Author: Dr. William Rassman

Dear Dr.

Link: Study Shows Saw Palmetto Extract Does Not Improve BPH Symptoms

It says: There is no different between Saw Palmetto and Placebo. if it’s correct, then maybe there is absolutely no benefit for inhibiting 5-alpha-r/DHT? Please tell us your comment. thank you.

I believe if you search BaldingBlog over the years, we have always maintained that saw palmetto is just an herb and there is no scientific proof of its efficacy (for MPB or BPH). Informal studies, differing dosages, and duration of use have all been issues with clearing up once and for all if saw palmetto does anything to treat hair loss.

Regardless, as I have said too many times here, “Buyer beware”.

I’m very seriously considering starting a course of propecia/proscar. But before I began I wanted to ask two questions.

1. It has been said that if you start propecia early the better chance you have of slowing down/halting hair loss, but that doesn’t tally with the propecia chart from studies which show that it generally peters out after 3 years. so surely you’d only save your hair for 3 years and then it would quickly regress, not making much difference how early you start because you only have 3 years of good hair.

2. I was wondering if you could recommend a good dermatologist/hair doctor in London, who I could have a consulation with before I begin taking proscar, do you know any who do miniturisation tests or some kind of form of monitoring on hair loss? There are a lot of snake oil merchants in London that are willfully telling you that you must get on medication and I just want to talk to who is honest and experienced.

I have many patients that have reversed their crown loss and held the reversal over 10 years. Everyone is different, but the official studies show that the expected maintenance should be about 5 years on average. That means that some men get better than 5 years and some worse results while on the drug. It depends upon how aggressive your genes are.

As to your second question about London-based doctors, Dr. Bessam Farjo is a contributor to this site. He and his wife are terrific doctors and worthy of a trip to their offices (in London and Manchester). They may be able to give you a referral if you call their office.

Note: The annual meeting of hair surgeons was in held in Alaska this past week. The following review is very selective and is biased by the things that were interesting to me and what I (Dr. Rassman) thought could be interesting to the readers.

This is part 6. More to come…

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Does finasteride induce mood and other psychiatric changes?

A case report and literature review showed a connection between finasteride and mood changes. In one case presented, a patient suffered from severe disabling mood changes on finasteride, which ceased within a week after stopping the medication. After a short time period he restarted finasteride, and the mood changes returned within a few days. Other cases were reviewed with similar problems. There is little doubt that in some patients, mood changes and other psychiatric problems appeared with the use of finasteride.

I believe that these case reports are the exception to what we commonly see and that finasteride is generally safe, but if a patient feels that they have changes in their personality or mood since the drug was started or if a family member sees changes in their mental state, they should meet with their doctor to discuss the appropriateness of their continued use of the drug.

http://www.pressreleaserocket.net/the-aesthetic-surgery-journal-publishes-groundbreaking-study-on-nape-hair-for-fue-hair-transplantation/328237/

Taking neck hair, which is often finer than scalp hair, has problems with it. These problems include:

(1) more prominent scarring occurs in the neck and the neck area is very visible so such scars will be detectable as punctate scars

(2) neck hair is often not permanent hair as scalp hair is, so if one transplants the frontal hairline with these finer hairs, they may disappear with age.

This is a warning to those who see this press release. They must know the risks associated with a neck hair donor area.

If you are under 25, you should never consider a hair transplant. I would try the drug Finasteride as it may reverse the early thinning I see. This would also be true if you were over 25, giving you a try to reverse it without surgery. African hair is better than Asian and Caucasian hair as “it wants to cover the scalp”.

Finasteride may reverse thinning hair in African-American men.

This is a great result from finasteride. This is the type of results we see, not uncommonly, when finasteride is used for crown hair loss.

Yes, 21 is too young for a hair transplant because you will not know what is your eventual balding pattern at 21. If, for example, you transplant a receding hairline at 21, and then should develop significant balding by the time you are 26, you will have hair where the transplant was done and nothing behind it (looking weird). IF for example, you have crown balding at 21, and transplant the bald area in the crown, by the time you are 26, you might have an island of hair surrounded by a ‘bald sea’ and then you would really look weird and everyone would know what you did. Everyone needs a Master Plan for balding created by you with a good doctor who thinks ahead to anticipate what you and he might do as it reflects the progressive nature of your balding that is the consequence of ‘genetic male patterned balding’. I have seen too many freaky looking transplanted men who never created such a Master Plan with their doctors. I have written about this here: https://newhair.com/assessing-hair-loss/

i’m only 21 so i can’t really get a hair transplant until down the line. i got put on 2.5 mg minoxidil earlier this year and i passed on using fin. i’m fine with using this pill for the future because it hasn’t really affected my day to day life in any way and my health is fine, but i was just wondering if it’d even be worth getting a hair transplant down the line if my balding is genetic and it will keep slowly spreading, wouldn’t i have to get like several transplants over time?

I make my living doing hair transplants, but I almost never have done it on someone of your age. I wait until 25-6 before even considering it. Maybe the oral minoxidil will work and you will not bald. Give the drug a chance and stay on it.