Category: Uncategorized

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I Tried Rogaine for the Bald Spots I Saw From Extensions, Then Lost More Hair!

I’m a 39 year old woman who started using Rogaine because I had a few bald spots from using hair extensions. I used it for about a week and have been shedding for the last six months. It’s pretty much stopped, but I’ve lost between sixty to seventy percent of my hair.

Will I regrow any of it back? I’m MAYBE having some baby hairs returning up front but I’m not seeing that anywhere else. Is it possible that it wasn’t growing back because it was in shed mode and now that that has stopped maybe there’s hope for regrowth? Thank you for your input!

I’m not sure what you’ve experienced with just a short history. Rogaine is used to grow hair. Some patients have reported initial hair loss in the first month, but those usually grow back within a few months. You can give it about a year to see if the hairs will grow back.

You must also consider there might be other unrelated causes of hair loss that are coinciding with the Rogaine use. Have you seen a doctor about this loss?

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I Want My Donor Area Repaired So I Can Shave My Head

Dear Dr. Rassman,

I am looking to have the donor area from an earlier procedure eliminated so that I could wear my hair extremely short or shaved.

Please let me know what you recommend.

Thanks in advance.

All cuts on the skin will produce a scar and most cannot be completely eliminated. Scars can certainly be minimized depending on the individual healing characteristics so that short hair is a reasonable option. At New Hair Institute (NHI), we continually strive to incorporate scar minimizing techniques in all our procedures and will tackle repairs of scars if they are there. Please refer to Techniques to Minimize Donor Scarring. Your original hair transplant surgeon should be able to address your scar. If not, I would be happy to meet with you in person or by phone to discuss your options.


2006-07-11 09:09:38I Want My Donor Area Repaired So I Can Shave My Head

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I Want to Remove All Transplanted Hairs by Laser

Hi,

I had transplants which were placed in an erratic fashion and running counter to one another. Now that my normal hair is disappearing this leaves a noticeable effect. These people were in my opinion very unprofessional.

I am resigned to baldness but I would like it to be normal and something I dont need to think about every day I see my hair in the mirror. I would be so eternally grateful to you if you could guide me to someone who can remove the transplanted hairs via laser while not disturbing the normal hair. I imagine this would require the use of some magnifying glass to distinguish exactly the transplants (easily noticeable once washed and blow dried) and a single hair laser remover.

This may take some time but I am willing to pay the appropriate charge and to travel. I would also like to have the scar from the back of my neck reduced to a fine line by excision and treatment.

I am going into baldness but I would like to do so with my dignity intact and not the way I am now. Whatever you can do to help me, I will forever be in your gratitude.

I have had a number of patients that just want to be bald. I couldn’t say what your personal options are, as every case is different. Electrolysis, for example, has a 50% failure rate per hair and the use of pinpoint lasers are generally not effective here either. Surgery works, but I would have to examine you to see just what has to be done. Extracting one follicle at a time may work, provided that you are not badly scarred in the transplanted area, but even then, fixing the scarring at the back of your head is something we do often.

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I Was a Heavy Drinker for Years and Now My Hair is Thinning at 22 Years Old!

Hi,

I just graduated college (22) and was a heavy drinker for four years (drunken stuper 3-4 nights a week, and heavy smoke the last year, as well as some drug use (vynase, oxycodone). Often times i’d be hungover for 12 hours, probably didn’t eat right.

I graduated and stopped, but was wondering if hair loss/thinning is temporary or not. My entire scalp is thin, with some receding.

Dad’s entire family has/had thick hair, one uncle on mom’s side went bald at 16, and so did his son.

DrunkWhile it’s obvious that you made some poor decisions re: drinking and drug use, I couldn’t tell you if they contributed to your hair loss. Nutritional problems can lead to hair loss, but you do have some family history of hair loss. The most likely culprit is genetics. I don’t know how long your hair loss has been going on or if you’ve done anything to treat it.

I would see a doctor for an examination of your scalp, and if you can find a doctor that will do microscopic miniaturization mapping, that’s even better. If you do have early genetic hair loss, Propecia would be a good way to slow the loss down. Talk to your doctor about that, as it is a prescription medication.

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I Was Responding to Finasteride, But I See More Loss Lately — Should I Switch to Dutasteride?

Dr. Rassman and co,

Thank you so much for this blog, it is a great source of information and truth.

My question to you: I am a very good responder to finasteride, have been on it since 2010. I have recently been losing more and more hair especially from my temples and hairline. Would you think or recommend that i switch to dutasteride?

Also i added Rogaine foam since 2012 and have noticed only slight results and maybe even some accelerated losses from the hairline and temples.

Thank you

The decision to switch to dutasteride is one that should be made between you and your prescribing doctor. I rarely prescribe dutasteride, however, when I do prescribe it, I usually require the patient to have had a course of finasteride first. I would allow a switch to dutasteride only on a case-by-case basis, so I can’t recommend it for you (especially because you’re not my patient and I don’t have your medical or hair loss history).

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If Every Male in My Family Lost Hair in Their 50s, Will I Follow Their Rate of Loss?

first i would like to say that i greatly appreciate your website and the time you put into it.

does the rate and age at which a male starts to bald corespond to the rate and age at which other men in their family start to bald? in other words, my dad and every guy on his side of the family and on my moms side of the family started going bald in their early 50s. does this mean that i will also start balding in my early 50s. also is it possible for me to start balding at the crown eventhough everyone in my family has never shown signs of baldness in that area?

i have been reading that scientists in britain have said that weightlifting can increase the rate of the male pattern baldness? is there any truth to this? do aerobic exercise reduce testosterone levels in your body?

thanks for your time

There is no way to be definitive in answering the question. Many people do follow their family patterns of hair loss. You may or may not. I do not believe that exercise increases hair loss unless you are taking exogenous steroids.


2008-11-17 13:48:56If Every Male in My Family Lost Hair in Their 50s, Will I Follow Their Rate of Loss?

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If I Have Thinning In Certain Scalp Areas, Will They Eventually Go Fully Bald?

Hi doc,

If you have very early bulk reductions in a certain area of the scalp, does this necessarily mean that you will be bald in those areas, or can someone’s final pattern only reflect thinning in certain areas? I am a NW2-3 with very early bulk reductions on the top and crown of my head, does this mean I am destined to be at least a NW6?

We all have some genetic pattern, but not all balding men will develop advanced balding patterns. These patterns are often final, so a class 3 may remain a class 3 pattern for life. This is why I’d want to perform a bulk assessment of the hair on your head, everywhere on your scalp. If the bulk is reduced, that may point to the final pattern you will develop. Also, by making these measurements, we can follow the success or failure in the treatment of hair loss with drugs like finasteride (Propecia).

Stop worrying and get yourself evaluated. We are often more frightened by what might happen than what will happen.

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If I Still Have My Hair By Age 33, Will It Be Unlikely to Lose It?

Is it true that by the age of around 33, if no genetic balding pattern has shown much of a sign of appearing it is unlikely that it will appear in a way that will result in major hairloss?

Although this is largely true, it is not a hard fast rule 100% of the time. Sean Connery had a perfect hairline (see update below) in the first of the James Bond movies (when he was in his early 30’s), yet today, his hair loss is quite advanced. His genes kicked in late enough for him to have developed that frame to his face which women find sexy. All of the James Bonds have that perfect, youthful hairline that set many standards for the sexy male image in Hollywood for years.

You need to find out what you have in terms of miniaturization. It would be unlikely that you would bald significantly if: (1) there was no miniaturization of the hair in the front, top or crown at 33, and (2) no one in your family started to bald later than 33. You can check your scalp for miniaturization by mapping it out. If none exists, the probability is that you may never bald, but nothing is ever certain, even for James Bond.

Update: A reader pointed out something I was oblivious to. Sean Connery was bald in his 20s.
From NNDB: “With an especially bad case of male pattern baldness, Connery began losing his hair at the age of 21. Without his toupee, he has been thoroughly bald for decades, except for a small ring of now-gray and thin hair above his ears”

Oops.


2006-04-26 12:48:01If I Still Have My Hair By Age 33, Will It Be Unlikely to Lose It?

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If Money Wasn’t a Problem, Where Would You Get a Hair Transplant Done?

Always look up the doctor and see his credentials (here are mine: https://newhair.com/doctors/rassman/ ). Ask to see his patients and meet them one-on-one because what you see is what you are going to get. It is not very complicated but too many doctors are ‘sold’ by salesmen who know how to convert you to get your money.


2020-06-11 09:59:15If Money Wasn’t a Problem, Where Would You Get a Hair Transplant Done?

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If Testosterone Peaks In My 20s, Why Am I Now Losing Hair at 40?

My question is about the link between DHT, testosterone, aging and hair loss.

If DHT levels are related to testosterone levels, and testosterone peaks at about age 18-22, how do we explain a hairline that does not even begin to recede until age 40? Does DHT increase with age? Do follicles become more sensitive to DHT with age? Is hair loss that begins at an older age caused by something other than DHT?

I will be turning 40. Up until about 1.5 years ago, my hair was very full – no signs of loss at all. Since then, it has gradually receded above the temples and it feels a little thinner on top. I’m not interested in Rogaine or Propecia, but I would like to understand what’s happening.

If you are losing hair (in a pattern), you probably have genetic balding. It generally happens in the early 20’s to the 30’s, but there are always exceptions to the rule (and it can happen in your 40’s and 50’s). In my opinion, it does not have to correlate with the levels of DHT, because it is programmed in your genes… and your genes will express your balding pattern as it was programmed to do. You can have very high levels of DHT and never go bald if you do not have the genes. Or you can have very low levels of DHT and still go bald because you do have the genes.

In the end, the best treatment for genetic balding in men is finasteride tablets daily to slow or stop the loss as long as possible (for those men with the genes for balding, so that DHT can be minimized). If you are not interested in the medical option (Rogaine/Propecia), then the surgical option would be hair transplants to address the corner recession.