Category: Uncategorized

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Hair Loss Following Pregnancy

Hello,
I recently had a baby at 28 weeks, due to a serious kidney infection that was almost fatal. since then we’ve been doing wonderful. Though, for the last month I have been noticing excessive hair loss. I know its probably due to a serious infection or hormonal but, how long do you think it will last and could I go bald before it then? Please help me!!!!

Hair loss following pregnancy is not uncommon and can be expected to reverse in most women within a year or so. In addition, I am sure that your serious illnesses contributed to the hair loss as well. You must show patience while you are going through this waiting process. I am assuming that you did not have a hair loss problem prior to the pregnancy. If this is incorrect, then I would have to know more about your history.

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Transplanting a Non-Balding Person’s Hairline?

Have you ever transplanted grafts along a non balding person’s hairline not to lower, but to thicken the hairline so that they could grow a fuller fringe if they had fairly fine hair?

In dealing with hairlines, transplanting a normal hairline just to thicken it is not advisable, as the transplant could damage the existing hair. I have fixed defective looking hairlines on male actors and models who need perfect frontal hairlines for their careers, so I have worked to keep their juvenile hairline intact.

For women who have normally high, non-balding hairlines, these can also be addressed with either frontal hair transplants to bring the hairline down or hairline lowering surgery. Many women have these procedures done.

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Hair Loss from Lithium

I lost 3/4 of my hair due to lithium. How do I get it back?

Many drugs are known causes of hair loss. If you stop taking it, your hair might come back — but at what price? Speak with the doctor who is prescribing lithium about alternative drugs.

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Transplanting Hair Into Burned Tissue

Dear Dr.
I am a recovered burn patient from childhood with forehead scars that extend to my left temple area. I was able to grow my hair to cover it as a young man until my late 30’s. My hair started to thin and I now wear a hair system to cover and blend the non hair scarred area. Are hair transplants now being able to be transplanted into scarred areas that are cosemetically acceptable. I have been told that bloodflow below my scarred areas is still good. Thank you for your response.

If your skin is what we call a full thickness, hair may be able to grow from it. If it is covered with a split thickness of skin and scar, it may not support hair growth. There are things that can be done today to bring your hair-baring skin here and may include a variety of surgeries like flaps, and balloon-stretching the normal scalp and rearranging it to cover the bare area. Some of the results are remarkable. I would be happy to give you an opinion and as you’ve indicated that you are in Southern California, I would suggest that you make an appointment with me and maybe together, we can address your problem. Please call my office at 800-NEW-HAIR to set up a free consultation.

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Hair Loss from Weight Lifting?

Dear Dr. Rassman,

I am a 24 year old male medical student. I have had a very gradually receding hairline for the past 2-3, but just recently (past 6-8 months) I noticed the shedding of hair has increased and my hair is thinning in the front. This realization really is depressing because I didn’ think I would start REALLY balding until I was well in my 30s. At least thats been the pattern in my immediate family. I have an appointment with the dermatologist in a month to pinpoint it to male pattern baldness and not something else just to make sure. Anyways, my question to you is whether or not there is a correlation between weight lifting and hairloss?

Working out, especially with heavy weights, will increase your testosterone levels. So the natural assumption would be that increased testosterone levels = increased DHT production = more hair loss. I personally have been a big fan of whey protein supplements, glutamine, and creatine to boost my gains in the gym. My parents always warned me against taking these saying it was “unnatural” and would have consequences in the long run, and now I’m wondering if they might have been right after all. I’ve had a protein shake(30 grams whey protein) and maybe 5 grams of glutamine maybe 3-5 times a week for the past 4-5 years. This is very coincident with the time that my hairline started to gradually recede.

I’m starting to wonder now whether my dedication to weight training and diet actually hastened the hair loss process. For now, I am discontinuing all forms of supplements including protein drinks and glutamine. Doing this will obviously cut my gains in the gym, but as long as I can save my hair for now I don’t care what it takes. What is your opinion on this???

What you are suggesting is logical, but there is no proof to it. Since you are 24 years old and at the peak of the early balding process when genetics generally tend to kick in, it may be coincidental with your training process. Realistically, if you have genetic hair loss you should have a diagnosis made, then probably treat it with Propecia, which should stop the hair loss impact of DHT reasonably well. As a medical student you should approach this process the correct way.

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Transplanting Wavy Hair

I am scheduled to go in for a consultation in two weeks for getting a procedure done. What I wanted to know, I have wavy hair but when it is short its not wavy. However, the wavy hair starts to come out on the top and front of my head first then the donor area follows a few week after. Wouldn’t that be a problem if I get a transplant b/c I will have straight hair in certain areas and then wavy hair?

Are most clinics required to develop a long term plan for future hair loss for a patient, and are they required to use devices to measure miniturization on the scalp for a patient?

You should always start off with a Master Plan, created by you and your doctor based upon his findings during your examination. If you have wavy hair in the donor area it will grow out as wavy hair in the transplanted area.

There are no requirements to measure miniaturization. It is something I stress in my practice and on this site, but many doctors do not do this, nor do they measure bulk of the hair in the various parts of the scalp in the initial examination.

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Hair Loss, Lasers, Drugs and Transplants

I am undergoing a hair loss treatment. This treatment involves lasers, basically a helmet that shines light on my head to deter DHT. I am somewhat skeptical, but it was the only option that was within my price range at the moment. I am 20 years old; my hair loss is not substantial. I am thinning on the top of my head and the most severe areas are in my hairline and the back of my head. I took this treatment to prevent my hair from thinning anymore. The thinning is not very obvious but I can tell it is still progressing. I wanted to know if transplanting hair from my own head would leave an area in the back of my head that hair will not grow on anymore. I also wanted to know if there are ways of getting transplants from other donors. Lastly, I want to know how much these treatments would cost and how effective the treatment I’m receiving is.

There is anecdotal evidence in Europe that hair lasers (Low Level Light Therapy / LLLT) increases hair growth. I’ve written about LLLT previously, here. Thinning of the hair in young men often starts off insidiously and gets slowly worse. At the beginning, you might actually lose 50% or more of your hair before you notice it. If you are a platinum blonde, you could lose 85% of your hair before it becomes noticable. The key is to make the diagnosis early and get on the only good, FDA approved DHT blocker that is out there: Propecia. This drug is the best and possibly the only real hope at this point to slow down, stop or reverse the hair loss. In young men, I have seen some wonderful reversals of hair loss. Transplants in a 20 year old without noticable hair loss is NOT something you should pursue at this time. When the donor area is harvested for hair transplants (the back of the head) it does not produce a bald area as you suggested in your question.

Laser treatments can be obtained from those who sell those services. We have a laser in our Los Angeles office, but do not sell the service at this time. I am told that the company that provides the service charges about $3000/year for treatment. Propecia costs range from $55/month to as high as $120/month depending upon the pharmacy you purchase it from. We sell it in our office at $53/month (very close to our cost). Transplants are sold by the graft. These surgical procedure generally cost a few thousand dollars per surgery, but they do last your lifetime. The more transplanted grafts you buy, the higher the fee.

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Treating Norwood “A” Patterns

Hi Dr Rassman,
my question is the following : How often do you see people with Norwood “A”-pattern hair loss that reach Norwood 7 (or 6) AND how difficult is a 5a pattern to treat with transplants (can they get full coverage). Seeing that you now offer SMP. Because I’m a Norwood 5a patient who recently had a FUE hair transplant with Dr. Pak in your Los Angeles office it’s was about 1,200 grafts and I have to tell you it was the best decision that I’ve could’ve made!! I’m thinking of having another FUE procedure, so I was thinking of having the FUE & SMP done together to get more density.

I would really appreciated if you could let me know what you think about my question.

Thanks for everything you do and keeping us informed. Oh and 1 million thanks for a great job and keeping up the great work!!!

I am pleased that you are pleased with Dr. Pak’s work!

The Class 5A pattern does not evolve into a Class 6 or 7 pattern. The original chart by Dr. O’Tar Norwood showed that the patterns defined in the diagrams are the end stage, particularly the “A” series. I like to work on the “A” pattern patients, because there is usually enough hair to give them whatever they want (that is, unless their original density is very low).

Scalp micro-pigmentation (SMP) with follicular unit extraction (FUE) is a great combination treatment where you can achieve the dense look with SMP and a natural real hair line in the front with the FUE.

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Why Does Hair Loss Start at the Temples or the Crown? (from Reddit)

Genetics dictate where the hair loss starts. No one understands why, but it is “observational”. It often starts at the hairline and in the crown then spreads from there according to your inherited pattern. Look at your family’s pattern (mother and father’s side) to see what might happen to you.

Why does hair loss start at the temples or the crown? from tressless


2018-09-14 09:29:02Why Does Hair Loss Start at the Temples or the Crown? (from Reddit)

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Trichotillomania and microneeding

Some people see regrowth from microneedling coupled with finesteride. If somebody’s hair loss is not entirely related to dht then would just microneedling have a better chance of working then for somebody who has dht related loss? For example some women experience this trichotillomania related hair loss issue and they most likely don’t have dht related loss. Do you think it’s worth a shot to try only microneedling? I already started but I wanted to know what you think.

At the end stage, trichotillomania causes traction alopecia and it is usually permanent. IF the person still has growth potential, all they need to do is to stop picking on the scalp and then wait for 6 months, when the hair will usually grow back. Adding microneedling to this might accelerate the growth of hair that is not ‘dead’ but will come back normally after 6 or so months