If it is not approved in the US, doctors will not write an Rx for medical-legal reasons. For example, if someone gets post-dutasteride syndrome, then there is no legal protection for the doctor for legal action taken by the patient.
Where’s the Saw Palmetto Study? There’s Money to be Made!
Since there’s obviously a ton of money in hair loss products, why hasn’t anyone done a conclusive study on the effects of saw palmetto on hair loss? It seems like if it’s believed to help, a conclusive study would (if it’s found to slow loss) help products containing saw palmetto off the shelves
I agree that a better controlled study would help us understand the impact of saw palmetto on hair loss, provided it was dose response oriented. The reason that this is probably not being done is that there is no patent coverage available for this drug, so when a study comes out, anyone can profit from the sale of the drug (in this case it is an herbal remedy not a drug). So there’s money to be made if it shows the herb is effective… but one company financing the study will potentially open the floodgates for other companies to profit. This does not make for a good business proposition if you were paying for the study. In other words, studies are not cheap and who is going to finance it if the money can’t be made back?
There have been limited studies on this very subject in the past. One such study from 2002 contained only 19 men. Of those men, 60% showed “improvement”, but I don’t know if that means their hair looked thicker, darker, or there was actually more hair. Plus, it was just a pilot study and too small to be worthwhile in proving effectiveness.
How long to get finasteride out of my body?
I took my first 0.25mg of fin yesterday, and today I can’t get an erection. I have no idea if its the compounding fear in the back of my head to check if I have side effects that is preventing my dick to get hard, but I struggle to get “into” porn that would usually get my blood pumping to my member almost immediately. Again, have no idea if its fin or if its in my head, but still I want to wait out the finasteride and see if my dick gets hard again. If it does, then its the fin that caused the ED.
With ED developing in just one day, I suspect you are dealing with a powerful placebo effect, rather than a drug effects; nevertheless, it should be out of your system in less than one month, but I have seen lingering effects last 2-3 months on occasion. I would stop the finasteride.
Why All The Fuss About the LaserComb?
Why all the fuss on your site about the Hairmax Lasercomb? You constantly remind your readers that it’s a buyers beware market, and with all the garbage cures out there, I assumed you would be supportive of a company that went to the trouble of getting FDA approval (no easy task)for their treatment, and offers a money back guarantee after using their product for 5 months.
Why do you approve of Merck’s FDA approval for Propecia but not Lexington International’s for the Lasercomb? Was Merck’s research better or more independent? And if yes, how so??
As a side not, you said you offer laser treatment in your office free of charge to your patients. Why do you do this if you dont believe in the treatment?
As I understand it, the LaserComb was not approved for effectiveness, but was approved based on a predicate device which they showed was similar. The Merck studies are extensive drug studies, which show statistical value in hair growth and hair retention. You can review the Merck data, which is all over the internet.
You are right, the only thing you can lose is the few hundred dollars you pay for the laser comb and assuming that the company will be around to refund your money, there appears to be no down side other than to delay proper diagnosis and treatment in some patients. All of the fuss you are talking about reflects:
- Many doctors feel it is a scam
- Many doctors wish they had a piece of the pie, as it may make many millions for those who put the product together — so it is $$$ envy behind the fuss
I, for one, have my integrity and will not put it up for sale, so I am free to express my opinions when I feel that the product offering may be misleading the public.
How Many FUE Sessions Can Be Done Into a Scar?
i recently have had some fue into a scar in my hairline. It has been 6 months and approximately 60 % of the hair has grown back. I plan on doing another fue procedure in 6 months from now. My question is how many transplants can be done into a scar? I am not sure if the density of hair in the scar will ever match the density of my surrounding hair but i will try.
There is no specific limit to an FUE (follicular unit extraction) session, other than the supply of hair you have left (and the skills of the doctor / surgical staff). As long as there is enough supply and an area (such as your scar) that require more hair, you can have the FUE procedure. As a rule of thumb after only 6 months out, you may not have all the transplanted hairs grown out (some may still be dormant). I would wait at least 10 months before having another procedure in the same area.
2007-08-02 13:33:332007-08-02 13:33:41How Many FUE Sessions Can Be Done Into a Scar?
Why Can Testicular Pain Occur from Finasteride?
I got two questions linked to finasteride and side effects:
1. Why does testicular pain occur when taking finasteride?
I’ve read somewhere that the testicle is working overtime to produce more testosterone as it senses that DHT is low and is trying to compensate. I don’t know if this is true or not, but is there any “official” explanation?
2. Is there any connection between finasteride and penile shrinkage?
You should not have testicular pain when taking any medication, including Propecia / finasteride. If you have testicular pain it may be a serious medical emergency. I believe it was less than 1% that had this side effect in the clinical trials, so it is quite rare. I don’t have a reason for why it could occur at all, though.
I would strongly advise you to follow up with your doctor. What you read on the Internet (and even BaldingBlog) does not substitute for a face-to-face personal relationship with your physician, and that includes exploring the cause of your testicular pain. Finally, finasteride do not cause penile shrinkage.
How Many Grafts Per Procedure?
Hi Dr Rassman,
I have lost my hair since i was 25. I had 2 procedures so far with xxxx Medical Group for a total of about 1700 grafts and it seemed like every time after i had a procedure, my hair fell out even more. I am class 4 now and i am not really happy at all with my results. I am now interested in another procedure and I wonder how many grafts you can do per procedure? Please respond and thank you for your time.
Hair transplants in young men, often accelerate hair loss unless they are on some protection like the drug Propecia. The hair loss associated with a hair transplant impacts the original hair and is called an Anogen Effluvium. After the first transplant, an Effluvium rarely occurs again provided the second transplant is performed in the next 2-5 years.
In my practice, we can perform as many as 5000 grafts in a single session provided that the scalp is loose and the densities are very good. We routinely perform at least one procedure each day in excess of 2500 grafts, but this is a matter of matching donor supply and recipient area need. The correct balance between these two, will minimize just how many surgeries one might need. We do like to put the highest densities in each session to minimize the number of sessions. Most people get what they want in one or two sessions, unless they are really extensively bald.
Why Do Humans Have Eyelashes?
Eye lashes are 1/3rd as long as eyes are wide. This is true, not only for most humans of all races, but for 21 other mammal species as well. This is the body’s spectacular engineering to control the air flow around the eye to keep dust out and moisture in, reports Dr. David Hu of the Georgia Institute of Technology this year (Journal of the Royal Society interface). He was able to determine this by computer modeling the air flow around the eye as lash length changed. “By reducing airflow over the corneas, eyelashes create a boundary layer of slow-moving air around the eye”, reports The Economist, February 28, 2015.
The fact that eyelashes are used in flirting, may be an acquired feature of the human species. I apologize to our female readership if I burst their styling and flirtatious bubble.
How much hair loss to see it?
Saw this online and how true is this? I get that many people are not as concerned with their hair like us in this sub and never track their hairline and density until they one day look in the mirror and realize they’ve lost a lot. What about guys who constantly monitor their hairline, take pics, compare to old photo’s, i.e really track everything regarding their hair. I for one do that and still have all of my hair (age 30).
Does that still mean I won’t notice it until I lost 30.000 hairs? As soon as I see any sign I’ll jump on finasteride so the “30.000 hairs “ theory only makes sense for people who literally never track their hair in my opinion.
Depending upon the size of the area, for most people with medium or coarse hair, they can lose 50% or more of their hair without seeing a difference. For people with fine hair, the visual effects of hair loss come on more quickly. One doctor in the 1980s, pulled out 50% of the hair on one side of the head on a man with black, medium weight hair and no hair loss. He took photos and had independent observers try to see which side had less. The answer was no one could tell and the photography failed to tell which side had less hair. This is important for a hair transplant surgeon to know Read this: https://baldingblog.com/hair-transplant-density/
2020-11-20 02:56:182020-11-16 07:58:04How much hair loss to see it?
Why Does Low Estrogen Cause Hair Loss in Women?
If DHT causes hair loss, how come women whose estrogen levels drop lose hair? Seems contradictory.
I am not an expert in hormones, but things in medicine are not so binary. Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) is the cause of hair loss in men (not women) who are genetically predisposed to hair loss. You can have a high level of DHT and still have a full head of hair. Women lose hair in a different way than men. There are many causes of hair loss in women. Estrogen levels may play an important part in supporting hair and preventing hair loss in women and when women reach menopause and their estrogen levels drop, they may become victims of their genetics. It doesn’t correlate with DHT in most women.