Author: Dr. William Rassman

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In the News – Head Paint for Cancer Patients – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Snippet from the article:

Before cancer treatment could take her hair, a Greeley [Colorado] woman decided to give cancer a new look.

Kay Anderson was declared cancer-free in February, 15 months after discovering a lump in her breast. Just before she started cancer treatment, prior to losing her hair, she took control of her situation. “We all went out to the garage and had a head shaving party,” said Anderson.

Soon after her treatment ended, instead of letting her hair grow back, she let her daughter, Tiffany Koehn, paint it back on. Koehn paints different designs on her mom’s shaved head every two or three days.

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Head paintingRead the full story — Woman Gives Cancer Recovery Colorful Look

For those that go through chemotherapy, as if the cancer itself wasn’t traumatic enough, losing your hair can be even more devastating. These women are not letting cancer take away their spirit, and so I wanted to share this inspiring story.

Photo source: Citizen-Times.com

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Hair Loss InformationHair Stands Straight Up After Transplant – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I had a procedure of 3000 grafts placed in the front and now 8 months later, the hair that grew out stands straight up like toothpicks coming out perpendicular to the scalp. Can this be fixed?

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ToothpicksThe direction that hair grows after a transplant is determined by the transplant surgeon. Some doctors place the hair straight upward reaching for the sky like you reported, while others place them in a radial direction so that the hair looks like the spokes of a bicycle wheel. Some hair restoration procedures (like those of flaps), have hair that grows 90 degrees off pointing to the side. In all of these situations, the transplants or flaps permanently point the direction of the hair.

These are tricky repairs and most of the time the repairs are not able to correct the entire directional issue. I would advise setting up a consultation with me or a good hair transplant doctor in your area with lots of experience (I’m not sure where you’re located) to ascertain what, if anything, can be done to correct the problem.

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Can I Reach My Full Pattern by 21 Years Old? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Is it possible for someone to reach their full pattern at 21? My hair started thinning rapidly at 17. I am 22 now, and for the last year I have been a NW 2a, so it is not just a mature hairline. There has been no change in my hair over the last year and my remaining hair is thick (verified by a doctor that there is no miniaturization).

Both of my grandfathers had the exact same pattern, and going by photographs, they both reached by their late twenties. I know you can never be certain, and that hair loss is complicated and unpredictable, but is there a decent chance I have inherited the same pattern? It just seems very early for my hairloss to reach its full extent.

Thanks for the great blog and all the time you spend helping people with their hair problems!

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It’s possible to reach a pattern you’re going to stick with forever by 21, but it is really difficult if not impossible for anyone to definitively say what your future pattern will be by just examining your scalp at such a young age. I realize you would like some words of comfort, but unfortunately I cannot give it to you.

The best thing to do is to keep an eye on it, but the try not to obsess over it. You can always be followed by a doctor who can establish a Master Plan, figuring out where you are going and what you can do about it.

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Topamax is Thinning the Hair on the Sides of My Head – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I am on a medication called Topamax for a mood stabilizer. I am on 100mg, got cut down and going to gradually cut down even more. My hair is thinning really bad on the sides and it is shortening on the sides. What can I do? If I stop the medication will it eventually stop the hair loss? I need some type of hope, it is thinning where you can see my scalp.

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You really need to talk with your doctor who is prescribing you Topamax (antiseizure medication). The most common cause of hair loss is genetic balding in 99% of men, though hair loss on the sides of the head isn’t common for genetic loss.

Hair loss from medications like Topamax is possible, but I can’t advise you on whether stopping the drug will regrow your hair, as I don’t know your hair loss history and am not clear as to the cause.

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Would Minoxidil Be Helpful for the Frontal Hairline? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I am in the very early phases of hair-loss i.e. slight recession at the temples and general shedding. I was wondering whether topical minoxidil may help me.

Regards

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Many people confuse the term “temples” with what is actually the corners of the frontal hairline, so I’m going to assume that is what you mean since you said it was an early phase of hair loss.

Minoxidil most likely will not impact the receding hairline, but finasteride (Propecia) can halt the progressive loss in young men and in rare instances show benefits to the hairline. Talk to your doctor about a prescription.

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I Now Have Bald Spots Where I Applied Minoxidil – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hi. I’m a male in his late 20s and noticed a couple of years ago that my hair wasn’t as thick as it used to be so I tried Minoxidil. After two months of using the product there was extreme shedding so I discontinued use. Keep in mind I had no bald spots before Minoxidil but now there are several and it looks as if I burnt my scalp. I didn’t use the Minoxidil on my hairline which is still completely intact. But any spot where the Minoxidil was applied looks awful. It’s been over a year and there has been no improvement.

How could Minoxidil turn hair into no hair? Is there a warning on the product that says to not use on areas you already have hair? Is there anything I can use to reverse this damage caused by Minoxidil?

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MinoxidilI’ve not seen a case like you’re describing, so it’s difficult for me to point the finger at minoxidil for bald spots that have lasted over a year. Even if there was a topical allergy to the medication, I’d expect you should’ve seen some regrowth by now in the impacted areas. It’s worth noting that a disease like alopecia areata can cause bald spots like you’re describing, though the more likely thing is that you were going bald in that area with or without the medication.

You used minoxidil because you saw your hair thinning, so it’s not outside the realm of possibility that minoxidil caused shedding in the already weak areas you applied it in. I have heard many patients complain about increased shedding in the first months of using minoxidil, but this generally stops as you continue to use it. I just haven’t seen a patient with bald spots strictly in areas where minoxidil was applied.

You need to consider paying a visit to a physician for an examination if you’re really concerned. I hope you have before and after photos you can show the doctor, plus he/she can learn how you were applying the minoxidil, how much you were applying to each spot, and if there was anything perhaps unusual about the way you used it. There’s only so much I can offer online without actually seeing what you’re talking about.

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My Grafts Started Growing a Month After My Transplant, Then Stopped – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Dear Dr. Rassman/other doctors at Balding Blog,

I have gone through a FUE hair transplant 2 months ago and I have some concerns. I appreciate and look forward to your answers. (I have directed them to my surgeon already and just want to get a second opinion from a reputable source)

Around 1100 grafts were transplanted to my temporal area (to fill up the balding area in my left and right front part of my head). A few days after the FUE surgery, I noticed that all my grafts were around 2mm long. It has been 2 months since the surgery, and I noticed that around 5% of the grafts kept growing (at 2 months now, they are around 2cm long). At the 4-week mark, around 85% of the grafts have grown to 5-6 mm long but have stopped growing since then (so they experienced no growths since 4 weeks ago) and 10% of the grafts never grow at all since the surgery (still at their original transplanted 2 mm length).

Would you please tell me if the above situation normal or not? Assuming the 5% that keep growing will still continue to grow, for the rest of the transplanted hairs, after they shred, will they come back? I am a bit concerned that for the 10% that experienced no growth at all since the surgery, they will never come back after shredding. And is it normal for around 85% of the transplanted hairs to grow from around 2mm to 5mm after a month, then stop growing at the 1-month mark and begin their shredding phase and then come back a few months later?

Thanks.

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Sometimes after a hair transplant surgery it may seem like the hairs are growing a few millimeters, but they are usually just hairs being pushed out before they fall out (since a hair shaft can be as long as 5mm beneath your scalp). If you gently tug on those hairs you may notice how easily they come out. Otherwise, I suppose anything is possible.

With regard to your observations on the rate of growth, I would wait another 2-3 months and then reassess your situation, hopefully with your doctor. At that time, please feel free to send me a follow-up if you’d like to update our readers.

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Hair Loss InformationWould ACell Be Like Going Back to Old Plugs? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Can you explain how these ACell hair transplant procedures most likely will be performed?

In my mind, the strip option would be leave a scare too big for the ACell’s MatriStem product to heal/regenerate with out stitches , and If you take a strip of skin out, and stitch it together, there will not be alot of room for regenerating. A standard small FUE scar would be less time efficient and more costly for the customer. I guess, if donor supply is becoming unlimited, customers will demand higher density,more coverage and less conservative hairlines, which would make for more “mega session” type surgeries. As a 24 yr nw3 stable due to proscar, hair transplants never seemed like an option for me, just because of available donor hair – future balding, as I am pretty sure I will end up at Nw6 or 7 if science doesn’t beat genetics.

So If ACell’s MatriStem products turns out to be the standard, do you think we will go back to the old school butchering plug extractions? Since the sessions will be longer and more of them as well (I guess clients will ask for masterplans to have 10,000-20,000 or even 30,000 grafts! Instead of 3,000 – 7,000). And with the healing more forgiving, Would the ACell’s MatriStem product allow the surgeon to butcher the back of clients heads?

Your thoughts on the subject would be very interesting to read.

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This is still a very early stage of trials and development. New ways of doing old things will arise. If the new technology works as planned, it will certainly not be like the old days of the bulky hair plugs. It should not produce scarring, as there is no surgery here.

I’d prefer to not get into too much detail here at this time, so please follow our announcements to come. You can see all of our recent posts on this subject in the new ACell category.

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Rogaine Liquid vs Foam – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hi, Does using Rogaine 5% liquid has a better absorption into the scalp than Rogaine 5% foam ? which one do you recommend?
thanks

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It has generally been said that the 5% Rogaine Foam absorbs better than the liquid. I suspect a possible reason for this is that it stays on your scalp better as a foam rather than a liquid that could run off.

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Why Didn’t Dr Rassman Have Catch-Up Loss When Stopping Propecia? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hi doctor,

you said before that you took propecia but when you stopped you did not have catch up loss. Why is that? shouldn’t the hairs propecia was keeping be lost when you stopped?

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Dr RassmanI previously wrote about why I stopped taking Propecia, and for those curious about my own hair loss I explain here and here.

When I (Dr. Rassman) started my hair transplant process for my thinning crown, Propecia was not available. As the medication made it to market, I took it with hopes that I’d grow back some hair, even though I wasn’t actively losing any hair at that point. My hair loss had been negligible at the time and it still is… and I doubt I will lose more hair in the future. So I stopped taking the medication, as it really didn’t add or regrow hair for me. In the end, there was really nothing to “catch-up” with.

For those who are actively losing hair, Propecia should slow it down and in some instances regrow some hairs. Over the course of time, the hair loss will continue at a slower rate. This does not mean Propecia has stopped or will stop working, and for those men that decide to stop the medication, the “catch-up” hair loss will bring their hair loss to a state as if they never took the medication in the first place.