel Provides Quarterly Update on First-In-Man Clinical Trials

February 7, 2012

After Playing Sports in Freezing Weather, I’m Seeing Hair Loss – Balding Blog

Hello Doctor

I am a semi pro soccer player . Last week i had to play a couple of 90 minute outdoor games , running up and down in below zero temperatures and freezing north wind (no head cover allowed in soccer games ) . Ever since i think i notice more hair falling when showering or combing . Corellation or causation ? Permanent or temporary loss ?

I just returned from a trip from Antarctica. I didn’t notice any more bald people in the freezing weather down there. I do not believe your 90 minutes of soccer play and shower has any correlation with hair loss.

February 7, 2012

Why Would Finasteride Side Effects Show Up After a Decade of Use? – Balding Blog

I was just wondering if you knew why the side effects of Finasteride can show up after 10 years or longer. Surely after this amount of time the body is used to the drug, are there any cases where Finasteride has been proven to be the cause of this and not from other conditions such as diabetes etc.

I find it worrying that the sides could strike at any time.

Thanks

I do not know. One guess is that after 10 years you have simply aged with all its age related issues. We know that the older a man gets, the less his libido and his performance abilities with regard to getting and holding an erection. It is believed that erectile dysfunction occurs as follows (as a simplified rule of thumb):

Men in their 20s have a 20% incidence
Men in their 30s have a 30% incidence
Men in their 40s have a 40% incidence
Men in their 50s an even greater rise in ED

As you get older, sexual issues become more of an issues even without any medication being the culprit. Please speak with your doctor. An unhealthy lifestyle, poor diet, obesity, and/or genetics cause diabetes – which is one of the main cause for erectile dysfunction (among a slew of other co-morbidities).

February 6, 2012

Hair Loss InformationHow Long Should I Wait Before Considering Filling In My Strip Scar with FUE Grafts? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Thanks very much for the informative blog.

Say a strip patient is about 6 months out from FUT surgery and now has buyers regret (please, no reminder about thinking things through first!), and wants to fill in the scar with FUE/beard hair/etc. Is there any advantage to do it at this time or does one need to wait one year. I wonder if scar is more or less vascular when healing. Thanks.

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If the donor scar has healed, you don’t need more surgery, and the scar is narrow, then follicular unit extraction (FUE) to the linear scar is possible. FUE does not fill in wide scars well, though. Scalp MicroPigmentation (SMP), on the other hand, may be a better approach. Explore it all.

February 6, 2012

A Patient Sends Thanks and I Couldn’t Be Happier – Balding Blog

Thanks I received a thank you card from a patient that I wanted to share. This is what was written on it:

“You truly deserve a bigger thank you than this card for what you did. I will forever remember what you did. Thanks for my new hair. May this new year of 2012, bring good health and love to you and your family.”

On the same card his sister wrote: “Thank you so much for my brothers new hair! It’s truly awesome.”

Each time I receive such cards, emails, or letters, I get emotional because I know each patient personally. The relationship I develop with every patient is what makes this profession great.

All of my patients have my home and cell phone numbers and are told to call me anytime of the day or night if they are worried. The other night, a patient called me at 10pm with some bleeding that he said would not stop, so he and I met at 11pm at my office. I put him in the hair wash room and washed off all traces of blood and then took him to the operating room (I did not call my staff in) where I examined the patient. All signs of bleeding had stopped. He apologized for bothering me and I told him that this was my job and no apology was necessary, so instead of working on his ‘bleeder’ which had gone away without any help from me, we just talked and joked over many things that we had in common. We both enjoyed our time together and left the office around midnight.

February 6, 2012

Why Don’t Doctors Make it More Clear That Eyebrow Transplants Grow Fast – Balding Blog

For people undergoing eyebrow transplants, the biggest problem is the increase rate of growth of the transplanted hair, which requires the candidates to make frequent visits to the parlor (weekly!) or perform some sort DIY at home. My questions are:

Why don’t surgeons “STRESS” this and its implications? Most surgeons who I have personally consulted have stated this very casually, and some even neglected it. It was only after I spoke to a few women who had had eyebrow transplant that I understood how much of a severe problem this is, which, if not treated weekly, can result in severe social embarrassment.

We’ve written about the need to trim transplanted eyebrows more frequently due to the more rapid growth rate than the rest of the eyebrow hairs. I can assure you that not all surgeons try to hide this. Maybe you saw the wrong surgeons. Generally, you should consider trimming the new eyebrow hair three times a week, as the transplanted hair will grow at a rate of 1/2 inch per month.

I often write “buyer beware” about the many hair products we’re asked about. It also applies to the doctors.