Author: Dr. William Rassman

My daughter has recently recovered from head fungus. The spot where the fungus was is bald. I would like to know if the hair will grow back?

It seems the fungus was serious enough to cause hair loss. I would give it a good 6 months to a year before the hair grows back. Generally, it should grow back if the underlying infection has been treated.

hi there – i’m only 19 yrs olds and in the last year i have started balding all over the top of the head, espeically at the back in quite a serious way. i have thought that it was because i used to bleach my hair alot as a child but recently my scalp has started to itch alot. i am using pills, expensive “thickening” shampoo and other products on a daily basis to try and stop this balding but none of it is working. i was wondering if you think if its from the bleaching or is it possible that i have a scalpal infection causing the balding and itching. if so what can i do.

thank you for you time

First, you may want to stop much of what you are doing, as you may be causing your own problems. Then, if it continues, seek out a good dermatologist. If you are experiencing genetic hair loss, none of what you are doing will address the cause of the balding or thinning. People who treat themselves are gambling without the education or skills needed to address the problem.

I could’t help but think about what we do in our practice vs what Stossel talked about in this article. “the hospital’s customer service stinks. Doctors keep me waiting for hours, and no one bothers to call or email to say, “I’m running late.” Few doctors give out their email address. Patients can’t communicate using modern technology”.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/04/20/stossel-have-lung-cancer-medical-care-ive-received-is-excellent-but-customer-service-stinks.html

At the New Hair Institute, every patient:

1. Has the doctor’s cell phone number.
2. Does not wait more than a few minutes before being seen.
3. Service reviews are fantastic nearly 100% of the time.
4. The service is personalized because we do not run a hair transplant ‘mill’ and care about our patients as human beings with a problem.
5. Sterile condition and safety are top priority (not an infection in over a decade).

 

Hi Dr. Rassman,

I appreciate your responding to a few of my questions in the past about LLLT. It gave me a bit of an education at the very least.

I do have a question regarding Telogen Effluvium. I have been dealing with TE for approx. 1 1/2 yrs. now (Chronic TE) due to high levels of stress during that time period. I feel comfortable in saying that the shedding seems to be slowing down or may have actually resumed to it’s normal daily shed (approx. 100 hairs/day) due to the decrease in the level of stress in my life over these past few months.

I understand that a healthy diet for someone with TE is important (lots of protein and iron), but are there certain foods that I would want to refrain from? I’ve heard breads, pasta and potatoes quickly convert to sugar which could have a negative effect on a persons hormones while trying to grow hair. Is there any truth to this?

Also, what would you recommend as a daily diet to help with hair growth?

Thank you in advance.

There are no proven connections between different good healthy diets with regard to chronic TE. The one on one connections you discussed are subjective assessments of various people and I would have no way to verify these observations.

According to the article in Circulation, March 18 “Most US children start life with optimal cardiovascular health (CVH), but it declines substantially over time.

“Our findings indicate that, in general, children start with pretty good blood pressure. But if they have a horrible diet, it will drive a worsening body mass index (BMI) and cholesterol levels,” senior author Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, MD, said in a news release. Dr Lloyd-Jones is professor of preventive medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois. “The better we can equip our children to make healthy choices, the more cardiovascular health will be preserved into adulthood. And those who preserve their heart health into middle age live much longer and are much healthier while they live,” he added.

I remember a study where autopsies were done on Korean war dead. The finding, to the best of my memory, was that there was advanced cardiac atherosclerosis in most of them (most under the age of 21). When correlated with more modern times, a new study “shows that the rate of American service members with signs of coronary artery disease has declined sharply in the last half century, falling to roughly 1 in 10 military personnel today from about 8 in 10 during the Korean War. The findings came as a surprise to some researchers, who expected that the nationwide rise in obesity and Type 2 diabetes, including among young people, might have led to a similar trend in heart disease in the military. But instead it appears that national reductions in other risk factors for heart disease, like hypertension, smoking and high cholesterol, have had a greater effect on cardiovascular health.”

What is the lesson here. Start your children with a conscious focus on a proper, healthy diets. It may not be reversible if they eat poorly for years, so the best gift you can give your children is the gift of a good diet and hopefully a long life.

Hi Dr. Rassman and Dr. Pak,

I am 29 years old male, taking Propecia for about 4 months now, and have 10% miniaturization, hair loss is not really noticeable. Also I am using a shampoo called Nioxin. But I see that a lot of hairs fall out when I am taking showers, combing my hair and just generally during the day. The hairs that fall out are healthy, thick hairs, but there are a lot of them, 200, maybe more! My questions are:

1. Why is this happening? And is there any way to stop shredding so much hair?
2. Another question I have is that, in recent years, my hair density seems to be thinner at the top of my head compared to the sides and back, even though the hair strands themselves are of same thickness. Is there a method to increase the density besides just taking Propecia?

Thanks very much!

You need to see your hair stylist for compounds that thicken the hair. Many of these compounds add water to thicken the hair as it is hydrophilic (water loving) and substances that cling to the hair follicle will increase the value of what you have. Usually, miniaturization of less than 10% is not really the classic miniaturization that we see in balding conditions. These miniaturized hairs may actually be the normal vellus hairs that are part of the follicular units in everyone. You should not be losing 200 hairs per day. If that keeps up you need to be evaluated by a hair expert as there may be a reason for that degree of hair loss. You say that the hairs that you are losing are healthy, thick hairs — well, healthy, thick hairs that fall out will not fall out in that quantity. There is a hair pull test which can be performed by an expert that will define if you are really losing hair at the rate you think.