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Hair and self-confidence

I’m balding since i’m 23 and since then i never stopped looking at my hair in the mirror every time or looking at older pictures and my eyes goes to my hairs. Or also when i’m outside looking at peoples hair and comparing to mine or telling that guy has beautiful hair why not me.. Even now i’m 31 and i still do it it’s been more than 8 years that i do that. Fin saved me and got my hairline from 3 years ago (where my hair loss wasn’t so obvious) So i’m less sensitive to that but i’m still looking at other hairs and also mine every day

Your story is typical. Most men who see hair loss recognize for the first time that they are aging and nobody likes that reality. One of my sons noticed that his soccer skills have precipitously fallen down in the past few years and as he was always #1 in scoring, he now plays second class to the younger guys. We all, sooner or later, will recognize that we are getting older, sometimes it’s the hair, sometimes it’s the body’s performance, sometimes it is in the death of a friend way before his time. From the many celebrities (actors and musicians) I have worked with over the years, I found that their hair was critical to their art. Getting their hair back with drugs or a hair transplant gave them peace of mind so that they can focus on the things that are really important once their hair situation is a thing that they don’t have to deal with in the present.


2021-05-18 07:07:51Hair and self-confidence

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Thymuskin: Does the Thymus Gland Even Play a Role in Hair Growth?

I have been using thymuskin a topical shampoo and dropper solution made in Germany by Klett-Loch gmb. The company claims it reduces or inhibits DHT in the scalp, acting as a coating/membrane around the follicules. It is also a synthetic thymus extract/peptide originally from a baby calf, cow but is now synthetic due to cattle health, the German company claims. They say it also acts by boosting the level of thymosin and or boosting the thymus gland which normally shrinks in size. They say it was originally developed for chemotherapy patients that lost their hair after chemo, but soon they say the German doctors who were bald themselves started using the thymus product with success. It is extremely expensive to me @270.00 for a 2 month supply. Does thymosin and or the thymus gland play a role in hair follicule stimulation and or growth? Why did the chemo patients not lose hair when using it while under chemo? I ordered it because I thought with all the products out there, that surely a German company would not lie! It dosen’t suit them based on their history. haha funny. thanks Dr. Rassman

To my knowledge, nothing topical inhibits DHT production on the scalp, though there are some shampoos that claim to reduce scalp DHT. In my humble opinion, it is probably just marketing hype, but if it works as promised, the company can make a fortune selling it at any price worthy of putting in the effort. The Thymuskin North American distributor claims the product was sold for 20 years in Europe, but the amount of years a product is available in the European marketplace really doesn’t have any bearing on its effectiveness. The user reports online vary wildly, and with so many Thymuskin resellers and affiliate links out there looking to cash in, it really makes it hard to distinguish what is a real review and what is a disguised advertisement.

The thymus gland does not play a part in hair growth. There is an association between hair loss and the thymus gland in a special type of inherited disease, but that would not point to the use of any thymus extract in the treatment of the normal genetic hair loss that is common in the general population. I’m not sure what T-cells have to do with hair growth or hair loss, but these cells are in the critical path for autoimmune diseases. Again, in my humble opinion it is just marketing hype, but I will be glad to be proven wrong.

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Hair Coloring After Transplant

Hi Dr. Rassman.
First I would like to thank you and Dr. McClellan, for doing such a great job. It has only been a week since my surgery 1,700 grafts. 5 Years ago I had 1,100 grafts. Healing is occurring quite rapidly, and I feel the positive results around the corner.

I have somewhat fine, and curly hair age 38. Auburn brownish is my natural color. Redhead when I was younger. My father grayed heavily in his thirties, as did my brothers & I. I use either “Grecian Formula”, or “Just for Men” 5 minute hair coloring. (Light Brown to get as close to my natural color as possible). About a month prior to surgery, I had my hair highlighted bleach blonde, and the results were fantastic. I looked a lot less bald, with wonderful full blonde curls, and my brown underneath. It looks so natural and subtle that everyone thinks I have just been in the sun for a week. I am very pleased with this coloring. Because I only highlighted, the brown color treated area remains, its brown status.

The main question becomes at this point, is when can I use the “Grecian Formula”, or the “Just for Men 5 Minute Hair Coloring again as my base?

And, when can I “bleach” highlight again?
A) My regular area.
B) Donor, and Transplanted area.

Thanks again to Dr. McClellan for doing such a great job last week.

Thank you for your kind words! I am hesitant to post this for fear that readers may think this is a ‘planted’ question, but you do raise some issues that have not been addressed in this blog. You can begin to color or bleach your hair once there is no more scabbing present and the skin is smooth. This usually happens within the first after surgery (in some people in days). I generally advise people to dye their hair immediately prior to the surgery so that there is no significant disruption to their schedules.

You also bring up an important point on the value of hair coloring. Lightening the hair always adds the look of fullness. In a question posed to me on April 21st (see: Platinum Blonde Patients), the question of blonde hair came up in a different context. That question has bothered me since it came in and as I looked through hundreds and hundreds of patient photos, fewer blondes were in my hair transplant group than non-blondes. Then I realized that the lack of blondes in my database of photos came about for two reasons:

  1. There are fewer blondes in the population (estimated at less than 10%). We are led to believe that the actual number is higher because there are many, many blonde women. Could it be that because ‘Blondes have more fun” women are becoming blonde far more frequently than men are?
  2. A platinum blonde man can lose 85% of the hair on the front, top and crown without knowing that he is going bald. This is because of the low color contrast between hair and skin color and that the shiny hair platinum blondes have makes balding less prominent.

In conclusion, men who are balding should think more like you and consider taking charge of coloring like some of the women out there are doing regularly. Maybe, just maybe, coloring can solve the hair thinning problem without a hair transplant for those who are not quite bald yet.

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Hair Falls Out When Running My Hand Through It

I’ve noticed recently when I run my had through my hair that there will be a few single hairs on my hand. I don’t know if this is a sign of going bald or just natural? My older brother is bald, but started going bald when he was about 23 or 24, I’m 27 and this is the first I’ve noticed hair falling out. I don’t see hair falling out in clumps, but could this be an early sign of balding?

Hair loss in a 27 year old man may start the way you are telling me about. You need to get your hair examination and mapped for miniaturization and that will tell you if you have genetic balding in its early stage.


2007-03-15 15:46:15Hair Falls Out When Running My Hand Through It

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Took Finasteride and lost some beard hair

I was on Minoxidil for six months and got good filling in pretty nice. With its use on my scalp I saw minor improvement. Two months ago, I started to use Finasteride and noticed my beard became patchy again almost like before I started using the Minoxidil. I want hair and a beard. I am not getting any side effects of either drug.

Finasteride is known to reduce beard and body hair in some people. Minoxidil on the beard may help it regrow. You might consider a higher dose if Minoxidil if you can tolerate it.

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Hair growth gone wild (photos)

This is the result of 3200 grafts from his first surgery, the second on his crown of 2200 more grafts about 2 months ago is now yet to grown out. He was thrilled this morning when he saw that he had to do something about all of that hair. So he combed it back and resent me the last picture from top down (to preserve his confidentiality) and another view with his hair combed back. Considering where he started from, that wasn’t a bad problem to have. He wrote: “I am unbelievably happy. Even after a long day, I get to look in the mirror and rejoice at the hair I haven’t had since I was 20. I also wanted to tell you that it affects my whole lifestyle in positive ways I didn’t fully anticipate. I used to have to keep my hair at an exact short length and then cover with a ton of concealer, and I lived in constant fear of wind, rain, etc. Going to the gym was a challenge because of the sweat. I don’t have to have my hair cut every three weeks, and I can engage in various sports and activities without that fear. I guess I was just so used to it that I didn’t fully anticipate how this would feel, in addition to how much better it looks.“



2020-03-05 19:12:54Hair growth gone wild (photos)

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Hair Loss After Anesthesia

Dear Dr. Rassman,

Im a 22 year old male from San Jose. I went to your NHI office when I was 22 and I was told to start taking Rogaine and propecia. It worked. However, in november of 2006 I had eye surgery under general and local anesthesia. Since then my hair has been falling out like mad. I was wondering what is the average time for this fall out to cease and will the hair I regrew on rogaine and propecia come back?

Hair loss is caused by four factors:

  1. genes (for the genetic defect)
  2. hormones (produced normally from the testicles)
  3. time (the longer the hair follicles are exposed to the hormones, the progressive nature of the hair loss will demonstrate itself)
  4. stress

Your surgery and anesthesia cause enough of a stress to accelerate your hair loss. If you are on Propecia and it still happened, you are now entering another phase of the hair loss process. It may not come back, but you should come back to see me and we will analyze this together.


2007-02-11 15:03:33Hair Loss After Anesthesia

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Traction Alopecia or Something Else? (Photos)

I am 19 years old and I used to tie my hair up very tightly in high school and I wore hats which made me lose a lot of hair. My hair currently looks like (https://imgur.com/a/Rw7qVdf). I went to a dermatologist (looked at my head for 2 minutes), who prescribed me 2% ketoconazole and 100 mg minocycline, which helped for a while, but stopped working. I just ordered a months supply of: DHT shampoo, finasteride (1 mg), minoxidil, biotin gummies. I was wondering what your advice would be on taking each of those and what you think wouldn’t help me that much based on my circumstances. I believe I am/had suffering/suffered from traction alopecia. I completely stopped wearing hats and I shaved my head bald a few months ago. My hair grew back but it’s noticeably thin on the top and extremely thin in the crown area. Again, I appreciate you taking your time reading this.

Let me know if there’s any other information you need, or anything that would help you come to a conclusion on what I should use.

This doesn’t look like traction alopecia to me. It is very hard to get traction alopecia in the top and crown. In the frontal, it is a different story but your frontal hairline is good. I would suspect that this is early but quickly advancing male pattern balding and at 19, with this much balding, you should commence treatment immediately with finasteride, which is the only medication that might stop it.


2020-05-11 08:51:50Traction Alopecia or Something Else? (Photos)