Category: Uncategorized

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How Many Grafts Would I Need? I Am 28 Years Old.

To determine the necessary number of grafts, I need a frontal picture with your hair pulled back and your eyebrows lifted high so that your forehead creases. This will show me the anatomic point that allows me to determine the proper position of the hair line. The estimate will vary with the thickness of your hair. You will require more grafts if your hair is fine and fewer grafts for if your hair is coarse. If I had to guess where the hairline is, I would expect to do 2500+ grafts with fine hair and possibly 1600 grafts with coarse hair.

how many grafts would I need

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What do you think of my hairline? I am now 4 months after the surgery (photo)

I think that your hairline has an unusual design. It has been built with distinct mounds that are not normally found. If you don’t like your hairline design, a another hair transplant built with a good transition zone will help fix this problem but be sure you find a doctor who can do this. I have discussed hairline design here: https://baldingblog.com/2017/08/31/take-look-transplants-think-photo/


2017-09-05 05:30:35What do you think of my hairline? I am now 4 months after the surgery (photo)

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Great Success Story in Balding Young Man Using Medications to Reverse His Hair Loss (from Reddit) with Photos!

Great story. When you start early with the approach you used (like prior to the age of 21), the likeliness of these types of results increase significantly. Many times, different hair forums focus on the worst problems that people experience and too few come forward to tell their positive stories, which I know are much more common than most people realize. Congratulations.

The drugs do work. My hair regrowth journey (with pics) from tressless


2018-06-19 08:06:51Great Success Story in Balding Young Man Using Medications to Reverse His Hair Loss (from Reddit) with Photos!

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Thinning Hair on My Legs After Propecia Use

Doctor,

I have been on Propecia for close to 6 months now and am noticing some hair regrowth on the crown of my head. Over the same period of time, I have also noticed meaningful thinning of the hair on my legs, in particular in the shin area. I have read that reduction of DHT may lead to loss of body hair. While that is not a cause of major concern, I am worried that it may also lead to the thinning and loss of the eyebrows, as some propecia blogs have suggested. Are you aware of such a side effect and is there any medication to counter the loss of eyebrow hair? Thanks.

I have heard some reports (not actual medical studies, but patient reports) that loss of body (chest/leg) hair may be a side effect of Propecia. One patient reported that his chest hair disappeared and I was envious. However I have not heard about eyebrow hair loss with Propecia use. If it is, then it is rare. Even if there is some thinning of these hairs, in all likelihood it is a temporary problem. There are no medications to counter the loss of eyebrow hair.


2007-03-13 12:31:56Thinning Hair on My Legs After Propecia Use

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Gynecomastia from too many drugs

I got this from taking estrogens and oral antiandrogens. What do I do now?

Unfortunately, you loaded your system with estrogens and knocked down the balancing act with testosterone. Hopefully, you you stop it, it will go away but that is not guaranteed.

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Terrible Scar from incompetent surgeon (photo)

I got a hold of the operative note from the surgeon, and it was evident that the surgeon took out too much scalp and could not close the wound. The wound measured about 10 inches long and 2 1/2 inches high. When I first saw this patient the wound was infected and draining. He had asked his surgeon why his wound smelled so badly and was told it was normal. After a few weeks a pus draining on his pillow, he found me and came to my office. I leveled with him from the start and put together a plan so he knew what would happen to him. I treated the open wound and the infection over a few months. It finally healed with this terrible looking scar (something I expected and prepared the patient to expect). Working with Dr. Sheldon Kabaker, we placed a balloon expander in his head under the normal part of the scalp above the wound, stretched the scalp so that it would be able to cover this wound, and then, after 7 weeks of inflating the balloon twice a week in my office, we removed the scar and closed the wound. He looked great once it was completed with a wound that was barely visible. Unfortunately, he was ‘out-of-commission’ from a work perspective for about 5 months. He was a ‘high profile professor’ at a major university in Southern California and despite his education, he didn’t research his surgeon before selecting his initial doctor.

He ended up like he never had anything go wrong in the first place because when we fixed the scar, we also fixed his frontal hair transplant that were messed up by that same surgeon with hair we harvested from the expanded normal scalp. The take home message here is: Make sure that the doctor you select for your hair reconstruction procedure is credentialed and experienced, and knows what he is doing. Strip hair transplants are safe surgeries when done in competent hands. I am a god example of it, as I had three strip surgeries over 25 years to put hair in my bald crown and I don’t have a detectable scar.


2020-02-19 07:55:09Terrible Scar from incompetent surgeon (photo)

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Hair Attachments for Women

My girlfriend and I don’t think that we have hair loss problems (at least not yet), but we would LOVE to have fuller hair so that we wouldn’t need to use hair extensions (which I assume all the celebs use because no one has hair like that!). Could transplants do this for us too?

Historical Perspective: It is important to understand that many of the accoutrements that adorn our bodies arose from earlier, less sophisticated times. The use of wigs date back to the Egyptians in the years between 4000-300 BC. They were used extensively by men and women. The Greeks were the first to popularize wigs and braids and that began the long torturous route to hair styles that cycled in popularity for the next few thousand years. In the middle ages (1200-1400 AD), single women showed their health and vitality by demonstrating full heads of hair, much of the hair manufactured from animals. Once married, only the husband could see the head uncovered, so it was the young single, female that had to appear healthy and capable of producing healthy children. Even back then, women were packaging themselves for the marriage process. As the populations started to concentrate more and more in the cities, the disease tuberculosis, took its toll. For the malnourished females whose heads were uncovered, their hair showed a window into their core health. Those women who were not sick but had the misfortune to have a fine hair, appeared sickly. So women with a thin head of hair wore a wig or used braids to increase the fullness of their hair, thus appearing healthier. Sexual attractiveness and a healthy appearance were inextricably linked early in our evolving society. Paintings since the late renaissance, showed women with abundant body fat and full heads of luxurious hair. As tuberculosis is blind to socioeconomic conditions, the successful artisans were engaged by wealthier clients to create the illusion of health with abundant hair and lots of braids. The concepts of portrait art, showed what the person wanted to look like, not what they actually looked like. As the hair became thicker, it hid signs of illness or malnutrition. Braids became common place and the use of wigs and other hair extensions remain part of our cultural heritage, as our question suggests.

No, hair transplantation should not be used to increase the fullness of a normal head of hair, but the use of hair extensions and other such devices comes with a hidden cost for some people. That cost can be progressive hair loss. When it happens, it is caused by the continuous pulling that these devices produce on the hair at the point where they are attached. If you weave your existing hair into the matting of the extension to hold it, then the constant pulling from the attachment can produce Traction Alopecia (hair loss from pulling) and it can be permanent if the process continues. I have seen women with patches of hair loss or hair thinning from these extensions. What they do to manage the proble, is put in more extensions around the thinning area. This successfully masks the thinning area while it damages the healthy area nearby. Eventually, these damaged areas become confluent. My advice to you is to respect your hair and watch carefully for any signs of Traction Alopecia. Make sure that you are not starting a cycle that worsens with time.

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Tight Wound Following Strip Surgery

There appears to be both a widening of your scar and possibly some necrosis in the wound with over-active granulation tissue reaction to it as the necrotic skin appears to be shedding. A surgeon should clean up this wound and you will have to eventually address the scar that will be there.


2018-11-14 07:46:42Tight Wound Following Strip Surgery

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Hair Damage from Hot Straightening Iron

Hi, I have caused extensive damage to my hair through the use of a hot straightening iron. I am a 31 year old male who had minimal recession at the front and thick hair all over. My hair is now damaged and thinned all over from the hot iron and has recessed at the front dramatically in 6 months due to the damage. I have regrowth coming through but not really at the front from the damage. Is it wise to start propecia at this point I’ve stayed off using it waiting to see where the hair may grow back but after 6 months have not seen much at the front.

Thanks

You need a diagnosis as to the degree that genetic balding may be present. I would want to know where the damage is — is it limited to a particular area? There are many things that an examination of your scalp would show me, so rather than shoot from the hip, I would suggest that you go to a hair expert or dermatologist to work through the problem with you. It sounds bad, too serious to be treated over the internet.


2007-02-09 13:41:45Hair Damage from Hot Straightening Iron

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Tone Down the Humor — There Is Nothing Funny About Hair Loss!!

This blog is very informative, but I really think you should tone the humor down. I notice you make a lot of jokes about balding. There is nothing funny about it!! Especially not today, when there is quite a strong stigma about receding hairlines & thinning hair…i.e. (the creepy old man stigma). People kill themselves every day because of hair loss and I truly believe that there is a strong correlation between suicidal behavior and hair loss.

I think people who are affected by the disfigurement of hair loss, may also suffer from other health problems due to how the extreme stress of the condition affects their entire body and their activity levels. I for one, have experienced major health problems since I started losing hair. I guarantee you most people who commit suicide have some type of hair loss.

If the person losing hair feels disfigured because of the condition, it is one of the most serious medical issues one can suffer from because of how it wreaks absolute havoc on everything and tends to cause a “domino effect” where other organ systems get affected and fail over time (perhaps prematurely) due to the extreme stress hair loss causes. 2% of the male population doesn’t bald….that’s 40,000 people out of a city with 2,000,000. If you think about it, in today’s society..that’s not really that rare; plus, those are the people that are more likely to get the good jobs, be treated favorably, etc.

It’s survival of the fittest at it’s worst! I’ve noticed it is EXTREMELY hard (almost impossible) to get hired for a new job or get a supervisory position if you have any thinning/balding. These are all reasons why there is nothing funny about hair loss and why I hope every day that there is a treatment that can truly halt progressive hair loss.

I never make fun of people who are balding. With close to 10,000 posts on this blog, there are times we feel the need to inject some light-hearted humor. If I have offended anyone here with a particular post, please let me know! In the end, I have great respect for them and empathy for their experience. Only about half of the male population will experience some type of balding, but every part of us is connected. Our overall health reflects many organ systems and our mental health influences our body functions.

Hair loss is one of those things that men have no control over. For some men who take charge of their destiny, they exercise for better body health, eat well to prevent various diseases from impacting their body, don’t smoke, and educate themselves to shape their professional lives; however, other than taking a pill that may or may not control their hair loss, balding is a process that undermines a man’s self esteem. For some men, it even gives them the sense of hopelessness. I believe that is what you are talking about. This is why I love my hair restoration medical practice — I can help men manage their hair loss process, in turn giving them back their self esteem.