Author: Dr. William Rassman

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Hair Loss InformationIn the News – Baldness Cure from Stem Cells Within 5 Years? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Snippet from the article:

For the first time, scientists in Germany have grown hair follicles from stem cells. The feat has brought scientists a step closer to creating a cure for baldness. The study used cells taken from animals, but researchers hope to create human hair follicles from human stem cells within a year.

Stem cells are the body’s master cells. With manipulation in the lab, they can be grown into any tissue in the human body from blood to bone and even whole organs. Although stem cells are seen as the holy grail for medicine, progress has been slow and very few treatments are widely available.

However, Professor Roland Lauster at Berlin’s Technical University believes his work could be a step towards providing treatment for the 80 per cent of people who suffer from hair loss worldwide. Lauster claims the treatment – which would probably require the hair follicles to be implanted on to the head – could be available in five years.

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Read the full text — A cure for baldness ‘could be available in 5 years’

This is quite interesting and I’d love to learn more about their achievements. I’m not sure that we’re ready to say a hair loss “cure” is coming in 5 years, though. I’ll keep my fingers crossed, but as the article mentions, progress with stem cell treatments has been very slow. Anyone can guess about the timeline, but I will believe it when I see it.

(Thanks to all the readers that brought the link to my attention.)

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Hair Loss InformationVegetarian, Genetics, Hair Salesmen, and Medication – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

  1. can vegetarian diets attribute to hair loss?
  2. and is there some sort of genetic test that will tell you if you have inherited male pattern baldness?
  3. also in Australia there are a few hair loss companies (advanced hair, ashley & martin and so on) that promote hair regrowth ect, I went to have a hair consultation with the former, but it seemed as though they just wanted a “sale” (they refused to tell me what was in there products or talk to there doctor unless I paid upfront for there program)
  4. I’ve since then saw my GP who recommended that I start taking a 1/4 tablet of 5mg finasteride to help slow the hair loss (I feel that I’m receding on the sides of my fringe). but I’m still unsure about the whole thing whether I have genetic hair loss or something that can be treated without having to take tablets all the time.
  5. is there some way I could find a hair specialist with being roped into a sales program that could give me a definite answer on my hair?!

please reply as I’m trying to loss weight to get back into modeling/acting and I feel having hair is very important to the industry

P.S I’ve heard minoxidil products such as regaine can help grow hair back or home laser therapies such a lemio is this true? and would you recommend it?

thank you

-age 24

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Vegetables

  1. A healthy vegetarian diet shouldn’t contribute to hair loss, but if you’re lacking dietary vitamins you might see some thinning.
  2. There’s a genetic test called HairDX that I believe is up to 70% accurate. But just because you have the gene doesn’t mean you’ll express the gene.
  3. There are only 2 treatments that are FDA approved for hair loss — finasteride (Propecia) and minoxidil (Rogaine/Regaine). I have no idea what the AU hair loss companies are promoting or selling, but if they don’t contain finasteride or minoxidil, they aren’t proven to treat hair loss.
  4. Your GP is right about the 1/4 Proscar tablet. That’s about the same as a Propecia tablet, but at a lower cost. I couldn’t tell you if finasteride is right for you, as I’ve not seen you and don’t have enough info. That’s a prescription medication.
  5. You can try to find a doctor in your area by using the physician search at www.ishrs.org — then use the web to research the doctor(s) a bit more.

P.S. Minoxidil can help grow hair, but finasteride actually treats the hair loss better in my experience. I’m not a fan of hair loss treatment lasers, as I’ve yet to see them work as well as claimed. I don’t recommend LLLT (hair lasers).

Good luck!

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Hair Loss InformationLatisse MPB Trials? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Dr.Rassman,

I just came across Allegran starting trials with Latisse on patients with moderate MPB.. [article].

What was interesting to note was, some doctors prescribe Latisse as an off-label treatment for hairloss? What do you think of that regimen? Have you given it a try? Would it be acceptable to try that on patients who are on Finasteride and are not too bald (say NW 5)?

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LatisseI am aware of Latisse (bimatoprost), which is currently FDA approved for growing eyelashes, and I’ve seen one patient who took it upon himself to try it on the scalp with no success. The dose is quite small for eyelashes and it’s quite expensive for treating the scalp, and I’m not sure what dose would even be necessary for the scalp.

I am also aware that there’s a formal trial to find out if it works for scalp hair growth, but at this time the question of how effective it is remains. I guess we’ll have some sort of idea once they release their phase 1 results next year (which is a study of 28 patients).

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Hair Loss InformationIs There a Possible Scarless Hair Transplant in Development? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hi Doc!
Are there any unavoidable obstacles that prevent developing a hair transplant technique that is completely scarless? I am also curious about how much do you know about CIT and its look when shaved to completely bald. Another hot topic is ACell. Only a part of the donor hair follicle is needed if I’m right. Does this help to prevent scarring? And how good are the existing ACell-friendly extraction procedures?

Sorry if some of the questions are silly, and thanks for your answers!

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There is no surgery in the world that is truly scar-less. There are techniques to minimize scars, but any cut on your body will always produce a scar to some degree. Even for a traditional strip hair transplant surgery the scar is rarely seen (because it is covered by hair).

With respect to ACell, it is not a proven technology and any answer is just speculative at this point.

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If ACell Works, Will It Be Standard Care? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Will ACell be more expensive than traditional hair transplant procedures?

Will it become the standard and only procedure that you offer if it is proven to work?

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ACell is too new to make any speculation at this point. Too many variables, too many questions to answer.

We made the ACell study announcement just weeks ago and I understand that people are excited (we are too), but I’m not going to make any big, speculative statements like what you’re asking of me.

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Will The Strip Technique Become Obsolete Soon? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Dr. Rassman,

Good day sir. Big fan of the blog and all the information you provide. I will keep it short and sweet.

With all the advancements in FUE harvesting, do you think the strip method will become obsolete in the not too distant future?

Thanks and have a good day!

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I really believe there will always be a place for hair transplantation with the strip technique. Follicular unit extraction (FUE) is not always the perfect or a preferred surgery, as many people seem to think. Grafts extracted using FUE are not the same as grafts cut under the microscope, and the growth and success is definitely different no matter how good the surgeon is. I speak from experience, as I was the first to publish about the FUE technique in 2002. Shortly after that publication, surgeons all over the world quickly jumped on the bandwagon to adopt it in their practices with varying results. Over the years, I have seen FUE promoted and sold to naive patients as a “better” surgery than the strip, but this is mostly marketing hype and leads to misinformation.

The two techniques (FUE and strip) both have their own unique place in hair transplant surgeries. For example, if you have a Norwood Class 4-6 balding pattern, a strip method of 3000 to 4000 grafts would be a perfect surgery to achieve a full look in ONE shot with a relatively lower cost than the FUE surgery. The strip scar wouldn’t be noticed by anyone unless you decided to shave your head (and if you were going to do that, why even have the surgery). Plus, I would almost never advise a Norwood 6 patient to have the FUE surgery, because there’s a higher incidence of transected hairs in the grafts from that technique. This would be a liability to someone who can’t afford to lose a single hair! Now on the other hand, if you are a Norwood 2 or 3 and wanting your front corners filled in, an FUE surgery may be perfect — especially if the hair is worn buzz-cut short.

Even if the ACell auto-cloning technology proves itself, the strip surgery may still remain the ‘workhorse’ of transplant surgeries. We may be doing combination of all the techniques combined.

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Hair Loss InformationDUPA and Body Hair Transplants? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Are people with DUPA candidates for a body hair transplant?

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Body hair transplants (BHT) are not considered a standard method of hair transplantation and may not give you a normal amount of bulk. I realize some doctors perform BHT with success (depending on how you define it), but the visual appearance of the hair that grows is clearly not normal. Body hair simply does not grow like scalp hair and is not the same texture.

In my opinion, even if you are desperate for hair, I would be cautious with this approach and demand to see patients who have had it done before you agree to such a radical approach to your DUPA problem. Any surgery can make the situation worse, and that risk is real.

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Could Retin-A Gel on the Face Cause Female Hair Loss? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I am 53 years old woman with thinning hair (front and upper middle scalp). I have been prescribed spironolactone tablets daily and am about to start the twice-daily 2% minoxydil (Rogaine) topical treatments. For a different problem (fine lines) I apply 0.04% retin-A micro gel to my face nightly (active ingedient tretinoin). Is there any material risk of adverse drug interactions? Could tretinoin aggravate my hair loss?

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For starters, here’s what I said about Retin-A in a recent post that still holds true — “Hair loss is listed as a known common side effect of tretinoin (also known as Retin-A), but it is also used by some people in conjunction with minoxidil to grow hair.”

I really don’t have a right answer for you. These are the questions you really should ask your doctor, since you’re already under a physician’s care. Female hair loss is complicated and I know very little about you, have not examined you at all, and have no detailed history on your many health issues.

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Miniaturization Within a Growth Cycle – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hi,

A lot of the hair I see falling out seem to be thick and black at the far end narrowing in diameter towards the root, turning thin and blond. Everything I’ve read, including posts on this blog, seem to say that miniaturization of hair follicles happens from cycle to cycle. Is it possible for hair follicles to miniaturize within a growth cycle or is that most likely caused by something else?

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The newest part of the hair near the root may be thinner than the oldest part at the end of the hair shaft, but I am not sure that I would call this miniaturization without examining you. I would think that once a hair is miniaturizing, it will continue in that process with time.

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Hair Loss InformationPress Release – Aderans Completes Part of Their Phase 2 Study – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Snippet from the press release:

Aderans Research Institute (ARI) recently completed the first of seven protocols of a hair regeneration Phase 2 clinical study, and the results are in: more than half of study participants showed significant hair growth one year after the cell product treatment was administered. “The results indicate that our scientific approach, our research and understanding of follicular cell and hair regeneration is headed in the right direction,” said Vern Liebmann, Vice President Operations. “The fact that an increase in hair growth is apparent as far out as one year after treatment indicates our process has staying power. Nobody we know of has produced results like these.”

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Aderans ResearchRead the full press release — Half of ARI Study Participants See Hair Growth After 1 Year in First Protocol

Results like what are reflected in the announcement from Aderans are very exciting. It is a good thing that many different paths are succeeding lately and, like any lottery, there can be more than one solution to the hair loss problem.

I do not look at the various solutions that are presently being tested as a competition between one technology and another. I look at the millions of dollars that have been spent to solve the hair loss problem and the promise of an exciting future for better and possibly more natural solutions for the various forms of alopecia.

I know from speaking with many prospective patients that some men will now consider postponing traditional hair loss treatments (like the use of finasteride or hair transplantation) in favor of waiting for an “Aderans solution”, but it is important for those who are impacted with early balding not to ignore realistic treatments that do work. For example, a fast-moving balding problem in a young man who may be destined for an advanced hair loss pattern should not allow his loss to progress while he waits for future treatments to become reality, particularly when there are very effective medications available to slow the process down today.