I am a African American woman and i was chemical burn by relaxer about 7 yeas ago. I do not know how and if you can help me with me living in the Caribbean. I was thinking of getting toppik but will that work on my African hair? please help
Yes. I know many African American men who came into our office to get a consult with us and when they are using Toppik, it seems to work well. I don’t see why it wouldn’t work in the same way for women. Give it a try!
Dr.Rassman/Dr.Pak,
Thought you might be interested in the following – ReCell Spray-On SkinThis technology was recently used to great effect here in the UK on a young child suffering from second-degree burns – Second Degree Burns Are Healed With ReCell Skin Spray
Do you think ReCell could be adapted for use in hair transplant surgery?
Interesting find, but scarring from hair transplant surgery has more to do with the tension created by the cut on the scalp (not a burn on the tissue or tissue damage). So I don’t think the product would have a great effect on hair transplant scars.
Can Minoxidil be in the form of a hair styling wax? The current minoxidil products on the market are mainly spray, foam or gel form.
Would the addition of Minoxidil into a wax be viable?
Minoxidil topical is used to grow hair, but you need to put it on your scalp, not hair. So if you make it into a wax for styling purposes, it would not be doing any good (unless you want to cake it on your scalp).
Hi Doc,
thanks for your awesome website.
I stumbled across this article – Take this vitamin to halt hair loss
and this website – Tocotrienol.org
What can you comment about this? Would love to hear your comments. Thank you!
There are always new products that come out claiming to be hair loss cures. This is one of them. I cannot say if Tocotrienol works or not, but here are some things to keep in mind when doing your own research. Read the report carefully. Find out how many subjects were in the study group. Is it 10,000 or is it only 10? There is a difference, right? In this case, the study was 38 people. Ask if there was a financial or marketing incentive. Find out if the report was published in a well-respected journal (and realize that even if it is in a published journal, it does not necessarily mean it is good study).
Tocotrienol is an herbal vitamin E treatment, and I really have no significant comment to give other that “buyer beware”.
Dr Rassman,
What are your thoughts on the following hair loss treatment? Is it another scam?
I don’t know if it’s a scam, but I guess it depends on what you’re using it for. This Activance product claims to treat hair health, but I don’t see anything here that would make it treat hair loss. Strengthening and thickening hair isn’t anything extraordinary, as many hair treatments can do this.
I didn’t know what rhodanide was, so I had to do a little Googling. Rhodanide is also known as thiocyanate, which isn’t a common hair loss treatment outside of guinea pigs. The US distributor of rhodanide says that there is some study (which one?) from 1997 that showed this ingredient regrew hair in 80% of participants in a trial. No real information is given other than that.
I’ll let you draw your own conclusions, but if you want to try the product and report back, please feel free.
Dear Dr. Rassman,
Please read the link: RepliCel Announces Retraction of Public Disclosure
Do you hear the fat lady singing for Replicel (and us balding lucky ones)?
Thanks
I had the link to the original press release and intended to write about it early this week, but saw it was removed. This explains it.
For those that aren’t aware, RepliCel issued a press release touting their hair loss “cure” and promoting the price of their stock. Then they issued a retraction of the statement, which is causing some on various forums to believe they aren’t hitting their targets. It sounds to be more like lawyers making sure they aren’t going to dig too deep a hole, but I really don’t know one way or the other. The link you sent about the retraction doesn’t mention anything about results of their treatment.
Dr Rassman
Many shampoos claim that they are “suitable for every day use” . Does that mean that shampoos that are not for every day use could be dangerous for hair ?
This is a statement that promotes the sale of more shampoos. It has nothing to do with health of hair issues.
Doctor,
Is polysorbate an ingredient (in a cosmetic creme or lotion) which could temporarily increase the diameter of thin & regular size hairs? If so, how long would the effect persist after a single application? And assuming no commercial product is available could it be compounded by any pharmacist?I am asking these questions because years back a commercial lotion, supposedly from Norway which (falsely) claimed to be the solution to baldness incorporated polysorbate (I can’t remember if it was polysorbate 20). An employee of a pharmacy who told me he was using the product stated that he had noticed an apparent increase in hair density over a short period of time which could not be from new hair growth. I did not try this product after reading critical comments. But I wonder if one could safely use polysorbate or for that matter other products to improve the apparent hair density.
Thanks in advance
I have no experience with this approach for using polysorbate (80 or 20 or any number) as a hair regeneration treatment. If it really worked, I would suspect I would know about it. I will, nevertheless, keep an open mind and probe it with some of my colleagues.
What are your views on the new Nanogen Serum VEGF, and the (very big!) claims it makes?
I read about it in a magazine and wanted to yawn, but sucked my yawn back in when I saw the excitement of some of its supporters…
Link: £30 serum goes on sale to beat baldness
Reason tells me it will not make hair transplants redundant…but what about minoxidil? If not, is it worth adding to one’s arsenal of hair loss products?
I have no experience with Nanogen’s Serum VEGF, but the notion that increasing blood supply to the scalp increases hair growth or reverses balding is wrong, illogical, and not scientific. The link you sent looks to be a press release disguised as a news article.
To me, it sounds like yet another product in a long line of products that try to dangle a carrot in front of balding men in hopes that they chase it. In other words, you can try it out if you’re curious, but I wouldn’t expect it to regrow hair.
From the article:
The Health Ministry has recalled hair-loss treatment drug “Crescina”, on grounds that it doesn’t make hair re-grow. Consumer organisation Codacons announced that it will take legal action against the move in support of those people who have already bought the drug. “All the people who bought the product, out of confidence in the miraculous effects of Crescina, have the right to be refunded. Moreover, after the molecule that was supposed to make hair re-grow was proved to be ineffective, those who in good faith used Crescina can even claim compensation for the moral damages caused by the deceit”, said Codacons president Carlo Rienzi.
Source — Health Ministry recalls ineffective hair-regrowth drug
We wrote about Crescina back in 2007 (see here) and said back then that, “I wouldn’t look to this for hair regrowth“. Now Italy feels the same way.
