Dr. William Rassman – Page 1837

March 27, 2006

My Hair Keeps Breaking – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

My hair keep breaking off in the same place (back and top of head); what can i do to stop the breaking?

It is normal to lose 100-150 hairs a day. However, if you are experiencing abnormal hair loss, you should consider being evaluated by a hair transplant doctor or dermatologist. If what you are talking about is that the hair only grows to a particular length and then breaks off, then you might work with your hair stylist and try to address the cause. Dryness could be the cause, so you might have to use a wetting agent, or if it breaks because you are rough in brushing it, use a thicker wide-tooth comb and be more gentle. Try various shampoos and conditioners, as there are many out there that may help.

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March 27, 2006

Propecia in 20 Year Old Male – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

I am a 20 yr old male who noticed a large amount of hair coming out while in the shower and during the day; I have also noticed visible miniaturization in the strands that fall out. I am about NW2 now, and I notice slightly less density on the very front of my hair line. At my age, are there side effects to taking Propecia? Are there any other courses of action?

Also, I am in Europe; do you know of my options here? (Is Propecia available/branded under a different name/does it require a proscription?)
Thanks!

The drug Propecia can be taken at any age. There are possible side effects, but they are rare and vary per person. Please review the many, many posts on this blog that discuss Propecia and side effects.

Some countries have not yet allowed the drug in, while others allow it to be sold under a doctor’s guidance and control. I am sure that if you ask your doctor for finasteride, you will find it in the 5mg dose and then would have to cut it into 1/4 dosages to treat hair loss.

March 27, 2006

Suicidal Thoughts After Hair Transplant – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

I am devastingly depressed from my strip procedure…I made a very very bad mistake by doing a “fill in” procedure when I was 27 (something I regret more than anything) not realizing I would eventually get 2 other procedures of over 1000 grafts later and have a scar that I can not cut my hair short or shave my head…

I am having suicidal thoughts and wish I never did this at all..Id give anything to have no scars and just shave my head like I should have done. I was too young, uneducated and stupid at the time I made the decision for the first procedure. Now my friends with less hair than I have, Im jealous of.

Is there anyway to cover up this strip scar with FUE? DOes the donor area have to be shaved to do this? Will it cover it enough to cut my hair short again? Should I wait for potential hair multiplication someday?

Your opinion and expertise is appreciated. Im overwhelmed here..please help

Thoughts of suicide are a major red flag for me. When depression leads to such thoughts, then medical intervention is needed. You need to connect to your family doctor and discuss these thoughts, so that he/she can help you deal with a far more important issue than what is going on on the top of your head.

I do empathize with the trauma that you describe. From a medical and surgical viewpoint, these problems are not difficult to deal with, but they should take a back seat to your mental health. Just to list a series of options that may apply to your scar, they include: fascial techniques to reduce scars, transplants with FUE to fill in scars, and a Trichophytic closure technique that allows hair to grow through the scar, and camouflaging the scars to reduce their detectability. This is not meant to be a comprehensive listing, but just enough to tell you that once you get your mind clear and focused and can manage your suicidal thoughts, there are many options that can be considered for you.

With regard to things like hair multipication and cloning, I am disheartened when I read the rumors on the web telling that these technologies are around the corner. They are still quite a ways away from becoming a reality. See the Hair Cloning category for more.

March 27, 2006

Tribestan and Propecia – Balding Blog

Dear Doctor,
Recently I have been prescribed with Tribestan to boost my testerone level. But i have been taking Propecia for a year now and the effect from propecia is good and i am a more confident man now of course with more hair too.

My question is can Tribestan be taken together with Propecia? will it cause more hairloss? or any side effects?

Thank in advance. Desperately needing a answer… Best Regards

Tribestan is not a medication. It is a natural supplement that is available over the counter without a prescription. Since Tribestan is not a FDA approved product, there is no medical evidence for its efficacy or its precise mechanism of action. There are endless internet sites that promote Tribestan (as I have found), but there are no formal FDA approved or medical data on Tribestan, nor are there any studies that show safety and / or effectiveness. For those reasons there is no way for me to tell if there would be adverse effects when taken with Propecia. There is no medical evidence.

I do not know your medical history to know how or why your “testosterone level” is low. Perhaps you should be seen by your primary care doctor for a complete physical.

March 24, 2006

Finasteride for Female Hair Loss? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Ok doc, I just saw on the news (and the found it on the web) where it says Propecia is basically ok for women. Please comment on this new study.

Female hair loss treatment hope
Oral Drug for His Hair Loss May Also Help Her

Block Quote

My concerns for this treatment are the following:

The study is very limited to only 37 women.
The “new pill” is finasteride 2.5 mg (which is 2.5 times the strength of Propecia for men) with an added birth control pill to prevent pregnancy because of the high risk of producing abnormal babies, a known side effect of finasteride in pregnant women.
Finasteride for women is not approved by the FDA for female hair loss. We know that in 1 out of 200 or so men who take the 1mg dose of finasteride, that there is some breast nodules (gynecomastia) as a side effect and this makes me wonder what the effect might be on women who carry genes for breast, ovarian or uterine cancer or who may have an early version of these cancers already growing in their body. If they take finasteride as used in this study, what will happen here? Safety is critical to FDA approval for a particular use, so I would worry that without adequate statistics, we will not know about this risk.
The study was not a double blind randomized control study. Which in short means there can be a bias in the study.
These stories are sensationalistic at its best, causing great interest for desperate women and providing misinformation to the non-medical population. Another example of media hype was this story from a few years ago: Lemon juice ‘is HIV-killing spermicide’.
These articles will, without a doubt, drive doctors and women to gather and exploit finasteride for the treatment of hair loss. We will know, the wrong way, about cancer and other such risks in these women when it appears in the courts.

March 24, 2006

Desperate for a Transplant But Low on Money – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

I have been loosing my hair for about 8 years now but did nothing due to lack of finance. I went to a hair transplant facility and they said that they could help me for about $8000. With that in mind i throw in the towel because i could not afford it. Recently i had a free cosultation at another clinic in Manhattan and i felt they were more honest with me for less. The team said that i could get about 1,000 grafts but i also had a limited supply of donors. He suggested that i tried monoxydil at this time before considering the grafts. My hair is still thinning in the top of my head and i’m still low on funds but desperately need to do something fast. He said the 5% monoxydil would be better than the 2%. Please reply with helpful advice. THANK YOU

Be wary of doctors who are willing to transplant hair, matching their recommendations to your budget. I do not like your desperation, because you are a set-up for being taken advantage of. Hair transplantation in women, such as yourself, rarely works as well as you’d hope and putting money into such a procedure for a female without good cause and a solid diagnosis is just plain foolish. Your first stop should be your primary care doctor or your dermatologist to possibly find a medical cause for your hair thinning.

March 24, 2006

I Want To Buy Your Products – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

I have been to a couple places and cannot probably do a hair transplant because my donor area has receded. I tried minoxidil (5mg.) and prostar but quit. Give it to me straight, your product will regrow hair on neckline and bangs beside crown, and its money back gaurentee. I just hit 50 what are my chances and my brothers are worse than I am.

I get emails like this every now and then, but I just wanted to point out that I do not sell any non-FDA-approved products for treating hair loss and what I do sell (Propecia) I sell at cost only to my patients as a courtesy for them). I am a physician taking great interest in my patients and in this field of hair transplantation. I make my living moving hair around from one part of the head (donor area) to other parts of the head (parts that are bald with the state of the art hair transplants that I pioneered) and I do it artistically. If you want frontal hair, filling in a bald area, or just a touch up, I might be able to help. See my website at: newhair.com

March 24, 2006

Is Hair Transplantation a Slippery Slope? – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

hi there . my question is why every time i have had transplant work done it has caused the hair around the transplanted hair to permantly go to sleep or fall out. i have even met doctors over the years who stopped doing tranplants for this reason.it seems like a slippery slope getting transplants done. thanks

I do not understand what your situation is, so before I dive in, let me make some general observations and pass on particular messages that I feel are relevant.

I don’t like the idea that you used the term ‘every time I had transplant work’. Why is there so many times? That is not the modern approach used today and something that I would not want to hitch my wagon to. Was your work started many years ago? How many procedures did you have?
Hair loss in previously transplanted hair is very, very unusual. Generally its incidence is 1 in 500 people who may temporarily lose previously transplanted hair. For men, hair loss in non-transplanted hair often does not grow back if it is well along in its miniaturization process. In women, it usually grows back when it does happen and it is present in less than 10% of women transplanted.

What you are describing in non-transplanted hair is a well known phenomenon called shock loss after a transplant. In men, it only happens once, usually after the first transplant on young men not on the drug Propecia. This can be minimized by taking Propecia and it does not happen to all patients who undergo hair transplants, particularly men over 40. Hair loss may also have occurred even without a hair transplant if there is an accelerated phase of hair loss, or the hair transplant may have just accelerated it (again, more common in young men not on Propecia). It is very troubling to me that the doctors you met have stopped doing transplants for this reason, because it signifies that they do not know the intricacies and the physiology of the hair transplantation process. Or there is possibly other factors that you’re not mentioning.

March 24, 2006

Regenix, Avodart, and Minoxidil – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

i’m 22 and have been thinning in the crown/back/top for about 3 years. i’ve used minox 5 % and propecia for a couple of years, switched to dutasteride 10 months ago…with no results.

i am going to continue the avodart…but i’ve recently started a regimen from Regenix out of LA. i was wondering if using minox 5 % once a day is enough to avoid a major shed? regenix took some hair samples and ‘formulated’ a treatment just for me. do you know if Regenix is worth my time and money? also, could it be that the avodart takes a while to start showing results? any advice is much appreciated.
thanks.

I am assuming that you are a male, not female. With that said, if you have genetic hair loss and it is progressing rapidly, then it sounds like you have real problems. I may sound like a broken record here, but you need your scalp mapped out for miniaturization and then get a working diagnosis.

Avodart, in theory, is as good or more potent than Propecia. Minoxidil must be used twice daily to get any reasonable effect. I do not know about the special formulations of Regenix you asked about. To me, it sounds like you are playing with fire with a blind-fold on. Please get a working diagnosis first so you will know what is really happening.

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March 24, 2006

Using Styling Products with Toppik – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

I’m a 25 years old male, been losing some hair (in the front part of my scalp) over the last few years, but started taking propecia about 4 months ago and it seems to be working really well! Was wondering if using Rogaine as well would improve or accelerate the results…what would you recommend?

Also Toppik was just launched here in Mexico and I think I’ll give it a try to help the spots with thinning hair look thicker. However I’ve been trying to find information on whether I can use styling gel or wax after applying Toppik and I don’t seem to find anything. Do you think that would work?
Thanks a lot!

I generally do not recommend both Propecia and minoxidil at the same time in a young man. Start off with Propecia and wait 8 months or so before giving up. If it does the job, you have no need to use minoxidil. I don’t recommend using both at the same time, because then if you do see results you will not know which of the two gave you the results. Its just a matter of cost then, as you will end up staying on both just to keep what you have regrown. If you know which one works by trying them separately, you’ll save money in the end.

Topical scalp coverings like Toppik are great to accomplish the appearance of fullness behind hair that already exisits. Use any styling aid that works for you.

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