I am very interested in having the hairline lowering procedure. Do you know of any doctors in the OK area or anywhere close?
A hairline lowering procedure is done by plastic/cosmetic surgeons and a small number of doctors in the hair restoration business. You might check locally with those in this area of specialty. If you want to travel to California, I would be happy to consider doing this procedure, or I would recommend Dr. Sheldon Kabaker in Oakland, California.
about 2 months ago i had a seizure and i hit my head on the radiator in my bathroom. it looks like a long pole and it was burning hot, to the point where you cant even put your hand on it for more then 3 seconds. i became unconscious and i dont know how long the back of my head stayed on it. needless to say i didnt feel any pain when i awoke so i know i must have damaged the nerves because im also a nursing student and i learned about 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree burns. that day the spot became very red and then it started to char and it took weeks for it to start peeling and there was some fluid in there. the size is about 2 half dollars in a circle. i dont see it growing back and i dont think it will either because its extremely smooth and like i said its been 2 months already. my question is what can i do for it and if i need surgery what kind of surgery? how much does it cost and where do i go? thank you
You burned your scalp 2 months ago and as of yet you have not grown any hair there. You have a blister on the burned area, which means you had a 2nd degree burn there. As a general rule, a 1st degree burn is superficial and does not involve hair follicles, so they usually don’t cause permanent hair loss. 3rd degree burns are deeper and usually damage the entire hair follicle and cause hair loss, and they may also damage nerve endings and cause numbness in the area.
In your case, with a 2nd degree burn they are in between and may or may not damage hair follicles permanently. You have to wait for about 6 months and by then if you are not growing hair in the bald spots you may want to consider hair transplantation. At that time you could be evaluated to see what could be done for you if the need is there. For now though, my suggestion would be to just wait it out.
I’m 39 and I’ve a thinning crown, and there is a diffused patch on the vertex, and very thin, soft hair with not much density at the back of my head. I’m already using propecia+minoxidil But i don’t see any improvements.Given this i would like to explore my options of using armpit hair and pubic hair for hairtransplant on to my crown using FUE. At the same time i ‘m concerned about donor transection rate for armipt hair and pubic hair ( how difficult it is to harvest this hair?) and the shock loss at the receiving crown?? Can you please let me know my options. Most of the hair transplants i have seen only show frontal hair line but not crown.
It is good that you started using Propecia for your thinning crown hair. Although you don’t think you had improvement with medications, I think it is best for you to continue the Propecia, for you never know how your crown would look if you were not taking the medication. Propecia should be the first line of treatment of crown hair loss in most patients. The next option is to fill the crown balding area with transplants using permanent hair from back of the head. Using the hair from this area is well established for transplant to your crown area. Body hair, as we’ve discussed on this site many times before, is not a good substitute for scalp hair, because of its long sleep phase and limited length. The amount of under arm hair in available numbers is low and the hair is kinky, much different than head hair. The same is true for pubic hair.
Pubic and armpit hair in particular have different characteristics than scalp hair. They are limited in numbers and should be reserved for the cases that no other alternatives are available and when the hair can be used for ‘bulk’ rather than a frontal presentation. If the scalp donor hair is severely diminished and you opt to get a body hair transplant with the FUE technique, a FOX test must be done to evaluate your candidacy for the FUE procedure and you can anticipate the damage from such a procedure in advance. If the FOX test is positive, it means your hair transection rate is reasonably low. With that said, unless you have no donor hair available from the scalp, please think traditional transplantation.
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I have a 9 year old daughter that was burnt as a baby. She has had two expanders on her head. There has been great improvement. However, there are still few spots that are bald and there is no hair. Is there any solutions available, as the hair is quite thin and probably no more expanders will be recommended. I would greatly appreciate any guidance you can provide. regards
Excising a scarred area and using expanders to provide more flexibility with flaps, could create a drastic improvement. If there are still some bald spots in your daughter’s scalp, they might be filled through hair transplantation. A hair transplant could be used successfully in the selected thinning area to give more coverage in areas that are cosmetically more important, but you need to be evaluated by an expert. The first place to start is back at the doctors who did the expanders for her. I would be happy to see her, but you need to be in or near California for easy access to me. In this case, photos will not be adequate and a personal examination is needed.
Hello Dr. Rassman,
In one of the rare on-topic posts to the Usenet group alt.baldspot, someone cited a study from the U. of Washington investigating, among various things, a chemical called acyline:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.baldspot/msg/d2a641313cf28285
They suggest that it can be used as an agent to induce medical castration (suppressing testosterone production?)
I imagine you’d have a rough time finding a doctor who’d prescribe any such thing, but in theory, would such treatment stop balding cold, more completely than would a 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor? If I’ve gotten the processes down properly, DHT production is not possible in the absence of testosterone.
I imagine it’d also completely eliminate one’s libido as well. Maybe I’m nuts to think it, but I doubt that’d bother me. It’s not been of much use to me anyway, but losing my hair is going to pretty quickly kill off whatever hope remains for the future.
Well, thanks for reading. The accolades on the site from your readers are well deserved.
Castration of a male will stop the balding process. What hair loss that happened prior to the castration will not reverse. So if you lost all of your frontal hair and are starting to lose the crown hair, being castrated (medically or surgically) will not reverse the frontal hair loss, but will probably halt the hair loss in the crown. Sounds like you are depressed. You might seek help.
I am 65 years old and in Aug 06, I had gastric surgery due to 5 yrs of partial bowel impactions caused by scar tissue & adhesions formed from previous surgeries. Also 10″ of colon removed. Since then, I have had excessive hair loss from scalp whenever I comb or wash my hair. Also, I’m using Roux Rinse Temporary Rinse weekly. What do you think could be causing my problem? Is there a cure or medicine I can take?
A big surgery can trigger telogen effluvium and accelerate hair loss. You can also read the post, Hair Loss and Gastric Bypass. Your surgery could have caused hair loss through two mechanisms:
In those people with the switch for genetic hair loss inherited, the switch can be turned on by either stress or weight loss. Both of these conditions can either be temporary or permanent. Make sure you have a balanced diet with adequate amount of proteins, vitamins, and minerals.
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can you lower a woman’s hairline without transplants?
Yes, the hairline can be lowered by a technique that differs from hair transplantation. In this technique, a strip of skin is removed from just below the frontal hairline and a trichophytic incision will be used to blend frontal hair into any scar that forms. The cosmetic result of a lowering hairline surgery is immediate and it is less labor and time consuming compared to hair transplantation. One disadvantage of this technique is the possible presence of a linear scar at front of the hairline. The scar could be hidden with a minimal delicate hair transplant surgery in front of it for a better cosmetic result if it is a problem. See other posts on this subject here.
I had gastric bypass surgery 2 years ago and my hair is thinning. My hairdresser recommended 1500mg biotin. I am a female 52 yrs. Can this help?
Hair loss, and change in hair color and hair quality after gastric bypass surgery are common problems and typically happen within the first year after the operation. Your body goes through a period of severe starvation and tries to divert nutrients toward more vital organs. Although carbohydrates, proteins, minerals, and vitamins (especially the family of vitamin B) have been blamed for the hair loss, the exact mechanism of this problem is not known and multiple factors might be involved. The good news is that your hair loss after gastric bypass is usually temporary and will be improved when you get out of the rapid weight loss situation. Any patient who had a gastric bypass should have frequent doctor visits following their bypass surgery as the procedure is associated with incidence of iron, vitamin B12, folate, calcium, and vitamin D deficiency. You need to be on supplements of minerals and vitamins and you should also be monitored with regular laboratory tests for these deficiencies. Please keep in mind that gastric bypass produces medically controlled malnutrition to force weight loss.
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Hi Dr. Rassman. I recieved two hair transplant procedures in the late 90’s with micro/minigrafts. I just recently had them removed with lasers. It took me 11 sessions but i got there. I proceeded with 3 micropeels. I’m sad to say that I’m really not satisfied with the results. I want to know what your opinion is on permanant make up on the scalp? I really don’t want to proceed with anymore surgeries…You’re feedback would be greatly appreciated. Please note if you’ve ever seen permanant makeup on a hair transplant recipient ..thanks so much
I have seen quite a few people who had their scalp tattooed. I would suggest that this may not be the best approach for you. I will assume the the peals left you with discolored skin and the transplants that were lasered also gave you a less-than-normal looking scalp. Your situation is a complex one to solve since you have gone through all of the things (number of surgeries) you had. I would be happy to see you, but a face to face meeting is the only way I might be able to help you or anyone in a situation similar to yours. I have always said that the good and the bad news about scalp and hair surgery is that these are permanent procedures. You can try to undo what was done, but the results will never quite be 100% to where you once were. This is why researching your doctor is important and this is certainly why understanding what you are getting into is extremely important — before you ‘dive in’ and that goes for any procedure, cosmetic or otherwise.
Hi Dr. Rassman,
Can someone who is completely bald (everywhere, except the very back and sides) have a full head of hair like that of a teenager by the triple-flap procedure?
Is there any procedure or combined procedures to give a completely bald person that final result?
Best regards
There was an article in the news last week about this very procedure, which I am assuming is what prompted your inquiry.
The triple-flap is a corrective procedure, generally used to repair patients where slot deformities were created by scalp reduction scars (surgeries that tried to remove the bald spot). This article seems to be misleading, because it does seem to make clear enough that the triple-flap procedure should only be used to repair deformities of the scalp. If there are defects in the scalp that are not the results of multiple scalp reduction surgeries (like a burn), then many of these people need balloon expanders to shift large areas of the scalp. In any event, this is a very specialized field and something that I can not comment without examining you. Please send me photos (you may cover your face) and I will evaluate what you are talking about.
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