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Who Invented the Strip Method?

Did you invent/discover the strip method for hair transplants??

No, I did not invent the strip method in hair transplantation. I do not believe there was an official inventor of it. The surgical crowd moved somewhat together in the evolution of the strip, which was a neat solution to harvesting that became obvious.

When I was learning about the state-of-the-art donor harvesting, I saw some doctors use a large drill and attached from end to end the holes that were used to harvest the plugs. This caused an irregular wound of connected holes that were sewn together. Any reasonably good surgeon could have figured out that an irregular, sloppy wound would be better created by a controlled strip, and that is what the surgeons were evolving towards. So you see, there isn’t always an inventor.

I remember that there were few doing strips when I started doing hair transplants in 1991. Dr. Paul Straub demonstrated the method to me back then. I immediately went to the strip for harvesting, having never used a large drill as others were doing. A few doctors were already using this method, but the art at that time was still about establishing large grafts, not small ones. When I started doing the surgery, I began with small grafts… and made them smaller and smaller, which required more and more of them to get the amount of hair that would make a difference. This refined the look of the hair transplant as we know it today.


2011-02-17 10:13:25Who Invented the Strip Method?

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How many FUE grafts are too many?

If I was to get a hair transplant but my hairloss progressed to the point I had to shave my head how visible would the scarring be at the back? Would I have visible white dots on the back of my head or do they fade

Scarring from FUE is inevitable; however, the amount of scar may not be enough to see it or make the donor area see-through. The scarring that you can see or the see-through donor area is the result of too many FUE grafts being harvested. If you think about the average donor supply having 12,000 follicular units (grafts in a surgical sense), then if you remove only 3000 of them, you are only removing 25% of the total donor supply. In a medium weight hair, that can be tolerated provided that the punch size used is not too large. But if you extract 6,000 FUE with FUE, then the numbers reduce by 50% and problems may arise, especially if your hair is fine in character.

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Why Bother With Taking Medication? Shouldn’t I Just Go Bald Enough for a Hair Transplant?

i am 25 and i was just starting to loose hair(have a small bald spot in ‘U’ shape at the crown and can be covered easily) . My doc confirmed it as pattern baldness and asked me to use finasteride and minoxidil 5%. i dont want to get bald at any age. So,instead of loosing hair after 10 years or whenever hair loss beats propecia and getting hair transplant,why not let the hair loose now and get a HT,so that i can save the money on drugs for years. My doc said thats stupid.whats your opinion?

I think it is a bad idea to wait for all your hair to fall out and then have hair transplant. First, it may not all fall out. Second, you will become balder when you are younger and the medication may delay this for years. You have a limited amount of permanent hair that can be used for hair transplantation. The cost of the drug is much, much less than a hair transplant.

You don’t have to take my word for it — if anyone wants to give their 2 cents, please leave a comment below to let this writer know what you would do in his shoes.


2008-02-13 10:35:35Why Bother With Taking Medication? Shouldn’t I Just Go Bald Enough for a Hair Transplant?

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How many grafts needed for my crown? (photo)

The number of grafts to cover the crown depends upon the thickness of your hair (fine, medium or coarse). As the balding area includes the swirl where the hair changes direction, it often takes more grafts to recreate it. I would guess between 1500 grafts (for coarse hair) and 2500 (for fine hair).


2020-04-19 15:45:03How many grafts needed for my crown? (photo)

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Why Do Doctors Think PRP is Helpful?

Dear Dr. Rassman

I hope you can help explain something to me regarding the treatment of hair loss with PRP. I was considering have a treatment of PRP + Acell but then read that one of the growth factors in PRP is TGF-B1 which has been claimed to be something that actually causes hair follicle death. Could you please explain to me how this growth factor supposedly helps when introduced to the scalp in PRP treatments? Is it somehow changed? or do the doctors using PRP not see it as harmful?

Thank you in advance for you answer and insight.

Regards

The use of platelet-rich plasma therapy (PRP) is a good way for a doctor to make money and probably not harm his patient. It’s the buzz du jour and is an excuse for some doctors to sell something extra. I’ve yet to see any satisfactory study that shows using PRP in a hair transplant has any value.

The NY Times wrote about PRP earlier this year — Does Platelet-Rich Plasma Therapy Really Work?.


2011-07-22 13:50:42Why Do Doctors Think PRP is Helpful?

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How Much Dutasteride Should I Take?

Good day Dr Rassman. Im about to start Dutasteride/avodart.. my question is. what type of Dosage would you recommend, could 0.5= a pill a day do the trick??? thanks in advance i really appreciate it

The dose for dutasteride for treating hair loss is not well understood, because the drug has a half life of 5 weeks. The long half life suggests that once a month dose would work, but the doctors who are using it tell me that 0.5mg per day is the right dose. This is the problem with this drug, as nobody knows the correct dose. When the FDA study in Korea is complete, we should have an idea how the dose response relationship works.


2007-05-10 11:36:43How Much Dutasteride Should I Take?

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Why does Finasteride not throw the body’s hormones out of balance?

I don’t know that I can really answer that. The human body does very well to adjust to small changes like what Finasteride does. We know, for example, that testosterone levels often rise with Finasteride, which is a body response to the drug. My son got an increased sex drive from his higher level of testosterone when he went on Finasteride.

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How Should I Treat My Recipient Area Immediately After A Hair Transplant

Any hair transplant should be treated the same with regard to the recipient area, but if the donor area has open wounds (FUE), it requires daily washing with soap and water. Within 3 days of surgery, you can resume full activities, heavy exercises if you wish. The recipient area requires daily washes as well to keep the recipient area free of crusts. I generally recommend the use of a sponge and supply our patients with a surgical sponge to fill with soapy water (we supply the shampoo) and press on the recipient area daily in a rolling motion, never rubbing it. By repeating this daily, all crusts can be washed off without any fear of losing grafts from day one forward. If any crust are present, use a Q tip and dip it into soapy water or shampoo and roll it on the crusts and that will lift them off without dislodging them, but never rub them, just roll the Q tip on the recipient crust. I like to see no evidence of any crusting in the recipient area and the crusts from the donor area gone in the first day with daily washing and stay that way. Here is an example of the way is should look like in 12 days with before and after pictures:

https://baldingblog.com/2007/12/14/12-days-after-hair-transplant-with-photos/

The following is an example of one of the worst crusting I have seen in a picture:

https://baldingblog.com/2015/06/04/fue-from-turkey-help/

The problem with this type of crusting, the grafts get pulled out as the crusts come off. We wrote about this in a medical journal here:

https://baldingblog.com/wp-content/uploads/pdf/mp-2006-graft-anchoring.pdf

The key is good washing starting from day one.

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How to Transition from Taking Propecia at Night to Taking it In the Morning?

Hi,

I’ve been taking propecia in the evening for a little over 2 months now. I have read your comments that state it is better to take propecia when you wake up and I was wondering what the best way to make the transition is. Should I skip a dosage at night then take it when I wake up and continue taking it in the morning after that?

Just take one the next morning. A 50% increase in the dose for one day will be insignificant in the management of your hair loss.


2007-01-12 10:11:30How to Transition from Taking Propecia at Night to Taking it In the Morning?