Author: Dr. William Rassman

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Removed Plaque with Hairs Caused by Severe Dandruff – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

I have severe dandruff and/or psoriasis that results in unsightly plaques on my scalp. Recently, I had a temporary lapse in judgement and gently removed one of the plaques forming on the hairline. To my surprise, the plaque came off with six or seven hairs, causing me great anxiety and grief. I do not habitually scratch my head or remove plaques, but the sight and itchiness of this one was driving me crazy. Do you think the loss of these hairs is permanent, even though I don’t normally pick at my scalp? Or does traction alopecia occur only with frequent picking?

You will not get traction alopecia from one or two hair pulls. It takes many hair pulls to get it to become permanent. Sounds like you have it all together.

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Stopped Propecia For a Month — Now I Want To Go Back On – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Hello, I have been on propecia for about a year, I stopped taking it for literally 1 month because I didnt have the money for it. I have noticed a decent amount of hair loss since coming off the drug. I am back on propecia now, but my question is can I grow back the hair that I lost within that month? and do I have to wait the intial 3 to 4 months again for propecia to start blocking DHT?

Thank you so much for your time

There is no way to tell other than to wait it out. Most men can regrow what they lose after stopping Propecia for a month. What I want the readers of this blog to note is that the hair on this man is being held on his head because of the Propecia. Had he not started the drug a year earlier, most likely he would be substantially balder than he is now. For those of you on the drug, stay on it or the loss that occurs from stopping it may not be reversible. Why gample?

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Did Johnny Depp Have Hair Transplants? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hi doc, I have a few questions.

  1. Do you think Johnny Depp has had hair transplants?
  2. I’ve been on propecia for 5 months now and so far the right portion of my hairline has actually filled in while the left has gotten worse. I’m 19 right now and I dont expect my right side to get as bad as the left side. Is it possible to get a hair transplant on just one side of my head? Would there be a particular reason why its like that?
  3. I’ve found this very interesting article on the aging process. (Hankooki.com) What would its implications have on the advancement in hair restoration?

Thanks.

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Johnny Depp

  1. I am guessing that Johnny Depp did not have them either as I have no direct experience with him. I haven’t read anything where he has said he’s had hair transplants, so I couldn’t say. If he did and I did it, I would not be able to say that I did him because it would expose his confidential personal information.
  2. It is not uncommon to bald faster on one side than the other. The two sides will eventually even out. If Propecia worked on one side and not the other, then I suspect sooner or later the side it worked on will start to bald as well. Maintaining the Propecia may keep the imbalance present. I have transplanted one side in certain unusual cases. I judge each one on their own merits.
  3. I read with interest the article you referenced. I only know what I read. There are parts of our genetic material called telomeres which shorten as we age. This is an aging clock in our system and when the telomeres drop off to a certain level, cell death occurs. A great deal of research has been done to increase these telomeres so that our biological clock is extended. The science of anti-aging is developing rapidly, and hopefully we will live long enough to see the fruits of such developing science. Genetic hair loss may or may not be helped by this research. Your guess is as good as mine.

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Accutane and Hair Transplants – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Hello Doc.

Thanks for your continued efforts to answer most hairloss related questions. Am 26 healthy male & I have had a hair transplant for frontal & side burns some 8 months ago. Growth is great. I do have some problem with ACNE & actually planning to take ACCUTANE, my question is, will the treatment with this drug have any side-effects on my transplants?

Accutane can cause hair loss in some patients, even in hair transplanted follicles. It is a known side effect of that drug. Are you sure that alternatives are not available that would work to address your acne? Talk with your doctor.

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Effexor and Hair Loss? – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Taking effexor for two years. Have noticed that I am losing hair from the top of my head. I am female, post menopausal.

Effexor has hair loss as a known, but rare side effect. Always check with your doctor about alternatives. Although most antidepressants have hair loss as a reported side effect, some may not impact you as much as others.

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Femara and Tamoxifen – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

I am a 58 year old woman who has been on Femara for 18 months. I was on Tamoxofin for 3 1/2 years prior. I have always had fine hair but over the last year it is thinning much more. It is becoming difficult to style despite keeping it short. Have you had other women on these drugs experience this? Any recommendations?

It may seem crazy, but I felt that cancer had a cure. This feels overwhelming.

I have not treated cancer of the breast for many, many years so I am not familiar with these drugs on a specific level. Cancer chemotherapy goes after cells that have a high metabolism and hair is unfortunately one of the most active metabolic organs in the body. That is the bad news, but the good news is that hair is very robust and once it gets used to some of these drugs, this side effect reverses. I am sure that the doctor who prescribed these medications will be in a better position to answer that question about both Femara and Tamoxifen.

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Free Hair Transplants from Trainees? – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

my question is, do medical students do hair transplants for free. For experience, like a dentist in trainning would give free cavity fillings if the patient let them work on them. i ask this because i dont make alot of money and is hard for me to save up due to bill. also i dont want to go bald, so im trying to find out other ways to not go bald. thanks for reading my question.

Surgery is not something that is legally allowed in any ordinary hospital or clinic for a non-physician to do and that includes medical students. Teaching hospitals have special waivers for medical students (who are not licensed medical doctors), so it is possible that medical school hospitals can offer this, but I am not familiar with this service being offered at any medical school in the United States. We do not have a medical school affiliated with New Hair Institute.

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Minoxidil’s Potent Side Effects – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

I had used minoxidil 2% and then 5% when it became available. Roughly 7 years in total. I just stopped using it in May ‘06.

The reason I stopped did not become apparent to me right away. I had two near fainting incidents. I went to the ER for both of them, saw my doctor, went to a cardiologist etc. One person, the ER Dr. suggested that it might be the minoxidil. Everyone else thought it was not a ‘new’ element in my life and looked for other causes.

Well, after I got a clean bill of health, I decided to stop the minoxidil and other symptons I had experienced, erectile dysfunction, fatigue, headaches, dizziness etc slowly are going away.

I figured I was getting older, 43, and that the above were part of aging. This has caused considerable distress in my life, including my marriage. My wife was concerned about my lack of performance and within 3 weeks, the ED is going away.

Please let your readers know that minoxidil is a potent drug. The side affects I experienced are considered rare, but they came on gradually and was hard to connect to the minoxidil.

I posted the above email as the sender wrote it, unedited. Minoxidil was originally a antihypertensive drug and those that used it noticed it grew hair. The hair came to the face and other body parts as well. Like any such medication, different people require different doses and the problem with minoxidil for the treatment of high blood pressure was that it was not as predictable as other drugs. Eventually the drug became out of favor for the treatment of blood pressure as better, more competitive drugs were on the market. What is important to note is that when a drug is put on the skin, it gets absorbed into the body to some degree in every person who uses it. The above story shows just that.

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Taking Propecia for 4 Months, But My Hair Loss is Getting Worse – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Hi. You have a lot knowledge but I couldn’t find this answer. I have been on Propecia for 4 months and my receding hairline seems to be getting worse the past 3 months. i am only 23 yrs old. Does this mean the Propecia is just not working? Shouldn’t it be slowing down? Should I increase the dose? thank you for your advice.

You may be going through a rapid hair loss phase and it is possible that if Propecia is working, it may not be working enough to stop the recession. We know that this drug traditionally works better in the crown, so I would not be surprised to see it less effective in the front (particularly for re-growing hair).

You need to know what is happening so mapping out the hair and scalp for miniaturization will give you some measurements to define what is happening. At this point right now, there is no way to tell. I would stay on Propecia for a full year or more. You need a good doctor to manage what is going on and a Master Plan to know what you will do next.

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Using Visine on The Scalp for Hair Loss Prevention? – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Hello Doctor,

Since I moved to Calgary I’ve been losing hair like crazy. I’ve always been affected by hair loss, but was using Rogaine and I was happy. Since I moved here though, I’m losing hair like I’ve never exprienced before.

Anyhow, I heard about an idea of applying Visine to your scalp to prevent hair loss and cause hair regrowth. Have you heard about this idea before or have any info you could share with me?

Visine on the scalp? I never heard about that approach, but if I get emails from readers about this, I will post them here.

Hair loss is common when stress comes into play. For women who are prone to hair loss, a move like you just had can induce the hair loss — when it all calms down, the woman who loses hair this way should see it reverse. For men, the hair loss can be permanent.