Category: Hair Loss Causes

Two articles just published in Nature Genetics may explain why some men lose their hair, while others do not. One of the articles shows the complexity of the gene, where the baldness gene not only has more than one site, but it also is on more than one chromosome. There is a link between balding, heart disease, and other metabolic abnormalities as well.

The published journal articles themselves are not online yet (not sure if they will be freely available by the publisher), but there are a few summaries in the news that I found, linked below. Read the news items:

• Balding Men May Get Help From Stem Cell, Gene Discoveries
• Researchers discover baldness gene: 1 in 7 men at risk
• Hair today, gone tomorrow — and this is why

Can you explain the technical differences between FUE and your new FUE2 “breakthrough.” It’s not clear from your website or you lengthy explanatory page how exactly you are harvesting the hair differently from regular FUE, except that you say the results are “better.” Frankly, it comes across as the same kind of marketing gimmick we so often see on the Internet and that you typically deride. I think you audience would love to understand the procedure better.

If you look at the grafts that are shown (see photos), the quality of the grafts extracted with this new technique speak volumes to what our new method can do. The new technology is presently being covered by a U.S. Patent application, which I believe will eventually allow me to keep the technology restricted to ethical surgeons.

If you look at my history, you will find out that all of the great breakthroughs we have done, including follicular unit extraction (FUE) itself, were published with appropriate videos, photographs, and a full explanation of the process in peer reviewed journals. I won’t go so far as to call it a mistake, but showing my hand when it came to the initial FUE technique opened the doors to any and every doctor offering this surgery, and many were doing it wrong. I trained a great deal of physicians, but I can’t train everyone. Patients were getting sub-par results from untrained doctors, and I want to limit that this time to protect patients. My history speaks for itself and I have never marketed anything that did not work. This tiger (me) does not change his stripes.

What I have learned so far is that the new FUE² technology does not work 100% of the time, so I am still performing the FOX biopsy to select the approximately 5% of patients where the technology does not seem to work well. This information will be critical when the first set of articles are published on it. Included in that group of patients are those who have massive scarring in either the donor area (Open Donor Technique of old) or scars in the recipient area which I would love to harvest directly from the large plugs (for repairs) with the FUE technique. I have yet to use the technology on body hair, but one patient who is presently out of donor hair wants body hair in the crown, so I expect I will be able to report that at an appropriate time, possibly here on this site.

I appreciate that you recognize that I “typically deride” unethical doctors and marketing gimmicks, and I make no apologies for that. I’ve always been outspoken about it, and here is no different. There is so much marketing hype on FUE graft numbers that your attention should be directed to asking for proof that what those doctors do really works to the degree that they say. The FUE² technology is no gimmick, and I strongly suggest you ask any physician to show you photos of the graft quality they can achieve with currently FUE technique and compare it with what we have shown with FUE². What you’ll undoubtedly find with some of the docs out there, is that they use damaged grafts which may provide poor growth, if any. FUE² eliminates that problem.

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Update 10/10/08 5:10 PM PST: As I was about to go home, I received an email from a man who has had many FUE procedures, all failing. He read my blog and wanted to know if the failures of his FUE procedures were caused by something wrong with him. This is exactly what I am referring to with the unfortunate situation where doctors are selling a process that they do not necessarily command. Doctors are supposed to “above all, do no harm” and we have sworn to this when we took the Hippocratic Oath.

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My son is living in Mexico and he was recently diagnosed with a staph infection on the scalp. He had bumps that looked like blood filled boils that would drain and leave bald patches. He was given dicloxacillin but the condition did not improve. He was referred to a specialist who switched the medication to Augmentin, plus an anti inflammatory medicine as well as a topical cream. The main concern for my son is the infection but he is also very concerned about the bald spots that he now has all over his scalp. Does the hair usually grow back once the infection is cured?

Thank you for your time.

Many of these infections have a course as you outlined with your son and often the hair will grow back after all of the infection is gone. He must wait a full year to see if there is regrowth. If not, a hair transplant is an option worth considering (I don’t know enough about his hair loss history, age, etc, to say whether he’s even a candidate though).

Does alcohol help with MPB? I’ve heard alcohol has estrogenic effects. THe reason I’m asking is b/c I have two older brother, one 41 and one 39, and the older one drinks fairly often and has no MPB whatsoever, but the younger one is Mormon and so doesn’t drink and has a receding hairline.

Nope. There is no connection between alcohol and balding. If there were, growing hair could become a real party time.

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Does Vitamin D deficiency cause hair loss?

Yes! Hair loss and rickets are the primary symptoms of vitamin D deficiency so this is a good vitamin to take if you have hair loss caused by nutritional causes; however, the most common cause of hair loss is genetic.

A study published in the Journal of Endocrinology back in 2002 points to vitamin D fostering hair growth in mice. How that relates to humans is not known to me, but it’s worth a read if you’re interested — Vitamin D3 analogs stimulate hair growth in nude mice

I have some kind of skin infection on my left buttocks. It’s been there for 5 years now. During that time, i’ve been noticing gradual hairloss. I’m even losing pubic, eyebrow, eyelash, and more recently, ear and nose hairs.

My question is, will an infection on one part of my body cause inflammation on other parts of my body (e.g. scalp)?

First, I would want to know what type of infection goes on for 5 years. That is not right and you need a diagnosis. With regard to spreading infections, we know that some bacteria can spread via the blood stream like the staph infection that kills thousands yearly and got a lot of attention earlier this year, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

With regard to your hair loss, that is probably not related to the infection on your butt. You should still get some medical attention and have a doctor look you over. The Internet is not the place for that.

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I know I’m weird. But I just can’t get off the thought that one day I’ll go bald. I’m so worried that I keep touching and feeling my hair everyday to check for any signs of baldness. This is so crazy and disturbing to the point that I can’t concentrate on the task ahead but giving myself unnecessary worries if it were to happen one day. Even though I don’t see any noticeable changes on my hair line, thickness, or strands of hair on the floor. I guess this is strictly a psychological problem. But each time, when I’m trying hard to concentrate, I’ll feel as if, my mind is suggesting to me that I’m placing undue ‘stress’ on my head which will ultimately result in hair loss in the future. lease tell me something assuring.

I think you answered yourself when you said, “I guess this is strictly a psychological problem.”

If you are that worried about hair loss go see your doctor or find a doctor who can examine your hair to see if there is any miniaturization or patterns developing that would suggest that you are balding. Your family doctor can also address the obsession you have over your hair, possibly with appropriate medications. Stress can contribute to hair loss, so don’t get yourself into a neverending loop.