Category: Hair Transplantation

Posted on

Worried Sick About Shock Loss Potential! – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Dear Dr Rassman,

I am having my second HT transplant soon to refine my frontal line and to provide more density at the sides. I am worried sick about shock loss. Is there a possibility of this happening with new grafts that will be placed between the newly transplanted grafts that are growing well?

Thank you.

You should not have shock loss with transplanted hair — that is, hair that has been moved from your permanent area to new recipient sites. If you’ve had a previous transplant in the past 3 years or so and are taking finasteride, the risk of shock hair loss is very low.

Balding Forum - Hair Loss Discussion

Paid advertisements (not an endorsement):


Posted on

Will There Be A Better Medication for Regrowth by 2010? – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Hi Dr. Rassman i recently wrote you about the 19 year old who thought he was a good canidate for a hair transplant. It’s not that I am going to plunge into it i was just wanting more advice. Furthermore i know you have probably had to answer this a million times and your sick of it but like do you think by 2010 that there will be atleast a better medication for regrowth? I honestly can’t go through my life being bald its affecting me so much man. all my confidence is gone. if you could , could you just respond to me in email ? im honestly so bummed out about this ordeal ive went from being so happy to depressed.

I don’t know what advice I can give. I don’t see the average 19 year old as a hair transplant candidate. If the hair loss has advanced to a place where it is stable and further loss isn’t likely to occur, a hair transplant may be a viable option, but without an exam I couldn’t begin to make that determination. Please note that very few 19 year olds would fall into this category.

There is a medication that is in FDA trials for treating hair loss, dutasteride (Avodart), and it has been shown to work better than Propecia (finasteride) in some cases at high doses, but with that comes much greater risk of sexual side effects and possible permanent sterility. It is still in the testing phase, however. You can learn more about dutasteride here — Update on Dutasteride. Note that there is no cure for hair loss.

I understand your confidence issues, and suggest that you may want to seek some help for any depression you may be experiencing.

Balding Forum - Hair Loss Discussion

Paid advertisements (not an endorsement):


Posted on

Can the Use of Alcohol Swabs on the Forehead Damage Hairline Grafts? – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Dr. Rassman,

My doctor recommends that I use vitamin E on the recipient area. The use of vitamin E results in a sticky forehead. Will the use of an alcohol swab to clean my forehead damage any of the frontal grafts in the early days post-surgery? I am worried the alcohol will migrate to the grafts through diffusion.

Thanks.

In our practice, we do not recommend using alcohol swabs in the first days post-op, because of the potential harm this could cause to the grafts. Your question is appropriate. After a few days have passed, the alcohol should not be a problem. I don’t recommend vitamin E for the very reason that it results in a sticky forehead.

It is highly recommended that you speak with your hair transplant surgeon about this.

Balding Forum - Hair Loss Discussion

Paid advertisements (not an endorsement):


Posted on

Will a Trichophytic Closure Still Leave a Noticeable Scar if My Hair Is Cut Short? – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Would you generally advise transplanting hair to the temple area where no hair is currently there? I’m thinking this can maximize the chances of a fake look? Am I right?

I read about the trichophytic closure technique — if it only covers 1mm of scar area, then would that leave a NOTICEABLE average of 1-2 mm of scar area still visible if hair is cut short (2 with guard, that is)?

Yes, it may. Scarring is highly variable with different individuals. You can have a doctor with poor surgical skills perform a procedure without a trichophytic closure and still have a great 1mm scar. Or you can have the best surgeon using a trichophytic closure and have a wide noticeable scar. 1-2mm is considered a great scar and it may still be noticeable with a very short hair cut. A #2 guard may hide the 1 to 2mm scar, but this also depends on your hair color, scar color, scalp color, hair coarseness, hair waviness, etc. As you can see, there are many variables.

Balding Forum - Hair Loss Discussion

Paid advertisements (not an endorsement):


Posted on

Actor Joe Penny Shows Off His Repaired Hairline (with Photos) – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Joe Penny, perhaps best known for his starring roles in hit 1980s television series Riptide and Jake and the Fatman or more recently his guest spot on the popular TV show CSI: Crime Scene Investigations and the Hallmark Channel’s Jane Doe TV movies, has agreed to let me show his results from a repair job started years back. Due to a variety of professional obligations, we were unable to schedule more work until about a year ago. When his old, ugly plugs from another doctor showed, I was reluctant for him to tell people that I was his doctor (even if only for repairs, because I did not finish the repair job)… but now things are very different as these two month old pictures show.

He tells me that on many occasions he’s overheard fellow actors talking about hair transplants, expressing fear of taking charge and doing something about their thinning hair. As Joe puts it, “It takes a great deal of courage to make the decision to get a hair transplant, especially when you see so many bad jobs out there in Hollywood. You get gun shy after making a bad decision and it took me some time to make the decision to fix my bad hair job. But now, when people talk about a hair transplant for their balding and struggle with the hair loss problem, they don’t look at me as an expert any more”.

Update 2/1/08 6:00 pm:

Joe just wrote to me. He did not know that I put him on the blog today, even though he gave me permission to do this over a month ago. This is what he said: “I want to thank you again for your kindness and your generosity in my case. The last procedure I had..even after seeing you a couple of months ago..has still continued to grow and thicken. Also the donor area…because of the expert surgical job you did… is so loose I cannot believe it! It is truly astounding to me. I mean…I new you were good but WOW! The results speaks louder than words. I have recommended several people to come and see you. I know that some of them have already come. They called me and were very angry at me, meaning…well the dialogue went something like this…”Why the hell didn’t you tell me about the NEW HAIR INSTITUTE BEFORE” My response was “I DID…YOU WERE NOT LISTENING”. They are extremely satisfied, as I have been for years. So I will keep spreading the word about the fantastic work you and you Doctors are doing at NHI.

After I received this email, I wrote to him asking for permission to use the above email. His response came in at 9:00pm and this is what he said: “Yes, you have my absolute permission to post my email. Please consider this communication as my acknowledgment that it is absolutely OK with me to post it. Not a problem Dr. Rassman. If there is a group oif men or if there is an open house going on at the office with people who are considering it and might feel a little shy or afraid of a surgery, just let me know and IF I, AM…AND IN TOWN….I WILL DO MY BEST TO ATTEND AT AN OPEN HOUSE!

Thanks You Doc,

Sincerely,

Your fan forever, Joe Penny
God Bless You And Keep You

Joe is not atypical for someone who has gone through a type of hell with the old type of hair transplant plugs done years ago. I am absolutely humbled by his comments. For as long as I have been in this industry, I have been pleased to be able to help men like Joe and there have been hundreds of them, but it is even better to put hair back on a new patient who would never have to experience Joe’s type of pain.

Click photos to enlarge.

After repair:

 

Before repair (scanned photos):

 

Posted on

10 Days After Surgery, My Doctor Pulled Off My Dry Scabs – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hi! Thank you for taking the time for answering my question. I had a Hair transplant 10 days ago. My doctor did not really brief me about the swelling and shampooing my hair post op. I was scared to shampoo my hair. I shampooed it on the 3rd day, on sixth day the scabs became really hard i couldnt resist to to rub hard but i didnt pull, some came out though no blood just scab attached with hair. I went to see him on my 8th day he said everything looks fine and that the grafts are secure. He started breaking up the scabs on my head i was not comfortable at all i told him that i read on the internet that pulling dry scabs moves the graft. He’s like this is not the first time i do it i’ve been through thousands of heads. I’m on my 10th day now the scabs are all gone. My new hair is there i still have the strong urge to rub my skull.

Did he ruin my grafts by pulling the crushing and pulling dry scabs? does rubbing the new hair effect the growth?

Block Quote

Let me get this straight — you trusted your doctor for his expertise and judgments to have him perform a hair transplant surgery, but now you don’t trust these very same things because you read things on the Internet about post-operative care and scabs?

I highly doubt your doctor ruined your grafts. We did do a hair pull study and published the results of it with The American Society for Dermatologic Surgery in 2006 (see Graft Anchoring in Hair Transplantation PDF) and we found that the grafts were not totally secure if there was scabbing present. Each graft was pulled out day by day to get the results that we published. With that said, I would assume that your doctor knew this and was very careful in cleaning you up. What we generally recommend is washing your hair daily to keep the scabs down. Most of our patients are scab free within a day or two.

Posted on

Could a New Breakthrough Mean Using Hair Transplants from Another Person as a Donor? – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Dear Dr. Rassman,

I understand that hair cannot be donated from another person, yet why is it possible that organs can be?

I was reading an article today, Doctors Report Transplant Breakthrough, that mentions the possibility that organ recipients could one day not have to take anti-rejection drugs the rest of their life. If this prove to be true, can hair transplants from other people be a reality?

Unless the genetics are a perfect match, any organ that is transplanted (including hair, which is an organ) has until now forced the patient to take drugs to knock down the rejection process. The reason that a hair transplant works is that each person is his own donor and therefore has perfectly matched genetics. The drugs that you take for controlling organ rejection from a heart or kidney can kill you, but not having a heart or a kidney will kill you anyway. Rejecting hair from another person won’t kill you… just leave you bald and it it 100% certain that the hair from another person will reject.

The five patients in this article all had kidney transplants and were on anti-rejection medication for a period of time and have received marrow from the donor. I would not want to be the first volunteer for such procedures, and the relationship between these patients and a potential to harvest hair from others are decades away.

Balding Forum - Hair Loss Discussion

Paid advertisements (not an endorsement):


Posted on

Hair Loss InformationDoes Hair Transplanted from Head to Pubic Area Change Characteristics? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I read one of your blogs re: Pubic hair transplant, which refers to Head to pubic area. I assume this means that you use hair from the head to transplant into the pubic region. Does the transplanted hair take on the characteristics of pubic hair (thicker, coarser etc) or does it retain the charactistics of scalp hair (finer, longer growing)..

Thank you

Block Quote

The hair character generally is maintained like its original location. I have seen some more waviness in those with straight hair when it is moved to the pubic area, but it does not become kinky.

Posted on

Hair Loss InformationHair Transplants for Long Hair? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I have long hair, and I’ve been taking Propecia for around a year. The results seem to be good, however, I am considering a transplant. In all the pictures I have seen, men receiving transplants tend to have very short hair. My question is this; do I need cut my hair short for a transplant? Please let me know if pictures would better assist your assesment.

Thanks

Block Quote

No, you do not need to cut your hair short for a hair transplant. Actually, long hair will cover up the surgery in most people and we routinely recommend keeping the hair as long as possible. You may set up a telephone photo consultation with us by filling out the form here or calling 800-NEW-HAIR. If you’d like to send photos, please use the address on the Contact (and reference this post).

Posted on

Hair Loss InformationBody Hair Transplant – A Case of 100% Failure – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I saw a patient earlier this week who had a well known surgeon place hundreds of body hair grafts into a bald area of his scalp about two years ago. This surgeon is one who promotes his body hair transplant procedures quite heavily, particularly on various websites and hair loss forums. No, I won’t name names (do your research and you’ll probably figure it out). There was 100% failure for the body hair to grow. Yes, a complete disaster. As one might expect, this patient was quite angry because he spent $11,000 and had great hope for this procedure, as he was depleted of donor hair from the back of the scalp.

Those looking to use body hair to transplant into their scalps should strongly consider other options if they are available, as this is not the first time something like this has occurred. I’ve read various reports and have heard quite a bit about this level of growth failure before.

Respectfully, the patient has requested that his photos not be published here.