Author: Dr. William Rassman

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Hair Growing on Forehead

I started using min and ive noticed very tiny hairs growing on my forehead way below my hairline and temple are between my eyes and hairline. Is this an unusual sign or is this common? Also my temples are receding slightly and the top is fine.

Hair growth in unwanted areas is a known side effect of systemic absorption of the minoxidil. Women have real problems if they develop a beard or mustache on minoxidil; also a known side effect.


2020-04-20 18:04:50Hair Growing on Forehead

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Hair grows everywhere on my body on Minoxidil

Minoxidil is causing vellus hairs to grow around my eyebrows and cheekbones, but doesn’t seem to be doing much for my head. It’s given me more hair growing out my nose, on my toes, armpits and chest. I’ve got 1000 hairs in my tush. But where I want the it the most, on my head, it’s packing its bags. Mother nature has a dark sense of humour and she’s pranking us boys.

When minoxidil gets absorbed, some people end up with a lot of hair almost everywhere. That is why, when minoxidil was introduced in the 1960s as an anti-hypertensive agent, we saw a lot of hairy women from the drug which was not very effective consistent high blood pressure.


2020-03-22 08:24:33Hair grows everywhere on my body on Minoxidil

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Hair growth gone wild (photos)

This is the result of 3200 grafts from his first surgery, the second on his crown of 2200 more grafts about 2 months ago is now yet to grown out. He was thrilled this morning when he saw that he had to do something about all of that hair. So he combed it back and resent me the last picture from top down (to preserve his confidentiality) and another view with his hair combed back. Considering where he started from, that wasn’t a bad problem to have. He wrote: “I am unbelievably happy. Even after a long day, I get to look in the mirror and rejoice at the hair I haven’t had since I was 20. I also wanted to tell you that it affects my whole lifestyle in positive ways I didn’t fully anticipate. I used to have to keep my hair at an exact short length and then cover with a ton of concealer, and I lived in constant fear of wind, rain, etc. Going to the gym was a challenge because of the sweat. I don’t have to have my hair cut every three weeks, and I can engage in various sports and activities without that fear. I guess I was just so used to it that I didn’t fully anticipate how this would feel, in addition to how much better it looks.“



2020-03-05 19:12:54Hair growth gone wild (photos)

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Hair Implanter Carousel (with Videos)

I have heard alot about the Implanter Carousel which i find very interesting and a great method of preserving the hairs and keeping them moist in the ‘carousel’ unlike the choi implanter were the hairs are left on a tray open to drying with warm air until they are put into the implanter. If you dont mind me asking, was the choi implanter an influence with its design and was the carousel, put simply, designed to better the disadvantages of the choi implanter. As they are an automated method of implanting the hair would that not take remove the artistry of a manual job. You once said on a answer to a blog on the subject of ‘The choi implanter’, ‘The Choi implanter is just a surgical tool. It makes some aspects of the transplant easier to perform, especially for those people who did not develop the difficult placing skills with the more traditional transplant tools used throughout the world. An instrument is only as good as the person using it, so I can not package the tool with the technique. The Choi generally requires ‘skinny’ grafts, which tend to dry out more easily, therefore, this instrument requires special skills, different than those that do not have to make the grafts skinny’. My question is how is the carousel different in the sense that an automated implanter such as the choi implanter makes some aspects of the transplant easier to perform, especially for those people who did not develop the difficult placing skills. Thank you, for all your advise.

It sounds like you know all the technical difficulties associated with follicular unit transplantation — are you a hair transplant surgeon?

As you mentioned, I wrote about the Choi Implanter before — What is the Choi Implanter?. There’s nothing else I can really add to that. The Hair Implanter Carousel was patented back in the 1990s and it works distinctly different from the Choi Implanter. It was designed to take advantage of a ‘machine gun’ approach to loading the grafts for implantation and percutaneous use and keeping them moist (as you wrote). I’ve used both and found the Carousel to be much easier than the Choi. The drying of the grafts was not a problem for the Carousel as it was for the Choi. Unfortunately, the instrument manufacturer was unable to produce a consistently high quality product and we ended up in court trying to get my money back for the build out of the Carousel, rather than getting the tool into the transplant surgeons’ hands.

A paper about the Carousel was published in 1998 and three videos of the instrument can be seen below:

Part 1:

 

Part 2:

Part 3:

 

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Hair Industry is Today’s Botox for Men!

https://www.thecut.com/article/med-spa-hair-loss-treatments-balding-men-botox.html

The article calls out Ozympic as producing hair loss; however, I suspect that when people lose weight rapidly, hair loss is often a known side effect of a “negative nitrogen balance”, essentially losing your body proteins and fat. The body is intrinsically smart, so it knows that when you are losing weight, it has to sacrifice functions that are not critical to living, and hair growth is one of those dispensable functions. This is especially true in men with genetic hair loss, as weight loss can trigger genetic hair loss or accelerate what is already going on.

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Hair and Hairlines Make the Man! (From Reddit)

Every time I see a celebrity with a hairline like this, I realize how important hair is to a man’s appearance. Even this 50 year old coach is more youthful because of his hairline and his full head of hair. This is why I love what I do because I have created such looks in men who have been fairly bald or prevented men who were balding from not being able to obtain this type of look. Kyle has a juvenile hairline position with some maturing from his concave shape when he was 5 years old to his convex shape today.

Kyle Chandler (Coach Taylor, Friday Night Lights) is 53 and looks 35. Hairline of the gods from tressless


2019-02-14 11:02:07Hair and Hairlines Make the Man! (From Reddit)

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Hair Growth Listed as HGH Side Effect?

Dear Doctor,

Really Love the website. I wanted to know, I have read up on HGH and some of the positive side effects which were listed, are hair growth and thickness on the scalp. I was wondering these method hasn’t been used to treat hair loss.
Thank u.

Human growth hormone (HGH) is not something that should be taken lightly. I have met many men who have elected to take it and it is definitely effective at making the person who takes it feel more energy, younger, and have more vitality. While HGH may have many benefits (including some reported hair regrowth), there are also patients that suffer heart attacks. The final conclusions on safety are not out as far as I am concerned.

I am not religious so take what I’m about to say as my logical mind in action, but I believe that if we were intended to have the energy of a 20 year old when we are 60, then our bodies would continue to secrete growth hormone late into life. Since I believe in Darwin’s laws, older men with vigor would probably compete better for women, and survive in the bush better as they would be more stealth, but alas, that is not how we are built so I suspect that there are plenty of down sides. I am not an expert on the subject, so read on the various sites for HGH and interpret what you want.

A recent article I read in the LA Times a few weeks back discussed negative side effects of HGH, which can promote cancer. With the hype of Propecia and its side effects, HGH would not be recommended. Remember, there is always a risks and benefits of any drug use. My point is HGH is not a bad drug. It has its purpose and use. I just wouldn’t recommend it for treating balding.

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Hair implanted in the wrong direction, what can I do?

I had hair transplant in 8 months ago.I noticed the new hair growing in the opposite direction compared to the original very early in the growth of the new grafts. The density is also a problem. People can tell something wrong with my hair. I tired style this with gels but I got tired of it & cant stand having hair anymore. What can I do?

This is a very difficult problem. I would have to see you and determine if we could use FUE to remove those hair that have the problem hair direction and then re-implant them. I would have to understand how many of the grafts have this problem but it can be done!

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Hair length and transplants

Should preferred hair length greatly matter when deciding on number of grafts to be transplanted?

Yes, the shorter you like to wear your hair, the more grafts are required because it takes more hair to cover the scalp when the hair is cut very short. Longer styling length helps cover the scalp

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Hair Length Needed to Cover a Donor Scar?

Hello Dr

I was just wondering about donor scars. How high up is the donor area on the back of the scalp? Also in your opinion how long does the remaining hair usually need to grow to get a good cover-up over the scar? I prefer to wear my hair short but i was just curious to know what the norm is for most patients that go through the HT surgery.
Thanks

Norwood 7The donor area starts at the base of the skull (feel the prominent bone on the bottom of the skull) and go up a distance of 2.5-3 inches high. That is the donor area (see Norwood 7 art at right).

Scars from strip surgery vary in width. On average about 95% of patients will have a less than a 3mm high scar after one procedure and less than a 6mm high scar after the second procedure. Scarring varies and I see many patients who keep a very small scar (under 3 mm) for as many as 3 procedures. Likewise, some patients will stretch their scars more than others, and the scar could be 1cm high in the rare case. The wider the scar, the longer the hair has to be to cover it. Generally, the width of the scar (height) will require almost twice the hair length to cover it well, but that depends upon the hair thickness and the color / contrast between hair and skin color. On occasion, there is no significant visible scar in strip surgery and this is even more common when a trichophytic closure is used to close the donor area. In these patients, the scalp hair length can be 2-3mm long without showing anything. Having the FUE technique used will change the visible scar risk radically.