Category: Uncategorized

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Hair Transplant Research

Dear Doctor,
I have been doing a lot of research on hair transplants. I got 2 questions

1) what would you say as the minimum age for transplant? I saw you mentioning most people under 22 as too young.

2) I have seen a lot of amateur transplants by doctors. Which is why I want to get it done by best doctors. What is the transplant policy for your institute. How do you overcome issues such as post transplant check ups after few months?

Cheers

Before you undergo a hair transplant, you need to have a clear idea as to what degree your balding pattern will eventually go. This is not easy to determine on anyone under 25 years old, so that is a rule. All rules can be broken, of course and the examination and the Master Plan you and your doctor will determine will define what, if anything, should be done with regard to hair transplants.

Hair transplants generally do not need follow-up after the actual procedure is done. Most people just grow their hair and I like to connect with the patient at about the 8th month. Using digital photography, it is easy these days to connect over the internet.

A good reference point can be found in my blog post from November, 2005 — The Truth About Cheap Hair Transplants.

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Using Minoxidil 6 Weeks After Transplant

dear Dr. Rassman,

i am a 45 year old man. i had HT about 6 weeks ago. all the crusts have gone. i have started using Rogaine and Proscar. I wash my hair almost everyday. i start noticing that some of the transplanted hair fall out, and my transplanted area looks patchy. you said that shedding is not common for older men who are using Proscar. is my case unusual? will the hair grow back evenly?

also, minoxidil causes redness and itchy. suddently some of the grafts start bleeding, eventhough i did not touch them (just pour water on the head). is this serious? i am losing the grafts?

please kindly respond. your blog is really helpful.

Minoxidil can cause irritation and it is not necessary in your case, so stop it for a few weeks and observe if this solves the bleeding problem. You need your doctor to examine your scalp looking for things like folliculitis which can cause bleeding and itching, patchy hair loss, and shedding. If you do not have folliculitis and is treated succcessfully, then everything should work out in the next few months (assuming that you had a good doctor who did his job correctly). Speak with your doctor face to face when you get examined. Try to connect with him/her.


2006-03-02 09:32:32Using Minoxidil 6 Weeks After Transplant

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A Hair Transplant or a Wig?

I’m a 26 Male. Been suffering from hair loss since 18. I tried Fin, Minox, Derma, Nizoral, Laser comb. They seem to have worked for a while but not now. I stopped taking fin 3-4 years ago. I was thinking to get a hair system for the past few months but now I’m confused and want to go with a transplant. IThis is the right time for me to a get hair transplant or a hair system. (Cost efficient)

When comparing a wig to a hair transplant you have to think about costs, and what works for you. There is no advice that you can get to make the decision for yourself. Meet as many people with both options as you can to make that decision.


2019-03-19 07:42:32A Hair Transplant or a Wig?

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Using Saw Palmetto to Treat Hair Loss

I need to know once and for all. Does saw palmetto work for pattern hair loss?

Saw palmetto plantMost of the excitement for using saw palmetto as a treatment for androgenic hair loss is based on its mechanism of action and the evidence that it works for prostate problems like benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH). Besides anecdotal reports, there is actually little evidence that it also works for hair loss.

There has been only one study thus far published in the medical literature examining saw palmetto to treat pattern baldness. In this small study, 6 out of then 10 subjects with androgenic alopecia who received saw palmetto were reported to benefit from the treatment. This is far too small a study to draw any conclusions on its efficacy for pattern hair loss.

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Hair Transplants Were a Bad Decision for Me!

I wish I had done more research prior to letting a surgeon talk me into a hair transplant. I am 21 years old, and very depressed about my thinning hair. I answered an ad and when I visited the medical office they said that they had a cure for balding. What was probably a salesman working for a doctor and he seemed to know all of the answers and he told me that If I had hair transplants, it would be like an insurance policy to keep hair where it was balding. He told me that they were running a special promotion and I could buy the transplants for $2000 less than they are normally priced if I signed up that day. That was almost a year ago when I received 2689 grafts and now I am more bald then when I started. A few of my friends who were also balding, decided to shave their heads (one actually clipped it close like a military hair cut) and they looked surprisingly good. I realized that if I shaved my head or even cut it short, I would still have this scar on the back. Can I go back and be bald again? Can the scar be reverse?

Part of the problem with doing hair transplants in a 20 year old is that they make more of an emotional decision than a logical one. For you the right treatment would have been Propecia (assuming the diagnosis of genetic balding is correct) and to wait at least a year to see if the balding (thinning hair) would reverse. There are many reasons that someone of your age should be treated with medications (like Propecia or minoxidil) including:

  1. Seeing how bad your hair loss will become. The pattern of hair loss for a man is usually not exposed until after the age of 26.
  2. See if the medications alone will solve your problem by reversing it or stopping it.
  3. Living with the problem and continued research by you in this area may give you more insight into your problem.
  4. Time to build an adequate war chest of money, which is often a problem for someone of your age either in college or just into the workforce.

These problems are blown up for you because you are a young man who is acting on hair loss that may or may not be in your future.

Although most of the clinics use some professional salesmen (people who know how to sell, because that is what they do for a living and have a financial incentive to sell you, although illegal in many states), some doctors are no better than the salesmen when their objective is to get you talked into a transplant. A good doctor would have your interests over his own financial interest because that is the oath he took when he became a doctor. With that said, some rotten apples got into the barrel of good apples and became con-men for people like you. I would have no hesitation saying that if you were pressured into having a hair transplant and had not been started on Propecia, this is malpractice and possibly a felony on consumer protection issues and medical board ethics. You should report that doctor to the medical board.

With regard to your desire to reverse it, that would be highly improbable with today’s technology. Laser hair removal will remove the pigment of the skin where each graft is individually hit with a laser to kill the hair one at a time. Even follicular unit extraction (FUE) will not address the recipient area. With regard to your donor scar, it might be made skinnier but still not skinny enough for shaving your head. I always tell patients that the good and bad news about a hair transplant is that it is permanent. I would be happy to see you for a second opinion.


2007-09-12 14:48:33Hair Transplants Were a Bad Decision for Me!

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Hairline advancement Surgery for men is a NoNo!

If the person has never had diffuse hair loss (like me). I suspect if it was in my genes, the so-called “diffuse thinning”, I would already have it and as you can see my head is full of hair, I’m merely a “receeder” not a “diffuse thinner”, Could the forehead reduction surgery ON ITS OWN cause diffuse hair loss?

As a general rule, I believe that forehead advancement surgery in men puts them at risk of balding and showing the scarring and making it look unnatural if that should happen. IF a man had a Bill Clinton hairline or a Ronald Reagan hairline, and they were over 45 with a normal HAIRCHECK test, I would not have a problem with a hairline advancement surgery on them.


2020-09-15 12:43:53Hairline advancement Surgery for men is a NoNo!

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Victim spent six years and thousands of dollars on hair surgeries

Hair loss victim spent six years and thousands of dollars on hair surgeries, and is still not normal nor has enough hair

I constantly warn consumers wishing to get hair transplants to find a doctor who cares about you, not the money you have in the bank. You can tell because a good doctor will develop a Master Plan for you which may or may not include a hair transplant. That doctor will measure your donor supply (an important metric) and give you an estimate on what your hair loss pattern might develop into over time and what you will have to do to keep yourself hairy. Here is a story that I commented from Reddit which is important for everyone considering a hair transplant to read: https://baldingblog.com/22-year-old-received-a-hair-transplant-of-2800-grafts-from-reddit/


2020-10-05 12:03:16Victim spent six years and thousands of dollars on hair surgeries

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Vitamin A & D and Female Hair Loss

(female) regarding hair loss. I have tried it all, propecia, rogaine, the works. what i’d like to know is, I take loads of vitamins and supplements. I have hashimoto’s which I read I should take among others Vit.A and/or omega 3 fish oils. I was taking 5,000-10,000 of A and 400 iu of D. Then I thought I should get my a & d from fish oil instead. I take (2) 2500 Vit a and 250 vit.d a day.My question now becomes this. Would I need to take the same amount of Vit.a & d in the fish oil as in a regular a/d capsule which is from say carotene. I know a & d can become toxic and causes loss of hair and I’m wondering if that is my problem. What is a safe amount?? And which/ or both do you suggest.

As a rule, a normal healthy diet should provide you with ALL the essential vitamins and minerals for a normal healthy person. Millions of dollars are spent on marketing supplements to a health conscious society and it gives a skewed perspective on our health and subliminally gives us the message that we need to take these extra supplements to make us better (lose weight, grow hair, increase our sex drive, build muscle, feel happy, get smarter, reverse aging, etc). As long as things are not done in the extreme and it seems to help, there is nothing wrong with taking supplements. But there is no hard medical science to support majority of the claims.

With respect to Propecia, it is only FDA approved for male pattern hair loss in men. It is not approved for women. For more information on the use of Propecia in women, see: Treatments Available for Female Hair Loss. With respect to Rogaine, you can try it out, but it would take about a year to notice any benefit. I do not know if you had tried it for a year before you abandoned it. With respect to vitamins and supplements, if they work for you, then I see no reason to change the regimen. With respect to your thyroid condition, you should follow up with the doctor who is overseeing your treatment and follow his recommendation. It is not something you cure with just supplements.


2006-11-17 14:21:52Vitamin A & D and Female Hair Loss