Does having hair loss affect the rate at which it grows? So in other words, if your experiencing hair loss, would that cause your hair to grow slower?
Hair growth does change as we get older and it changes if we have genetic balding (the impacted hair in the hair loss pattern slows). There are other causes of slower hair growth, including various diseases and malnutrition that impact the metabolic state of the body.
Dr. Rassman –
An anecdotal, first-hand report on my experience with finasteride and saw palmetto/beta-sitosterol for your readers: taking the latter for about 10 months, my frontal area continued to thin and my libido was crushed. Taking the former for now about 13 months, my frontal area has maintained and my libido is totally normal.
In other words, you’re saying saw palmetto and beta-sitosterol caused libido issues. I don’t know what dosage you were taking or if you were strictly taking it for treating hair loss, but thank you for the reporting your experience.
Im a 58 year male who is seriously considering transplant surgery to restore my frontal hairline area. Im interested in the FUE procedure. My question is if Im not satisfied with the results can I still undergo strip harvesting in the future
I realize your question is very limited and I don’t know anything about your hair loss, but based on what you are asking I think you are going about this completely wrong. First, you need a Master Plan for your hair loss.
Follicular unit extraction (FUE) is a great surgery, but it has limitations. One of the main reasons you should have an FUE procedure is because you want to cut your hair short in the back without seeing a linear scar. If you don’t mind the linear scar (which I assume to be the case if you’re considering the strip procedure), I’m not sure why you’d want to go with FUE to start with. There’s a list you might find to be an interesting read — The Pros and Cons for FUE / Strip Harvesting.
So while the short answer to your question is “yes”, I think you should seek a good hair transplant surgeon to discuss your overall goals and expectations.
Hello, thank you for your informative blog, it has been a way for me to maintain hope as I have lost my hair at a relatively young age.
My question is not in regards to myself, but a general question. Have you noticed in your personal practice that there are more young men coming to you with male pattern hair loss? As in, are more young people losing their hair at younger ages than in the past?
From your responses, it seems you do not like idle speculation, but if the above is in fact true, would you have any guesses as to why?
thank you again.
No, I do not believe that there are more men balding at an earlier age. Because of the internet, we are more informed. We have more information available to us than ever before. We also have more opportunities to be targeted by advertisers that pray on insecurities. The result of this is a heavy bombardment of ads from hair transplant doctors, drug companies, and snake oil salesmen that transmit the balding message.
The reality suggests that there is no real increase in the number of young men who are balding today compared to young men that were balding in past years.
Snippet from the non-hair-loss-related article:
The death of Elena Caro, which police say came at the hands of Colombians who flew into Southern Nevada posing as medical practitioners, has left Las Vegas plastic surgeon Dr. Julio Garcia wondering who set her up for what turned out to be a fatal buttocks enhancement.
“Who is marketing Las Vegans to these people?” he said. “You know they didn’t come all the way here if they weren’t assured patients. And they’re sure not advertising any normal way. I feel whoever is telling people they can get cheap plastic surgery from these people is as guilty as the guy who did it. They’re taking advantage of people in their community. More has to be done to fight this medical fraud.”
At a news conference Monday, Homicide Lt. Lew Roberts said Caro’s death was not an isolated case of a “makeshift doctor” illegally treating patients, although this was the first fatality he could recall.
Read the full story — Backroom surgery death raises questions about ‘makeshift’ doctors
This is an unfortunate result that could’ve been avoided. Safety was ignored in favor of a low cost, but the ultimate price was paid.
The article even mentions other ways in which people have been horribly scarred by surgeries done by fake doctors, including butt enhancement by using floor wax and industrial strength silicone injections.
Good Day Dr. Rassman,
I am 21 this year. I have been using excessive amount of hair spray and wax for a period of 4 to 5 years, on top of poor washing of the head. As a result, my scalp has a shiny layer, what I think is product build-up, over it. After 2 years away from the products, the shiny layer has cleared considerably. I want to seek your opinion on this shampoo, Menscience Daily Shampoo (with AHA and BHA), on its ability to clear product build up and sebum from my oily scalp. Would such product build up actually cause temporary hair loss?
On addition, as I reside in a hot and humid country. Is it okay to shampoo twice a day, once in the day and once at night? If not, my scalp would feel very oily and uncomfortable.
Thank you so much! I really appreciate your effort!
Styling products like hair spray or hair wax will not cause balding, even if you leave it on. If the product is not a known safe product, you could damage the hair, but it would be doubtful that the damage would extend below the skin surface. Shampooing twice a day is not a problem either.
My now 2 year old daughter was presented at birth with a large bald spot on her scalp (from the frontal part to the vertex part) its about 2-3 in long and 1.5 in wide. plz help I dont know what treatment to decide since I dont even know exactly what kind of congenital defect/disorder of the scalp/hair it is
There are multiple possible causes for this, but there is little information supplied. Most bald spots are acquired, unlike your daughter’s situation. Bald spots in children can be treated with a variety of modalities, including hair transplantation and balloon expanders. These expanders work best when the bald spots are large (like what you described with your daughter).
The best age to treat the child needs to be discussed with the surgeons that have the experience. Generally, that will be a special type of plastic surgeon who can do expanders if the bald area is very large. I don’t have any personally recommendations on the east coast (where you indicated you’re from), but if you’d like I can ask some of my colleagues in that area if they can recommend someone.
Hi,
We recently published an article entitled “15 Disturbing Facts About the FDA“. If you find that this resource would be of interest to your audience, please feel free to share it with them at your discretion.
Either way, I’m glad to have come across your blog. If there’s anything else on our site that interests you, please feel free to let me know. Thanks again for the great content!
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is a government regulator and as such, has its problems. Nobody here is suggesting the FDA is perfect, but they do serve a very important purpose. Without the FDA, things would get out of hand in a hurry.
The article is a round-up of links to actual articles about red tape issues, mistakes, and budget cuts. Thanks for letting us know about your site.
Dr. Rassman,
I am really interested in the new SMP procedure that NHI is offering.
My question is as follows: What effect, if any, will use of Rogaine Foam on the SMP treated areas have on the long-term viability of the ink (i.e., would it cause the ink to fade quicker or run together)?
Thanks in advance for your time spent answering this question.
I do not believe that minoxidil will have any effect on the pigment that is placed into the scalp, but no study has ever been done to confirm my suspicions.
Dr Rassman
Let’s assume someone’s donor area may yield, say, 5000 grafts using the strip technique. Is it better to have 1 mega session or 3 smaller ones? Is the yield better when cutting the skin only once (or twice) with megasessions compared to 3 or 4 times with in smaller operations?
I have always believed that less surgery is better than more surgery in people with more extensive balding patterns. If you can get 6,000 grafts in two sessions, why go for 6 sessions of 1000 grafts each? If the density and laxity allow for it, most of my patients prefer to have one larger session and hopefully just be done with the surgical process quicker. This means in a practical sense that 6-7 months after the first session of 3000 grafts, you can see results which will impact your ability to style your hair.
Alternatively, I can make an argument against the large session. Multiple FUE procedures or smaller strip sessions have a relatively short recovery time, but for FUE, the shaving of the donor area can be a problem unless you elect to keep your hair short, so regrowth of the donor area usually occurs in about 10 days. Smaller strip cases will have their donor scar covered by the existing donor hair.
Incremental surgeries have really no downside other than the length of time from the point you start to the time you finish. It is possible that more surgeries could give you wider scars, but this has never been studied with any direct comparison. Few patients approach me with a desire for multiple smaller surgeries and prolonged benefits, as they want the benefits quickly and would like to say goodbye to me and the hair transplant process altogether. I am, however, open to performing multiple smaller surgeries.
