Author: Dr. William Rassman

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Computers Causing Hair Loss?

Hi doctor I have three major concerns:

  1. I have been using Tricovivax (“Minoxidil 5%”) for about two months and I have noticed a massive rate of hair fall, shedding, and thinning. Even my family members are telling you are starting to have bald spots in your head.
  2. I am very concerned with thinning at the back of my head (donor) are and when my doctor mapped my hair for “Miniaturization” noticed that my donor area is thinning too; and he applied the “pull test” and noticed a large amount of hair being pull.
  3. Is setting long time at the computer screen during work will accelerate my hair loss since the computer screen emits radiation?

Thanks a lot doctor

I am pleased to hear that you have had a miniaturization study done. By your brief description, you may have a condition known as DUPA (diffuse unpatterned alopecia) or chronic telogen effluvium. Using drugs such as minoxidil or finasteride may not help in these cases. You need to follow-up with your doctor for options, diagnosis, and treatment. Sounds like he started off by taking the first correct steps.

Sitting at a computer screen will not cause hair loss.


2007-05-22 13:33:28Computers Causing Hair Loss?

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Concerned About Redness After Hair Transplant

I am a 30-year old male and one week ago, I had a FUE Hair Transplant along my front hairline. I am concerned that there may be lingering redness in this area which will make it obvious that I had a procedure performed to co-workers.

In addition to products such as Vitamin-E, Aloe Vera, etc. to reduce redness, what are your thoughts about using a self-tanning lotion along the top of the forehead/hairline to blend the redness in this area to my natural skin color (assuming I used the tanning lotion on the rest of my face as well and didn’t go overboard with it)?

Assuming I waited a couple of weeks after the surgery, would the tanning lotion in any way harm the future growth of these grafts or pose any other risks?

In those patients who have a tendency to become red (and hold on to the redness after a transplant), I treat them with a copper peptide treatment. This works to reduce the redness and shorten the ‘red’ time, but if not started immediately, it will not have value. The use of steroids are routine for my post-operative period and when they are started at surgery, they do reduce the redness.

As for the other products you asked about:

  • Tanning lotion — I do not believe that this will work
  • Vitamin E — this may have limited value when used topically
  • Aloe vera — this does not help manage the redness

These are really questions that your transplant doctor should be addressing. I can not offer you much real advice without knowing more about you, but I may be able to come to a solution if I saw you in person.


2007-11-08 14:34:54Concerned About Redness After Hair Transplant

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Concealers, Two Great Products: Toppik and Dermatch (from Reddit)

This is an extensive overview of two great products for men and women who need to camouflage their hair loss. The products are very different in the way that they are used.

From my patient population over the years, I found that each person has his/her favorite. https://www.gll-getalife.com/the-best-hair-loss-concealers-toppik-dermmatch-results

 


2018-06-21 13:23:17Concealers, Two Great Products: Toppik and Dermatch (from Reddit)

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Concerned About Starting a Family Without Long Term Propecia Studies

Hello doctors.

I’m 34 and started using Propecia at the first sign of hair loss six years ago. The results have been fantastic and I have experienced no side effects. My wife and I are planning on starting a family soon and even though I’ve read on your site and others that it’s safe to keep taking propecia, I do have my concerns. I am also concerned on the lack of long term propecia studies. If I just want to maintain my current hair, or at least slow down the loss of it, do you think switching from Propecia to Rogaine foam would do the trick? Or would all the hair I’ve kept because of being on Propecia still fall out in less than a year?

Thank you very much.

Propecia has a very short half life of 4 to 6 hours, which is the time it takes half of the drug to be cleared from your blood stream. Therefore, it should be out of your system in one day. There is no evidence to suggest that it would affect your fertility or have an impact in conceiving a child. The results of studies on the drug crossing from your semen to your wife are (according to what I read in the research papers done by the drug company) almost nill. For those patients who are still wary of whatever side effects it may possibly have on their unborn child, I generally recommend that you do not take Propecia for one week prior to the act of conceiving, during your wife/girlfriend’s very fertile period, which is about a week long. This should not have any deleterious effects with your hair loss.

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Confused About Hair Loss and Regrowth. What Are the Stages of Typical Hair Growth and the Amount of Time It Would Take to Regrow?

Anagen is the growth phase which lasts between 2-6 years depending upon sex and age.

Telogen is the sleep phase which lasts about 2-6 months.

These hair cycles occur in every human being on the scalp. It starts when we are born and continues until we die unless we have genetic balding.


2018-09-14 08:54:39Confused About Hair Loss and Regrowth. What Are the Stages of Typical Hair Growth and the Amount of Time It Would Take to Regrow?

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Confused About Dr Strick’s Alopecia Areata Treatment

hi dr.,
i have a question about dr. richard strick. i went to see him because of your very positive comments about him on this site regarding his treatments of alopecia areata using his dncb treatment.

1. He claims its successful 90% of the time, if it is that successful, i would imagine the fda would approve it & other doctors would use it to treat patients because that would be a huge deal for those who have alopecia areata.

2. After speaking with him and his staff, I have heard about 2-3 contradictions (or at least apparent). For example one of his staff said “it does not work on body hair” & he said no it definitely does work on body hair. (different conversations at different times)

Basically my question to you is, do you think or would you put it past dr. strick to outright lie or maybe exaggerate about the effectiveness of this treatment for whatever reasons he may have? Im not sure what to make of this, i want to have confidence in this treatment but my confidence is shaken.

Are you sure you heard him right? What you experienced sounds like confusing signals and you should go back to him to get clarification. To my knowledge, he does not use this dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB) treatment for body hair alopecia areata.

I provided photos of a patient that I met with who had a great result from the treatment, so the effectiveness was clear to me. I can’t vouch for success rates, but I’d be honest with him and ask Dr. Strick to clarify some of the issues you had from your previous visit.


2009-07-09 10:45:58Confused About Dr Strick’s Alopecia Areata Treatment

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I Am Confused About My Hair?

So I have no receding in the front or temples, basically it’s NW1, but the crown is somewhat thinner I think and having some hair fall Went to the dermatologist and she said there’s no indication of MBP, but I can feel my density has decreased from the year before

Hair loss often starts in the crown in some people. Also in young men, the hairline evolves from its rounded, juvenile concave shape to a V-Shaped convex shape called the mature hairline. If there is thinning in the crown (which I would confirm with the HAIR CHECK test ( https://baldingblog.com/haircheck-test-how-it-is-done-and-what-its-value/ ), then I would start the person on finasteride and minoxidil applications, which in combination work well to stop or probably reverse the crown loss. To see the effectiveness of this treatment, I repeat the HAIR CHECK test yearly.


2020-03-10 12:53:51I Am Confused About My Hair?

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Confused about SMP and FUE, can you help me?

Hi Doctor, I am thinking about getting a SMP and have some apprehensions. I saw a few of your posts and you seem to be quite upfront and honest about the procedure. I would mean a lot to me if you could please verify some of the information I have been told. The clinic where I got my consultation told me the following: Trico SMP procedure does not yield as good of results as regular SMP and there can be possible discoloration and blue tint as it fades, so they recommended that I go for regular 3d looking SMP. Their permanent SMP tends to last 5-8 years, they seem to be suggesting that it will mostly fade away unless touch ups are done. I had the following questions: Initially the idea of Trico SMP really appealed to me, as I don’t mind going for this treatment again but the few samples of work the clinic showed me had inferior results as compared to regular SMP. Also there was a bit of blue tinge as the pigments started to fade, leading me to seriously consider regular SMP. Do you know if trico SMP can achieve the same results as permanent SMP? Will it look really awkward as it fades away if I don’t want to get a touch up done and just let it fade away? How does the regular SMP look as it fades away after 8-10 years? Will that look really bad if I decide to not get any touch ups in hopes of it fading away as well? Essentially the permanency of having a tattoo really concerns me. If these pigments just naturally get lighter and sort of do so in a way where it doesn’t look awkward then I am fine with it. I also wanted to consider getting FUE procedure done after my SMP to add some density around my scalp, for a more natural rougher buzz cut look if possible. I was also wondering if I should opt for FUE before hand, but I have quite thin donor area. If you could please provide some insight I would really appreciate it. The clinic and artist I am most likely to get my SMP done is quite reputable as well.

In regard to FUE, if you never had a hair transplant before, then most people have enough hair for FUE. The question is how big is the balding area that is going to be covered. I need to see pictures of you for that with the pictures in your worst light.

The Trico SMP sounds like a sales pitch. Temporary SMP is not good because it becomes an excuse for bad work that then assures the patients not to worry because it will go away in a year or two. Black pigments turn blue or green based on the trichomatic theory where the eye perceives blue or green against the background of your scalp color. Look at the veins in your hand, they are green but your blood is red (I think, yes?). People who use black pigments cause blue and green SMP. There is also the issue of the pigments that are used. Many people use pigments that contain toxic metals, we use only organic pigments.

Send me photos and set up a telephone consultation, its free. if you end up coming to Los Angeles, we subsidize travel as part of our service.


2019-02-12 07:02:31Confused about SMP and FUE, can you help me?

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Concerns About NeoGraft

Just after I published a post about the NeoGraft tool, a phenomenon began occurring in the community. I’ve been seeing an increasing number of press releases that get brought to my attention from readers and from Google Alerts, announcing that some doctor with no experience in the art of hair restoration is now the first in his area to offer hair transplant surgery using this new NeoGraft tool. It could just be due to the marketing efforts of the makers of NeoGraft or it could be doctors following other doctors in issuing these press releases (and also the machine being shown on the Rachael Ray show)… but some of these physicians often have no real training, and this machine offers them another source of revenue with the ability to do what we have been doing manually.

Michael Oakes, president of NeoGraft Resource Group (makers of NeoGraft), even brags about the ability to sell the tool to doctors that have no prior experience performing hair transplants. In his Plaxo.com public profile, Oakes writes that the NeoGraft machine “opens up opportunity for non transplant physicains [sic] to add to there [sic] exsisting [sic] practice.” This is quite alarming to me!

I am writing this as a warning for those who are considering a NeoGraft transplant. Some additional comments that Dr. Robert Bernstein made on his site about the risks of the NeoGraft tool suggest real problems that will, almost certainly, produce failures of the transplant. I have seen one such failure recently from an experienced surgeon who used it. If you’re still considering having surgery with this tool, just be sure to check out the technology and the doctor who is performing it. Ask about the physician’s training and also ask to meet some patients who have had successful hair transplants with this tool. The proof is in the pudding.


2010-03-16 15:23:48Concerns About NeoGraft