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July 20, 2006

Gray Hair in Young Man – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

I am 23 years old and have a worsening problem with grey hair. At 18, a few strands of hair slowly started to turn grey from the tips (not the roots). The graying would spread to the rest of the hair till it was completely grey. Over the past 5 yrs the grey hairs have increased and I now have about 30 grey strands all in the same area, in an area of about a few square inches. I don’t have grey hair anywhere else on my head and do not know how to stop it. I have been taking multivitamins and get plenty of exercise as well. Also, it seems odd that the grey hair is all concentrated in one area. Please advise me as to what you feel could be causing this and what I should do to treat it.
Thank you.

People gray in sections of the scalp before it spreads to other areas. I have seen people who had a single patch of gray hair in an otherwise normal head of hair that is dark. This could be in people who are very, very young (children have it at times). This is a genetic variation when it occurs. Other than the use of hair dye, there is nothing that can be done. You call this a problem and from a social point of view it clearly can be, but from a medical point of view, the hair at this point on your scalp is completely normal. If you do not like what is happening to you, you can use a variety of safe hair dyes to solve the problem.

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July 20, 2006

Nothing Would Benefit Society More than Curing Baldness – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

I feel that nothing would benefit society more than curing baldness. The men that would be cured from this would then give society more gains, because of their newfound confidence, than could ever be imagined otherwise. I would absolutely guarantee this beyond a shadow of a doubt. Ciao

Confidence is important in any person for it frees that person from the constraints that limit human creativity. Some people measure value with dollars, some with euros. Some people measure man’s contribution with patents, some with Nobel prizes, and some with hair. I know where you are coming from.

July 19, 2006

Ingrown Hair or Abscess? – Balding Blog

I had an emergency c-section almost 9yrs ago.. prior to.. another c-section 7yrs ago thru the same vertical scar that never healed right..its very wide towards the bottom. my question is, i shave down there and ive noticed 2 ingrown hairs that have grown thru the bottom of my scar. They honestly have been there for about 6months.. because i didnt know what to do about them. But now, one is very badly infected and is swollen. so much infact, that my scar is looking more wide. its very sore and im scared and dont know what to do about it. how can i ease the pain and maybe help the swelling to go down so i can get a doctor to pull the hairs at my next appointment (aug 1st). thank you for your time.

You need to see a doctor. I do not know how bad your “ingrown” hair looks like, but you may have an abscess or a wider scale infection developing. Of couse, these are the worst case senarios. I would call your doctor to move up the appointment or visit a walk in clinic.

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July 18, 2006

Hair Loss InformationThe American Board of Hair Restoration Surgery – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Dr. Rassman
Firstly let me tell you how much I have enjoyed your blog comments for the many young men and women suffering from hairloss. I am a 33 yr old male, who is scheduled for hair transplant surgery in a month. I have learned from your comments and want to ask you some questions. I have hair loss in the frontal/tempural area with thinning in the crown area. The thinning has improved since I started taking Propecia last year, no side effects thank God.

Is 33 a good age?

My doctor is Dr. [name removed] and he is a Diplomate of the American Board of Hair Restoration Surgery. Can you give me an opinion on this qualifications?

I was concerned with scars, and felt comfortable since he is also a Plastic Surgeon, is my assumption correct?

I am also concerned with shock fall. Is it permanent? How much help does Propecia offer?

My doctor has not done a miniturization study on my scalp, that concerns me, although he did examine me the first time and I am scheduled for anohter consult. Should I request this?

I also use Nizoral shampoo, and it seems to help, what have you heard about the benefits of this product if any?

Lastly, coming from a father that is a Vascular Surgeon, I know that confidence in the physician is important. I just did not get a second opinion, and have been trying to educate myself as much as possible. I feal my chances are pretty good, I hope to get strong results. I thank you again for your comments and help you offer on-line…..with the high pace life physicians lead its unlikely. I commend you for that.

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Your father is correct in stating that confidence in your physician is very important. That being said, BaldingBlog is not a place for a medical second opinion. You should either address these issues with doctor or formally make an appointment with another hair transplant surgeon for the second opinion.

Credentials are important and being a member of the American Board of Hair Restoration Surgery may make it more probable that he is a good doctor. I am familiar with doctors with such credentials who I would not have as a surgeon, though. I, for example, have refused to become a member of the American Board of Hair Restoration Surgery because there is no formalized training for the accepted doctors and no peer review for what they do. When I received my credentials for General Surgery, I had completed 5 years of formalized, supervised training before I was allowed to take a series of written and oral examinations. The American Board of Hair Restoration Surgery credential only requires that the surgeon does 100 surgeries (without any supervision) and pass a written (very easy) examination. That does not make them qualified in my eyes. Now with that said, many of the doctors who have received the American Board of Hair Restoration Surgery credentials are good doctors and quite competent, while some are not. It continues to be a buyer beware situation for the hair transplant buyer (see: The Truth About Cheap Hair Transplants).

I have addressed shock hair loss before. Propecia in a balding male will reduce the risks of shock hair loss. If Nizoral shampoo is working for you, then use it. I feel strongly on the mapping out of the scalp for miniaturization. I do not like doing things blindly, because then I really could not lay out a good Master Plan.

July 14, 2006

Stem Cells in Hair Identified – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Reprinted from UPI:

Scalp tissue might become stem cell source

PHILADELPHIA, July 12 (UPI) — U.S. researchers have isolated a new source of adult stem cells in scalp tissue that might be able to differentiate into several cell types.

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine scientists say if their research proves to be safe and effective in animal and human studies, it might eventually provide the tissue needed for treating such disorders and peripheral nerve disease, Parkinson’s disease and spinal cord injury.

“We are very excited about this new source of adult stem cells that has the potential for a variety of applications,” said senior author Dr. Xiaowei Xu, an assistant professor of pathology. “A number of reports have pointed to the fact that adult stem cells may be more flexible in what they become than previously thought, so we decided to look in the hair follicle bulge, a niche for these cells.”

Xu and colleagues report their findings in the American Journal of Pathology.

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Many people who are doing work with hair regeneration or cloning are working on the areas that contain these stem cells. In fact, many of the experiments that are successful in producing some hair, also produce other organ tissues like bone and muscle. But the real value of the hair for a health focus is the easy access to stem cells, that is, if we can really harvest them and get them to just replicate themselves. If hair stem cells can grow a heart or liver, or fix an injured spinal cord, or repair a brain in a stroke patient, that value will be far greater for society that just growing hair on a bald man. The value of this article shows that stem cells from hair has great promise for medicine and human health. It will be far easier for legislators to approve organ regeneration as an application for hair stem cells than for vanity purposes in cloning hair.

July 13, 2006

Patient Letter to Dr Rassman – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Every now and then I’ll receive an email from a patient years after seeing them and it brightens my day. I thought I’d share this one I just received…

Dear Dr. Rassman,
I am [name removed for privacy] and I had a procedure for almost 2 years now (2280 grafts).

WELL!!! By looking at every single FOLLICULAR UNIT you had transplant onto the front of my head, I couldn’t tell that I had a hair transplant. Man, that is how good you are. I am so glad I got you as a Doctor. It changed my life forever because I feel more comfident about myself now and a lot more of the man I know I am because of you, Dr Rassman.

You know what my dream is Dr. Rassman? My dream is to have another TRANSPLANT from you but my girl friend doesn’t let me because she witnessed what I been through and she was so scared. To me I feel great and I would do it over and over again. I guess she just cares for me too much and I thank you GOD for that. Who ever reads this, please bear with me. It sound like I am a super pussy. Maybe, I will do it again without letting her know. If you do my surgery, that would give me more motivation to convince my girl friend to let me have another procedure.

Thank you for all the staff. You are part of my life.

What a nice letter. I can not tell if you are worried about pain from the surgery or from your girlfriend who may not be backing you for a second surgery. If you are worried about any pain, since your last surgery, we have made substantial changes in the anesthesia protocol we use with the use of a medication called Versed. This medication is a type of narcotic which does make the local anesthesia far less painful if you had trouble with it before. We have also added a stronger narcotic for the first night when the muscle spasm hits so that the first night is more tolerable for those who experienced pain. With these changes, you should think twice about any pain fears that I think you are expressing here. With regard to your girl friend, well most men either have wives, girlfriends or significant others and these folks do get involved in decisions we make like undergoing still one more transplant.

For the blog readership: this patient has agreed to let me post his photographs and he will be coming to see me shortly so that we can not only discuss the email posted here, but also take recent post-surgery photographs so that we can all know just what he is sooooo excited about.

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July 11, 2006

Are the Propecia Site Photos Altered? – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

dr. Rassman,

I read one of your articles about laser light therapy and the results of the pictures from the LLT could be altered or they could have been touched up to make it look as if more hair growth occurred. Saying that, how do we know that the people on the propecia.com website didn’t alter their images or the images you see from propecia or avodart results are altered?

Yeah, propecia could work, but to what degree and I personally thing propecia just maintains what you have unless you use minoxidil. What do you think?

The studies that show the benefits of Propecia used in Merck’s material are the results of well controlled and audited scientific studies, some of them done under FDA guidance. I would trust official Propecia photographs from Merck, but I would not trust many of the commercial photographs that are produced just to ‘prove’ that the changes are real. If you look carefully on many photographs used for the various potions, lotions, and herbal solutions for hair loss, the lighting, the hair length, the view — they are all different. On some photographs I have even seen scalp coloring agents used in advertisements, particularly for the crown shots on many commercial products.

So, always check the authority of photograph sourcing. For hair transplantation, I offer open house events at both of my offices just because even from the photographs on our website, the average person may have difficulty in determining just what the change really is. When you meet a patient face to face, what you see is reality and not the best view or an illusion created by the person taking the pictures. Of interest, at each of our open house events, we often have a person present who had created all of the benefits on Propecia alone (no transplants) and they have their before shots to prove where they came from. I still believe and preach: Let the Buyer Beware.

July 11, 2006

Is DHT Produced in All Men? – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

So DHT is the hormone that causes male pattern baldness? And that hormone is produced in all men who will experience from male pattern baldness after puberty? So is DHT only produced in men who will experience male pattern baldness or is it produced in all men? And if DHT is produced in all men after puberty do they only start experiencing baldness when another gene triggers it? How do you tell if you are genetically going to have male pattern baldness? My dad does and so did his dad and so did my mums dad but my uncles (on my dads side and my mums side) dont and both have full sets of hair at 55 and 58? So how do i know if i too will experience it ?

All men produce DHT, unless they are born with a genetic defect and missing a particular enzyme that makes DHT. There is no way (at the moment) to tell who has the gene for hair loss and if they did know, they wouldn’t know if or when it will be expressed in the lifetime of any particular man.

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July 7, 2006

Drugs in Our Foods – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

I thought this was interesting and worth sharing. Over and over again, we are becoming more and more aware that what we eat impacts us. This article shows that the fish we treat with drugs impacts our medical care:

“More than 70 per cent of the bacteria that cause hospital-acquired infections are resistant to at least one of the antibiotics most commonly used to treat them. The report published in Environmental Microbiology, July 2006, details the common practices that occur in the fish industry, particularly in developing countries, where large amounts of antibiotics are used to prevent infection. The antibiotics used are often non-biodegradable and remain in the aquaculture environment for long periods of time. This encourages the growth of bacteria, which can survive in the presence of these antibiotics, acquiring a resistance that is passed on to subsequent generations. The danger is these bacteria can be transferred to human and animal pathogens, leading to increased infectious disease in fish, animals and humans alike.”

Full article: Study warns excess fish farming drug use promotes resistance

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July 3, 2006

Teen Has Graying Pubic Hairs – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I am 15 years old and i want to know why my pubic hair is turning gray in some places. I thought i was too young for that to happen. But when my pubic hair falls off it just looks like dots of white or grey stuff. Can you please help?

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Some people turn gray at very young ages. If it concerns you, there is nothing to do but to dye it.