Category: Other

Hello,

Some of the individual hairs on my beard get really thick and seem to fuse together with other hairs. These hairs are clearly visible upon close examination of my stubble, at least to me … I hunt these bizarre hairs like wild game then extract the bounty, mercilessly, with a shiny pair of unforgiving tweezers. If I rub the follicular carcass between my powerful digits, individual hairs separate from the seemingly single, thick, shaft. Moreover, when I pluck these wild beasts, there is no pain, whatsoever – they submit to my attack and exit the follicle, without fight or protest. If I pull a regular beard hair out, it screams in protest and fights ’till the bitter, painful end.

Are you familiar with the hairs I’m describing? If so, what’s going on?

I’m a 32 year-old male and I’ve been on Finasteride for almost three years. I break a 5mg pill into four pieces. I take one piece in the morning and one piece at night so I always have some in my system.

Thank you very much.

You’re taking 2.5mg of finasteride daily after only 3 years? That’s higher than the recommended dose for treating hair loss, but hey, if it works for you and your prescribing physician is fine with it, more power to you.

Some hairs grow out in 2’s or 3’s. It can be normal to see those on your beard, chest, or pubic area. You’re probably not seeing your facial hairs become symbiotic, attacking each other in a fight to death. Give your hairs some “mercy”.

By the sound of what you describe, you seem like someone who battles not only with hair loss, but perhaps an obsessive compulsive disorder. I will give you points for a highly creative email, though.

What’s your thoughts on the procedures on Cosmetic Follicle Therapy?

I believe the procedure is to take a sample from your head (where there is hair). Take it to the US have it replicated 50-70k times. What this means is match with synthetic hair of some sort. Then attach it to the burn skin material and then place it on the balding part of your head. Similar to a system or wig type piece but more refined.

Do you know and understand this type of treatment?

Thanks

Burned skin? Implanting artificial hair is dangerous (due to scarring, infection, and irritation)… and not legal in the US. I’ve warned people about artificial hair implants on this site for over half a decade now. If you’re suggesting that some company is creating 50-70k real hairs in a lab and re-implanting those, well, that technology doesn’t exist.

It’s more likely an expensive hair system, and if that’s the case, the name would be the only thing unique about it. I’m hoping you’re just misunderstanding what some company is offering, though. If they are trying to sell you on having your hairs cloned in a lab, it’s a scam.

I’m always receiving emails about weird hair loss products that claim to do things they can’t possibly do. I’m sure most of you know this isn’t a new phenomenon, and so I decided to search for some historical hair loss “cures”. Turns out, the scams that exist today aren’t that much different from the quackery of 100 years ago.

In the late 19th century, Dr. George A. Scott was an advertiser of brushes for teeth, skin, and hair that claimed to cure everything from hair loss to headaches. I found a couple of ads for his Electric Hair Brush with some outrageous and ridiculous assertions that I thought the readers of this site would get a kick out of. But first, I wanted to learn more about the man behind the “inventions” and about the actual brush itself. For that, I turned to a fantastically informative site called American Artifacts.

From the American Artifacts site —

Dr. Scott’s Electric Hair Brush. One of the more famous quack devices of the 1880’s, advertised in Harpers Weekly and other popular magazines. Dr. Scott’s 1881 patent claimed merely several magnets embedded in a plastic material and a mold for holding the bristles, which are also embedded in the hard rubber. There is the usual crack across the handle – the metal rods embedded in the thermoplastic material and running the entire length of the brush prevent the handles from breaking. Marked “No 5″ and “Dr. Scott’s Electric” on the underside of the handle, and “The Germ of all Life is Electricity”.

The image above is one advertisement I came across from 1882. There’s a larger and more detailed version available here.

Hello

I had hair transplant 5 yrs ago and am very pleased w/ the results. My only question is this: I still have some scabs that form on the crown of my scalp, even after 5 yrs. They are irregular shaped and are off white and some have hair in them when they come off. One in particular is the size of an pencil eraser and it comes off, then later on, it reforms again in same place. The others are about pinhead sized and keep coming back too.

So is this going to be an ongoing thing? Thank you!

On rare occasions, I see patients with ingrown hairs that present this way. If a doctor should look closely at the exit of the hair, one might see what looks like two hair coming out of the same hole. One of those may be the ingrown hair, which can be teased out with a pair of forceps. Otherwise, I would have to see you to give you an opinion.

Is there anyway where I can get new straight hair? I can’t deal with them chemicals nor straighteners. I want natural straight hair…
is there a way for that?? Thanks

Sorry, but there is no way other than the use of a variety of hair products available today.

Snippet from the article:

Stem cells produce progenitor cells, or so-called workhouse cells.

“If we figure out a way to wake up those stem cells, get them to make hair for progenitor cells, that would go a long way toward developing a treatment,” Dr Cotsarelis told ABC News.

Researchers predict they’ll be able to do that within a decade. But until then, millions of customers will be left waiting, and spending.

Read the full story at ABC — Baldness Breakthrough: Scientists to Find a Cure to Male Balding in 10 Years?

The article itself just rehashes what was written about the recent stem cell announcement, except with this additional sentence — “Researchers predict they’ll be able to do that within a decade.” Which researchers? When was this prediction made? What was the basis for the prediction? Seems like more lazy reporting.

To me, the interesting part was about the stem cells, yet the headline was about a single sentence that had no further information attached to it; an obvious attempt to be sensational and attract eyeballs. While I hope the cure will be here within 10 years, I see this type of proclamation every few months as the timeline moves again and again.

Paid advertisements (not an endorsement):

In a recent ethics article summarizing questionnaires from 10,000 doctors, the findings showed that doctors are human with the limitations that go with it. From the article:

“Honesty is the best policy” and “the patient always comes first.”

As absolute and correct as those aphorisms may be, they can be hard for doctors to apply in the complex world of modern medicine.

A recent Medscape medical ethics survey of over 10,000 physicians found that when it comes to patient treatment, a significant number of physicians struggle when it comes to topics relating to honest, straight-forward communication, and even pain management.

Areas that are particularly focused and difficult to deal with include death and the ability to openly discuss the subject of death with patients. The article continues:

From the patient’s point of view, “If I don’t know my time is limited I can’t put my affairs in order. I can’t say, ‘I’m sorry,’” …. What’s more, “it’s not like patients are asking Dr. Kildare, ‘What are my chances, Doc?’ Patients are increasingly educated. If you don’t tell them, they’re going to be looking it up on the internet the next day, so you should probably be the source of the data, because you’re a human and you care about them.”

Read the full story at Medscape — ‘Doctor, Are You Telling Me the Truth?’ Exclusive Ethics Survey Results

Hi Doc,

Some doctors in India are offering very expensive stem cell injections for the scalp which they claim will promote hair growth? Is this possible or is it a scam?

The idea is good, but I would be skeptical unless I saw a proper scientific review of the process that they are using. Seeing is believing and scams are a dime a dozen.

What do you think of the comment in the side box, “Do blonds have more fun ? No – but they do have more hair. People with blond hair have more hair on their head than people with brown or red hair“.

Link: KidsHealth.org – Taking Care of Your Hair

That’s wrong, Isnt it?

I don’t know that there is a significant difference in hair densities between blondes and those with darker hair, even though it is recorded in various places on the web. I’ve seen pages like this one, but can’t find a source for their information. I have made a point to check the hair densities of the blondes who have come into the office to see me over the years since I started the hair practice nearly 20 years ago, and I couldn’t find any real difference.

However, there is a difference in hair densities between different ethnic/racial groups. Caucasians have the most hairs on their head. African/black hair types have the least amount of hair on their head. Asians fit somewhere in the middle. The reason for this difference is not clear, but Caucasians probably need the most hair on their head because their hairs are the finest. This fine character requires more hair to look like the equivalent of say, Africans, who have the least amount of hair, but their curly hair makes up the volumes. Asian hairs are often coarse, so they may make up for the less numbers that way.