i notice the left side of my head including facial hair, even my sideburns grows slower than my right side. i shaved and i noticed more hair on the right side and significantly less on the left side… whats going on?
Honestly, I don’t know. It is not unusual for hair to grow at different rates, but… the entire side? Wait out time and see if it is a temporary problem. Quite interesting, and I wish I had more to offer.
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Hello, Dr. Rassman. I am a 20 year old man, and developing facial hair still and am wondering why the right side of my face is so much more less dense than my left side. Could it be with the way I sleep, has it anything to do with sleeping on a pillow a different way? This is really aggravating me because my left cheek can almost grow a good beard, and is steadily progressing, but my right cheek is not.
When facial hair starts to grow, it is often patchy and not always uniform. Wait it out and the two sides will eventually balance out. It doesn’t have anything to do with the way you sleep on a pillow.
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I found this funny vid called “Bogus Weave” on YouTube. This guy is freakin nuts; you guys might like it.
It might not be my cup of tea, but a reader sent me the link to this rap music video about girls and their hair weaves. Some may find it funny, some may find it offensive. Contains not-safe-for-work language.
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THAT WAS NOT NICE!
Hi Dr. Rassman, on my daily visit to your site, I was disappointed for the first time.
That poor young woman looking for “Non-Surgical Solutions for Lowering Hairline in Women”. I don’t think she was looking for cosmetic suggestions such as were provided (bangs, hat, bandana, wig. As a female who suffered hair loss at her age, I think I know how she feels.
I could be wrong, but the reply to the young woman came across as a bit of a sarcastic brush-off. The poor thing was likely hoping for something like minoxidil or vitamins, etc. Perhaps she should have been told that FUE would be good or whatever. I hope her feelings were not hurt.
Thanks for your continued work on this blog, and keep well.
This is the post you are referring to — Non-Surgical Solutions for Lowering Hairline in Women
I agree that there may have been a sarcastic undertone and I could have taken a scientific approach to the question.
But simple (not thought out) questions deserve simple answers, especially if you haven’t done any reading or research on your own. Out of 3700+ entries here on BaldingBlog, I have answered this question countless times (search is in the top right of every page).
I apologize if I have offended any readers.
I saw the previous comment about obtaining hair follicles from a donor (another person than yourself) transplanted to the patient. I’ve looked on the internet and did a search for “immunoprivileged follicle” and found dozens of articles that suggest that the follicle of the hair seems to fall in the category.
They’d even claim that it is also trans-gender: www.nature.com/nature/journal/v402/n6757/full/402033a0.html
and the Journal of Investigative Dermatology Symposium: www.nature.com/jidsp/journal/v8/n2/full/5640115a.htmlDoes this mean that it is possible,after all, to obtain hair follicles from a donor? Thanks!
It may be possible, but for all practicality, not probable. Even with the best case scenario, where would you get the donor hair? Could this give a new meaning to selling your hair for money?
Generally hair transplantation from one person to another carries the same risk as organ (liver, heart, kidney) transplants. There is a risk of rejection and failure and life long anti-rejection medication. You may accept the risk of rejection when faced with threatening situations such as heart/ liver/ kidney failure, but most people spending thousands of dollars for a cosmetic (hair transplant) procedure may not accept the failure risk. One might think that hair from a newborn baby might be immunoprivileged (it seems to work for a heart transplant), but again, who would endorse such a donor?
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I am a 13 year old girl and have a perm from curly to straight and it would be very nice of you if you would pleeeease help me. I went on a winter vacation with my family for 3 days and the second day I went to the pool with out a cap. After a while I went up to my hotel room by myself and blow dried my hair. After the vacation was over I went home to wash the chlorine out of my hair with V05 conditioner and shampoo. After I washed it, I blow dried my hair some more.
Now, every time I comb my hair a whole chunk of hair comes out of the back of my head. This has been happening every single day for 3 weeks. I only noticed when my hair dresser told me it looked like a short boys hair cut. I started to cry for weeks. I did not want to go out in public, especially to school where my friends had better looking hair than I did. I felt jealous and lonely because a few of them had longer hair than me and it was straight without a perm. I don’t really want to show my natural hair because it’s crazy looking so if you would pleeeeease help to grow it back faster i’ll feel much better again and take better care of it. Thank you so much.
I know it feels horrible when you think your hair is a mess, but the only thing you should do at this point is wait it out and keep from perming your hair until it all grows back. Hair grows at 1/2 inch per month so it will grow back in time.
What does a normal scar look like?
The first photo is a patient from our office who had one procedure totaling 3000 grafts. The scar measures about 2-3 mm wide and with his hair combed down, unless he shaved his head or cut it very, very close, it would not show. The second photo is my scar. I believe these to be scars that represent what’s “normal” and I am showing them to educate those people who are overly concerned about scars and want to know as much as they can.
Click the photos to enlarge.
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Hi Dr Rassman,
I am a 27 year old female. Just under 2 years ago I began to notice my hair was quickly becoming thinner and thinner and stacks of it fall out each day. I have not counted exactly how much hair falls out, I just measure more by the thickness and amount left on my head and also the density on my scalp. I am about 1/4 Lebanese on my dads side but his sister has lots of hair and she’s 60. The men in my family still have full heads of thick hair, and most of my female relatives do too, although my mum and grandmother have had hair thinning, but after menopause, some stress and in my grandmother’s case, after prednisone.
My hair is sort of wavy/messy curly and I used to have very thick hair up until the last few years. I have many health concerns at the moment, but I’m pretty sure I have been tested for things like thyroid function, lupus and hormone levels. I have been on and off medicines such as the pill, some antidepressants, epilum and zyprexa, but even after being off all medications for a couple of months, my hair continues to fall out. I do not brush it very much, but I am not concerned that the loss from brushing is a build up over days, I also do not blow dry, straighten and colour my hair more than a few times a year. I even tried laureth sulfate free shampoos which seemed to possibly slow down the loss for a couple of weeks, before it resumed again, but its hard to tell. Do you know of anywhere in Sydney or Canberra Australia that does this miniaturization testing you speak about?
Are there any other causes you know of, or things I can do to help this problem? I am pretty young to be on Rogain or permanent medicine.
Any advice or insight would be appreciated, as I am frustrated and concerned by the hair loss and the lack of answers.
Thanks.
You clearly need a good doctor to take charge of your complex situation. See ISHRS.org for a doctor in your area. There are a number of good doctors in Sydney and throughout Australia.
The technology of hair transplants have certainly changed since I first started with Dr. Sparkyl. NHI has refined and developed techniques that has been appreciated by all of us.However the denisity of hair and the amount of donor sites is limited and can limit the final outcome.I’m interested in developing a method where two to three hair would be glued around existing hair and eventually would come of after 4-6 weeks similar to a traditional hair piece.The question I have is somebody working on this process, and if not what do you see as potential problems or any valuable suggestion for this project.
I am not aware of anyone working on this today. There is a problem in that any hairs that are glued to existing hair will ‘pull out’ the existing hair and create traction alopecia. I’d love the opportunity to talk to you about it.
Hi Dr. Rassman
I was wondering if the hand held LLLT (Low Laser Light Therapy) Lasers work at all. If so do they work as well as the expensive ones in the doctors office? Is there a certain type and name brand that you would recommend? Thank you very much for your time.
As of right now I am open and hopeful that LLLT will show the benefits that are proclaimed, although I am not 100% convinced about them. There are some encouraging studies from a well respected researcher who supports LLLT in concept. I can not comment much about this subject until I have more data and have reviewed better scientific papers on the matter. You are correct, the handheld systems are less expensive, but the only study that I’m aware of was published and sponsored by the manufacturer, making me skeptical of anything I read about them. In my opinion, when things sound too good to be true, they frequently are too good to be true.
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