Dr. William Rassman – Page 222

January 1, 2023

Could I Take Propecia To Slow Down My Unwanted Body Hair Growth?

Hello Dr Rassman,

I have been a long time reader of your site, and find your advice highly useful.

My question is: I am a 24 year old male. I am not suffering from any noticable hair loss (I think), but my younger brother is. I also have alot of body hair, esp on the shoulders and the back. Would propecia be useful as a proventitive measure, and slow down the growth of unwanted body hair as it is linked to DHT.

Regards

Propecia (finasteride 1mg) is not documented as a way to slow down body hair growth. This is your genetics working in its full glory. With that said, a couple of patients have reported to me a decrease in body hair with the drug.

January 1, 2023

Could FUE Move Hair and Skin to Eliminate Scarring?

Dear Dr Rassman, please excuse my question if it is stupid. I’m not medically trained!

What is normally discussed is the movement of hair follicles *from* the donor site *to* the recipient site. And this inevitably leaves some form of scarring in the donor area. But is it technically possible (in FUE) to also implant skin *from* the recipient area *to* the donor area, in such a manner to “eliminate” scarring? i.e. for every follicle the surgeon would swap tissues A and B, where A would be the tissue originally at the recipient site, and B the tissue originally at the donor site.

I’m sure this would be more costly for the patient, buy I’m wondering: has this ever been tested? And would it eliminate scarring?

A number of years ago, a well-known doctor preached that small punch extractions of scars would produce “mini-scalp reductions”. It never worked. This sounds like what you are asking about, and if one removes scar from a scarred area, you just get scar to replace it. Not such a good idea.

By the way, there are no stupid questions. Your question reflects an inquiring mind.

January 1, 2023

Could Minoxidil Change My Eye Color?

Hello Dear Doc

For hair loss i am using minoxidil 5% solution on my scalp and my eyes burn. Eye burning and irritation is known side effect of minoxidil and i wonder if it might change eye color?

There is a medicine named larissa which may change iris color used for eye lashes.

Thanks for your support.

I am not familiar with Larissa, but perhaps you mean Latisse (bimatoprost ophthalmic solution), which has rare reports of permanent eye color changes in people with blue/green eyes. Latisse is used to grow eyelashes and it is presently being tested to grow hair.

There are no reports with minoxidil changing eye color, but if you’re experiencing burning eyes after using it on your scalp (a common side effect), you should consider discontinuing use if it becomes too bothersome.

2011-12-14 12:44:002011-12-13 13:26:31Could Minoxidil Change My Eye Color?

January 1, 2023

Could Iron Deficiency Be Accelerating My MPB?

I’m a male who has been diagnosed with Iron-Deficiency at age 20. I also have been noticing hair miniaturization and hair fallout from the top of my head (nothing from sides and back).

My doctor said the reason for this is the Iron Deficiency and I should correct it by multivitamins and minerals and then see if the hair fallout continues, since hair loss is a symptom of Iron Deficiency.

My question(s) is this:
– Would my deficiency be accelerating my inevitable MPB?
– Wouldn’t my deficiency result in hairloss all over my head instead of classic MPB fashion?
– Would correcting my Iron levels result is less shed, maintenance, or regrowth at all?

Thanks!

I don’t know what tests your doctor conducted to completely eliminate genetic male pattern baldness as a possible cause for your hair loss. If you’re losing hair in a classic pattern, you could have a combination of genes and low iron.

So to answer your questions — Yes, iron deficiency could accelerate your genetic hair loss. It may also cause thinning elsewhere on your head. Correcting your iron levels is important, but it may not impact the genetic patterned hair loss.

January 1, 2023

Could I Ruin My Hair By Sleeping On It?

I had a hair transplant about 14 months ago now and the transplant was successful. I would of liked more density, however i am happy with it. My question is, when i sleep and wake up the transplanted sections-which is both temple areas are always messy and ruffled up because i lean on them on my pillow. Its hard to explain however i feel i am putting pressure on the hairs and pulling them because the hairs are getting trapped between the pillow and my head if you can understand. not terribly but my temple areas which were transplanted are always messed up as though i was lying on it and putting a certain amount of pressure as my head was lying on the hair and the pillow-its really hard to explain. Do you think this will cause damage. And if so how long will it take before i see? will it go gradually?

thank you

There’s no problem sleeping on your transplanted hair. On occasion, transplanted hair will become more curly and even wiry, so look carefully at the transplants and see if the character is the same as the non-transplanted hair.

January 1, 2023

Could My Hair Styling Wax Block Minoxidil from Working?

I understand your view on styling wax clogging the hair follicles not to be a cause of hair loss. However, I have been using the Nizoral 2% shampoo and wonder if my heavily waxed hair style (which doesn’t entirely wash out) could potentially block the shampoo from penetrating effectively into the scalp? Could this also be a concern for those of us on minoxidil?

What is on your hair does not impact the hair that is being manufactured below the skin, but with using wax, the barrier to the skin will prevent the minoxidil from working (and I suppose the Nizoral, as well). Minoxidil works below the skin, but it must have access to the skin to get through it. I tell people that they are best washing their hair before the application of the minoxidil.

2008-08-14 10:32:312008-08-12 08:55:54Could My Hair Styling Wax Block Minoxidil from Working?

January 1, 2023

Could I Die During a Hair Transplant Procedure?

What’s the risk of dying from hair transplant procedure?

CNN – What really killed the beauty queen?

Defribrillator Short answer — the risk is extremely minimal, at nearly zero. Hair transplants are a surgical procedure and if your doctor did not know what he is doing, you could die. There is one case report of a death during a hair transplant from a couple years back, which I wrote about before.

Not only could you die from the local anesthetic that is normally safe in proper doses, but you can have an allergic reaction, an arrhythmia of the heart, a stroke or heart attack at the time of the surgery (possibly the same risk as if you were home doing regular house work), or you could die of infections, amongst other things. Then again, you can also die at the dentist for similar reasons.

In the 19 years that I have been doing this surgery, I have never had a complication that could have produced death. The risk factor is incredibly low (statistically zero), so your chances of death are essentially none. You should also read these more in-depth posts if that doesn’t set your mind at ease:

January 1, 2023

Could My Recent Female Hair Loss Be From Anesthetic During My Appendectomy?

(female)
Recently i have been losing more and more hair so i decided to look at cause. I saw one was after surgery from the anesthetic. I had my appendix out recently. Is it possible my hair loss is from the anesthetic? Your help in this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

What you are asking may be possible, but I do not know if that’s what is really going on. Trying to find personalized medical answers for a diagnosis on the Internet is common and I don’t blame you, but the best help I can give you is to recommend that you see a doctor (face to face) and ask them for a medical diagnosis after they examine you in person and take a detailed medical history.

Some patients (as you’ve seen online) report some hair loss after a general anesthesia, but there can be many other medical reasons for hair loss in women.

January 1, 2023

Could My Scalp Reductions Be Preventing Transplanted Hair From Growing?

I’ve previously had scalp reductions and a flap hairline performed in the early 1990’s.

I recently in Feb 2010 had a 2000 hair (not graft) procedure performed by the same doctor who was responsible for the scalp reductions and flap hairline in the 90’s to address the lack of hair behind the flap which looked strange. It is now 12 months since the procedure and it appears only half of my hair in the triangular area behind the flap has grown, it is very patchy and is more scalp than hair. Could the fact that the previous scarring from the scalp reduction and flap hairline be causing this skin zone to not grow transplanted hair properly?

The funny thing is that several of the hairs transplanted into the actual scars have grown quite well and show thick well developed hair shafts. But as mentioned before the triangular shape of bald scalp behind the flap is completely surrounded (an island of forelock scalp) by scarring from the old surgery. Could this zone be of limited blood supply due to these scars or does the scalp still get enough blood supply anyway? Also could 12 months be too soon for me? The island of scalp behind the flap hairline has sensation although somewhat reduced sensation but the skin goes white than straight back to pink when pressed. I have compared my post op photos with my current photos and it appears that only half of the hair has grown. I can email a couple of photos if you wish, I have not been back to the doctor since my 1 week post op check up (for personal reasons). it was about 1000 grafts I think. I will get back to him when I feel ok about it, thanks

Prior scalp reductions are not a reason why a hair transplant surgery would not work. Many patients that had scalp reductions in the 1980s and early 90s followed them up with hair transplantation with relative success (growth was fine, but they were the pluggy look from back then).

I think the best thing for you is to follow up with your doctor when you are ready. Maybe you took pre-operative photos, but your doctor should have one (or more) as well and it may be useful to compare what you have now and what you had then. There are many factors that can be the cause of a hair transplant failure and that is why you need to see your doctor for a better understanding.

2011-03-16 10:49:142011-03-15 13:35:59Could My Scalp Reductions Be Preventing Transplanted Hair From Growing?

January 1, 2023

Could Propecia Affect My Ability to Have Kids in the Future?

Hi Dr. Rassman I appreciate your website and blog very much I visit here everyday. I have been considering propecia for a month now. After searching the internet of course I have been scared like everyone of side effects of ed,low libidio,and I know your answer to this. Now I recently have been seeing everywhere on the internet about propecia affecting fertility! I mean I wanna have kids and start a family one day which out weighs having hair.

I am a 27 year old male and have some thinning and receding up top. So my question is if I take propecia is there any chance of it affecting my ability to have children in the future? Can you please set me at ease I realize you have answered this before

The information available shows that there is little risk to fertility from Propecia. If there is an incidence of drug induced infertility, it is very, very rare. What has been reported seems to reverse on drug withdrawal. Permanent infertility to finasteride does not appear to be a problem. If you are still concerned after reading this, when you take the drug for your hair loss, consider taking a sperm count somewhere after 3 months while you are on the drug.