Other Surgical Procedures – Page 14

January 18, 2008

Injections to Dissolve Fat Tissue in Breasts After Propecia? – Balding Blog

Body changes, Should I start with finasteride?

Hello Doc. All over the web I’ve read about side effects that can occur with finasteride. Despite a lot of trash talk (..and positive comments..)I find this product worth a try.

I’m 24 years old male and I start to notice more hair on my body and beard – but my head hair is thinning and hairline slightly receding with temples as proof.

Do you think I should start finasteride despite the fact that my body seems to still have some more missions to complete?

I also notice more fat tissue in my chest region, which makes me wonder if finasteride is more likely to cause male-boobs in users already having small ones to begin with?

I read about certain injections which can dissolve fat, if large male-boobs do develope, could such injections be helpful?

This is a forum for general questions. I do not give personal medical advice. I cannot tell you if you should start a medication without an examination or history. Sorry.
While finasteride may cause enlargement of breast tissue or tenderness, the risks are 1 in 300 or less. Again, I do not have the luxury of a examination so I cannot tell you what your risks are just because you describe having more “fat tissue” on your chest. Your fat could be dietary, and finasteride (when it causes breast tissue) is usually in the glands just below the nipple and not the type of fat you build up on your abdomen. Are you over-weight with lots of fat everywhere, including your chest? Or are you thin with just an abundance of fat on your chest? Did you have ‘man-boobs’ prior to starting Propecia? Either way, there really is no way to tell without going into it further.
There are no injections that I am aware of which have been proven to dissolve fat in the human body. That would be too easy. There is an emerging field of mesotherapy which claims fat dissolving capability (see Lipo-dissolve, but the proof is lacking from what I’ve read and much of it seems like hype. There are machines that compress your fat that claim fat reversal. I will admit ignorance in what, if any, ’science’ is reported in mesotherapy and in many of the other modalities being offered.

More on this Lipo-dissolve treatment can be found at the Washington Post. More on mesotherapy can be found at Wikipedia.

January 3, 2008

Transplanting Back Hair to Your Scalp – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I have heard that you can take hair from you back, yes “Back” and put it on your head for transplants?? Is this true and how does it work?

I have had transplants from the normal donor sites – but have never seen or heard of it from the back. I have a hairy back and would use such if this was viable.

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In theory, you can move hairs from the scalp or the back and transplant it to any part of your body. In my opinion, body hair transplantation is not as effective as scalp hair transplant, because the life cycle or the growth phase of body hair is very different from scalp hair. Think about it — you need to get a hair cut every month or so. When is the last time you had a body hair cut? Body hair is finer, so it has less value and its growth phase is not 90+% like scalp hair, but 30-60%, which means that far less of the hair that is transplanted will be visible all of the time. There are doctors who perform body hair transplants and some report moderate success. I personally have not been impressed with the results on most of the ones I have seen, but I have seen one patient with nice results, and as it is an exception to the rule, I want to see more to be converted.

December 28, 2007

Hair Loss InformationTransplanting Pubic Hair to Eyebrows – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

hi i am a 21 yr. asian female. my interests in eyebrow transplants are cosmetic- currently i would say i have full (and healthy!), but fine eyebrows as a result of genetics- i am looking for much denser, thicker and longer eyebrows. . from my research, i find myself mostly concerned with the naturalness of the final appearance.

if i choose to pursue an eyebrow transplant, would it be difficult to achieve a thicker, denser, longer, slightly wild fullness with naturalness? i feel like i might have a better chance since there has been no trauma or illness, and the density of my donor areas are quite full and healthy. is the brow transplant a reasonable idea? for instance, would there be an issue with my natural fine eyebrow hairs and the new transplanted follicles? would that look strange?

also this may seem like a strange question, but hair is hair: it seems like the angle of the brow is an issue for some women, so i’m wondering if it is possible for the surgeon to use pubic donor areas considering they are similar to angular brow growth?

thanks for your time, and i hope you can get back to me soon!

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The fundamental concept of a hair transplant surgery is moving hair from one part of the body to another part of the body. Thus, you can transplant your pubic hair to your eyebrow. I do not know what your pubic hair looks like, but in general pubic hair is more coarse and kinky than eyebrow hair. We routinely perform transplants of scalp hair to the eyebrow. The angle and the direction of the transplanted hair is related to the angle and the direction of how the surgeon makes the incision for the transplant. It is not a function of the hair, as it is on your pubic area.

December 19, 2007

I Want to Transplant from My Head to My Chest! – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hi Dr. Rassman, I have couple of questions, first questions is, how much does it cost to have hair transplanted from you head to your chest. 3 inches above my umbilical area and down is very hairy,but above that area is completely hairless, it looks like I been shaving. The other question is, does it hurt. Do you have to make an incision or it is done with needles. Will the hair stay forever in that area and will continue to grow. Please respond ASAP I am really serious about having that done. Thank you

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Hair can be transplanted from the head to the chest. We actually do this type of procedure for women that want more pubic hair (usually those who lose their pubic hair with aging). The costs are directly related to the area covered and the number of grafts placed at the site. It would run between 500-1000 grafts to cover the area that you defined. The hair will grow long (like on the scalp), so you may have to cut it. If your hair is coarse, it may not look right, but finer hair should do fine. Pain is minimal (like a typical hair transplant), although it does depend on what you consider painful.

December 17, 2007

Relaxing African Hair After Hairline Lowering Procedure – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Hello, I am a 30 year old African American female, I have a very high forehead. I am interested in bringing my hairline down surgically, but I perm/relax my hair. What I want to know is, with that type of surgery would I still be able to relax my hair. If so how long after I relax should I wait before I have the procedure done and how long should I wait after the procedure to relax again? Thank You for your time!

Hair can be relaxed prior to a hair transplant procedure. A hair transplant is your own naturally growing hair, just moved from one place to another. You can perm, color, or relax transplanted hair just as you would your normal hair. You should wait about two to four weeks to relax your existing hair after a transplant procedure, but transplanted hairs will most likely not grow in for 6 to 8 months. Hairline lowering procedures for women gives an immediate result; a hair transplant also has a waiting period for the hair to go through its normal cycle before it starts to grow.

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December 12, 2007

Removing a Tunnel Graft System – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Was sold a tunnel graft system (San Francisco) in the 80’s but switched to a bonded system. Do you know how much it costs to remove the tunnels? Who would you recommend in CA?

Thanks

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I would have to see you to determine what has to be done. I have removed tunnels in the past. Fortunately, there are not many people who have them anymore. I have an office in the Bay Area (San Jose), so you can come see me. Please call my office at 800-NEW-HAIR if you’d like to setup a free consultation.

For the readers, a tunnel is a bridge of skin created in the scalp so that a wig can be secured to the bridge, holding it in place. The wig has ‘string’ attached to it and these strings are passed under the tunnel and then tied in place, like tieing your shoe lace. Some people have more than one tunnel to hold the wig in position.

December 12, 2007

My Transplanted Hairs Never Grew — The Doctors Want to Redo it For Free – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Hi,i need help please, a few years ago i had the FUE procedure done for 600 hairs with [name omitted] in London, i was happy with the results but after a few months all the transplanted hairs fell out and never grown back.

They have now kindly offered to do the whole procedure again for free but im really unsure if to go through with it again if it doesnt work for a second time. Im not sure why it didnt work and dont want to blame anyone but i remember when the hairs were removed from my head they were then left on a plate while the surgeons went out side for a cigarette.

Could it be possible that this was a bad procedure or would it be more likely to just not work for me as i have read that this procedure dosent work for everyone? I could really do with your help with this please ,kind regards.

I am slightly confused by your question. If you are saying that the hair originally grew and then fell out sometime later, that confuses me. Previouos hair transplants, once they grow, usually last the lifetime of the patient. A good doctor would, I would guess, offer you a repeat procedure if he could not find a cause of the loss of hair transplants that grew.

If you are saying that the hair did not grow, then I would ask – if you were having a heart transplant surgery (instead of a hair transplant), you would not get a second chance. Would you trust the person that caused your heart transplant to fail to redo the procedure (assuming they successfully put in an artificial heart while waiting for another real heart)? I hope that comparison isn’t too far of a reach, but it is the first thing that came to mind.

Hair transplants remove donor hair forever. If it did not grow (FUE or strip) and continues to fail, all you do is lose again. A hair transplant failure, unlike a heart surgery failure, just wastes your limited supply of donor hair — while a heart surgery failure kills you. If the doctor gives you a second surgery for free, what if it fails a second time? Ask your doctor about this. The lesson here is that a doctor who does good work has predicable results.

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December 6, 2007

Another Hair Transplant Clinic Called NHI – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Hello NHI team,
I was wondering if you have heard of another NHI hair transplant clinic in greece and how they can use the same name. They use the choi implanter. Their representative is a man called Malcolm Mendelsohn. Heres their web site www.nhihairclinics.co.uk

I try to refrain from commenting on other clinics unless specifically asked. One can only assume that the NHI name was taken by this man for his clinic, because he wanted to claim some affiliation with us (or give the illusion of such). There is no connection between this clinic and the New Hair Institute. The name has also been copied by others in various parts of the world for hair transplant clinics (from Australia to the UK to even here in the US) with the same nefarious reasons, I suspect.

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December 4, 2007

Hair Loss InformationAuto-Cloning Technique for Facial Hair? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I have heard of a technique called auto-cloning performed by Dr. Gary Hitzig in New York, New York. He tweezes beard hair under the chin which leaves part of the root to regrow and part of the hairs root stays with the tweezed hair to grow in the transplanted area. I would be very interested in having this procedure performed to thicken my mustache both because of my limited donor hair and for having the thickness and texture of beard hair. Facial hair and body hair transplants are becoming increasingly common why is this technique not more popular as it solves many problems for people who have limited donor hair? Is there a problem with this technique?

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My medical group had tried to repeat the work after we heard about it from the doctor who said that he invented the technique. We did it just as he said it was to be done, and as was expected, the results were essentially a complete failure to grow hair. As far as I am aware, nobody has proven this technique or published the method in a peer reviewed journal for confirmation, which says a great deal about credibility. If it worked, I am sure that the technique would be available everywhere, because it infers that you get two hairs for one (hair replication)… something that has not been done by any other.

I also look to the credibility of the ‘inventor’ and via Google, I turned up with the following links:

November 19, 2007

Scalp Had No Sensitivity After Brain Surgery – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hello Doctor,

Im male 30yrs. I had a brain surgery 3 yrs ago. After surgery, I had no sensitivity in mid or top of head. The hairs on that part started shading/ thinning slowly and then turned like baldness. Now Im getting sensitivity in that parts of head. Can I expect the hairs i lost or thinning be converted into thickness or hair growth? Can you pls advice me on how can I grow the hairs back/thickness on my crown/central head part?

Thanx in advance

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I am not sure that I can help you evaluate your problem without examining you. The brain surgery may have cut critical sensory nerves in the scalp to cause your numbness. If the temporal vessels and nerve was cut on just one side, then you might have a sensory defect to cover the top and the side of your scalp. If both were cut, then you would have complete numbness, some of which could reduce over time as other nerves from the back of your head may take over. Any vascular damage could produce hair loss as well. Either your brain surgeon could/should tell you why you have this problem or any good doctor examining you will know what to look for. I would be happy to evaluate you if you are in or near California and would like to pay me a visit.