Author: Dr. William Rassman

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Hair Loss InformationRobotic Controlled Hair Transplants – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

There’s a doctor in the bay area that is claiming to do hair transplants with robots. What is this about? Robots??? Can you tell me more about this?

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Robot“Restoration Robotics, Inc. (Mountain View, CA) is a company using image-guided robotic technology to perform hair restoration by emulating the FUE technique. The robotic technology is in development. Currently, it is not approved by the FDA and the technology is not for sale”, said a company spokesperson when I contacted them. I also found this press release about Restoration Robotics from 2003, here.

I can imagine the scene of a movie with robots doing hair transplants, starring 3-CPO from Star Wars. I am sure that we will be hearing more about robotic-assisted hair transplants in the future and I doubt that it will be as frightening as I just made it sound. This is an exciting conceptual solution to the Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) quality problem.

There is also the Medicamat Punch Hair Matic, first announced in late 2004 in this press release — Punch Hair Matic rescues baldies — which says: “Medicamat of France will be launching its new robot for hair transplantation”. I have been familiar with this company, which purchased the technology from a long term friend in the mid-1990s, Dr. Pascal Boudjema, one of the brightest inventors that the hair transplant community has ever had.

Their press release goes on to say: “The Punch Hair Matic (which is patent-protected) is a robot using micro-instruments to remove follicular units, which makes surgery simpler, faster, and less debilitating for the patient, with more convincing aesthetic results.” They report a very fast surgical time (2 hours to do 700 grafts) for the transplant (appears to be an FUE technique).

In many ways, Medicamat has been doing small punch grafting longer than I have, considering that they have been using smaller and smaller punches for many years. The evolution to smaller punches has been slow and methodical.

Today, the shoppers for FUE transplants pass through a mine field (a ‘buyer beware’ business for sure) where doctors from all over the world (with little or no training) are using manual techniques with varying degrees of success. Regardless of their expertise, they are telling the public that they specialize in FUE and are experts in the technique. At least, the robot approach promises to standardize the technique and the quality of the output. So we have a horse race now between two companies offering what may turn out to be competing technologies. Only the public can benefit here, so I sincerely hope that one or both of these companies succeed in making the business for automated hair transplants work.

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Bald Spot Occurs Every Other Year, Then Regrows – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I have an occipital baldness. My family thinks that I have pulled it out. In actuality, my son has the same weak spot. My dad had this circle shaped baldspot on his occipital scalp. I noticed that when I shave/taper this area. It will grow back. Sometimes long sometimes short straight hairs will protrude.. At any given rate, the baldspot on the occipital area will occur every other year. Why does this happen?

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I would have to render a guess. This is the first time I can remember having this question put to me. Synchronous hair cycling is something humans are not supposed to do. It is possible that your hair in this area has a shorter geneticaly programmed hair cycle than the surrounding hair. This would produce a bald area in the hairs that have a shorter hair cycle, but I would doubt that it would be a complete bald spot — rather, a thin spot. If you are near one of my offices in California, I would agree to map out your balding spot and compare it to the surrounding scalp. A study of the hair shaft thickness may demonstrate the answer to your question.

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As Accutane Treatment is Ending, Propecia Stopped Working! – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Help! I’m a 36-year-old who has been on Propecia for about 8 years. Over the past couple of months, I have noticed a dramatic thinning of my hair. Interestingly, the thinning appears to have started just as I ended a 6-month Accutane treatment. What is happening? What can I do now that Propecia has stopped working? Am I a good candidate for Avodart?

I’ve written you three times on this matter. Please answer. I’m desperate!

You could have thinning secondary to Accutane build-up. Stopping Accutane may help. Avodart, as I have said over and over again, is not FDA approved for hair loss. Although it is used by some doctors, I have only prescribed it once and am not about to start going ‘off label’ for many reasons that I do not wish to discuss here. Simply put, safety and effectiveness have not been demonstrated for Avodart in the long term on young men with hair loss. I am not your doctor and you need to have a doctor who is vested in your condition. Between you and your doctor, you need to build a Master Plan to deal with your hair loss. You need to have your hair mapped out for miniaturization to see if the thinning you are seeing is ‘patterned’ or not. Pattern analysis of miniaturized hairs may help you distinguish the difference between genetic hair loss and Accutane effects. Give it some time and see what happens in the next 6 months.

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Going Off Medications Causing Female Hair Loss – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Hello Doctor!
I’m not unique, but have a specific question regarding female hair loss & regrowth. I am slowly going off of Topamax (w/Dr. supervision), and have recently gone off my birth control pills. I have extensive hair loss, to the point of clogging the shower drain daily (frightening!). I’m using topical Rogaine 5%, but have only done so for a month. How long does it take for hair to grow back? I’m confident mine will once my body adjusts to all of the medication changes. And does hair typically continue to fall out post-medication use? Please advise? Thank you!

Your question has a number of moving parts. You have recently stopped oral contraceptives and are tapering down on Topamax (both known causes of hair loss). Also, you have decided to start using Rogaine 5% for your hair loss, which if tolerated well, can only help. The standard time for hair to grow back once it has fallen out and gone into a ’sleeping cycle’ is about 4 to 8 months. If your hair loss is due to medication, it should hopefully grow back once the medication has been stopped. Given that you are under the supervision of a physician, I suggest getting a full medical workup to rule out other causes of hair loss.

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Going On and Off Propecia – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

I read on an earlier post you believe it is a bad idea to go on and off propecia, this is exactly what my dermatologist has recommended as he is dubious about staying on the drug constantly.

If the drug works by helping block DHT production surely this shouldnt be an issue? ie in the months you dont take it DHT production may rise again, but every other months is better than not at all? Or am I being too simplistic and hair cycles etc come into it and im making things worse?

I write because on the recent resumption of taking it I seem to have quite alot of shedding.

regards

Going on Propecia and then going off of Propecia is a bad idea. I have seen many men stop it for 4-6 months and they start losing hair at about a month, which quickly becomes evident at 3 months. If they restart it again, they rarely go back to where they were before they stopped the medication. I don’t know where your doctor is getting that idea from, so I would suggest that you ask him/her for clarification.

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Masturbation! Hair Loss!!! – Balding Blog

I started masturbating when I was 12 and I continue to do now at 19. All in all, I’ve averaged 3-4 ejaculations a day, all this along with a diet that is strictly based on meat. My baldness is unlikely to be genetic since all my have have kept thier hair. So is masturbating a lot along with a poor diet the reason for my hair loss ?

I’ve gone over this before, but simply put, masturbation will not cause you to lose hair. This is an “old wives’ tale” to stop what nature pushes men to do. If masturbating would cause hair loss (even 3-4 times a day) then the vast majority of men would be bald.

Poor diet can cause hair loss. You must have a balance of the proper daily recommended foods to get a good diet. Even a daily dose of ‘fast food’ should be able to get you the balanced diet to keep your hair.




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Woman Started Losing Hair After Pregnancy – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

I too have hair thinning issues. I am 25 years old female, and this hair loss/itchy scalp began not too long after the birth of my son. At first I attributed it to post partum pair loss, but when it continued after 2 years, it became worrysome.

My hair seems to be constantly be falling out, and regrowing. I have a lot of frizzy baby hairs. My scalp is itchy, and when I scratch, in the general area I find like a granule of skin cells. It feels like the white bit at the base of a hair, only a little larger and dryer. Most of the hair that falls out also has these at the base of the hair. This is driving me crazy, PLEASE help me figure out what this is. I’ve had blood work and my thyroid is okay, and I am not a diabetic.

Thank you.

Female genetic hair loss can be triggered by pregnancy. There are unique patterns of miniaturizationi associated with the genetic process (even in females) and this pattern is easily seen with good densitometry studies mapping out the head for miniaturization. You should get this process done and if you have a genetic process then, at the least, you will know what it is that is causing your problem. For those who lose hair with pregnancy, most will reverse within a couple of years.

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Propecia Beyond 5 Years – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Hey Dr. Rassman…I’ve been reading your blog almost daily and have seen alot of questions about the long term effectiveness of Propecia (especially after the two year mark). I wanted to ask you a question that will help me feel better since I am just past that 2 yr mark. I am 26 yrs old and have been using propecia since 24. When I started using propecia I had hair loss that was not detectable to others..my only goal here was to maintain my hair.. When you talk about propecia losing effectiveness , are you talking about losing ground with the new hair propecia is responsible for growing.. or falling behind your starting point.

Of course, I’m just asking your opinion from your experience of seeing many patients over many years.. Do most people stay at or above their starting point after 5 yrs or more? thank you

Finasteride at the 1mg dose will not guarantee that you will stop your hair loss. Some people stop it and some people reverse it. Some people just see it slow down. I think that it works in all men, just maybe not as effective in some as in others. Over time the hair loss tends to progress, so if the drug worked for you initially and works less well now, that is the time to see a doctor to get a Master Plan in your hand for your hair loss and its future. It may be time to consider doing more about it if it bothers you much.

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Traction Alopecia From Having Dreadlocks for Only 4 Days? – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

I’m 18, female and I had my hair backcombed for dreadlocks. They were very tight and after four days I combed out my hair. Both the backcombing and combing-out process made me lose some hair. Do I have traction alopecia and will my hair grow back like it was before?

I would doubt that traction over a 4 days period will cause hair loss. If you lost any hair, it may take a few months for the hair to grow back in.