Category: Uncategorized

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Resuming Activities After FUE

Good site…I had a strip procedure(5080) Feb./06…Pretty good results…I recently went back for a Fue procedure(1050) to touch up the middle, temple and on a part of the scar from the previous strip…

  1. How long should I wait before working out and running?
  2. How long does it take for the newly implanted grafts to settle in their new home?

Thanks and keep up the great work in helping others..

Thank you for the compliment. Where is your doctor? He/she should’ve supplied the answers to your questions as a matter of routine. These are the most basic of questions that should have been explained to you before your surgery.

To answer your questions:

  1. You can generally resume exercise after one week and you can run a marathon without difficulty (not to say that hair transplants will help you run better, but you get the idea). I always restrict heavy lifting, weights (under 40 lbs with proper lifting techniques), sit-ups, and pull-ups.
  2. Most grafts are relatively secure after a day or two.


2008-03-05 16:05:10Resuming Activities After FUE

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Does Spironolactone Cause More Hair Loss?

Hello Doctor Rassman,
Does spironolactone cause more hair loss? I seen a lot of people on the internet that claims propecia make their hair worse and others says that this is reflex hyperandrogeincity and their argument was “when DHT lessened testosterone increased alot and cause more hair loss!” but what about Sprio? I heard it decreased testosterone itself and also block androgen receptor, so how it could cause more hair loss?

I’ve always said the Internet is a great source for information, but not everything you read on the web is factual and true. If you want to treat your hair loss with a medication, you need to speak with a doctor. Anecdotal statements or claims found online will mostly mislead or confuse people.

Spironolactone does have theoretical anti-androgen factors, but clinically I have not seen or found credible evidence that it helps with androgenic alopecia. But I do understand that there are patients and doctors who use it as a treatment option. I do not.

Propecia (finasteride) does treat androgenic alopecia. It is not meant to cause hair loss. It is meant to grow hair. I understand there may be controversy on the Internet of Propecia’s side effects and some patients have strong feelings regarding those side effects. My opinion is that each and every individual talk with their doctor and discuss the side effects and understand the risks and benefits. In my practice, many patients use Propecia… and have been using it for over 10 years with no issues.

We can all sit on our ivory tower and debate the biochemical relevance of drugs and mechanisms, but in the end the results (hair growth) is what matters.

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Revising Scalp Scar from Non-Transplant Surgery

I am sending this message, wondering about scar revision surgery on the scalp. I have extensive scarring from a surgery when I was younger. I was born with a hairy nevis on my head and had to get it removed…all this happened before I could remember. I now have been living with the scars ever since. The doctor who did the surgery did a great job because the scarring isn’t terribly bad. It’s probably about a 1/4 inch (maybe smaller) in size and runs pretty much the length of my scalp forking off in the front and back, with the front fork being considerably smaller than the back one. I am 20 years old now and have been wanting to have something done about this ever since grade school when kids would make fun of me when i got my hair cut short. I know it’s not possible to completely remove the scar but after all the strechting that has been done to my scalp is there anyway to “hide” it better with some sort of surgery/hair transplant??? What about z-plasty???

ALL surgical cuts will leave a scar (as it did on your case). A Z-plasty is an elegant approach to reduce the size of the scar, but you will still be left with a Z-plasty scar. In either case, a hair transplant procedure works wonderfully when transplanted into such scars, but before I point you in that direction, you need to have an expert look at the scars and examine your head. Please send pictures and I would be happy to review your case (please reference this blog posting when sending the photos).


2006-11-29 15:35:24Revising Scalp Scar from Non-Transplant Surgery

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Does Transplanted Crown Hair Grow Slower Than Other Scalp Areas?

Hello Dr. Rassman. I got a ht done just under 6 months ago and i’ve noticed that the crown has shown little to no growth while the top front half of my head has shown a significant amount of growth. Could it possibly be the crown is the last place that sees the new hair growth?? the difference between the front and crown is very drastic and looks as if no hair was even transplanted in the crown. Im on week 25 so should the new hair in the crown have grown by now or is still too early? also, i still have those little red dots on my crown area but nowhere else on my scalp.

thanks in advance

Little red dots on your recipient area may reflect folliculitis and this can, on occasion, kill the transplants if not treated in a timely manner. You need to discuss this with your surgeon as he/she has a vested interest in your outcome.

I have often seen differences in the rate of growth from front to back or right to left. I would not worry a great deal if this is a rate dependent variable, unless you do not see the results you expect by the 8th month. I would expect some growth in most patients by now, but again, see your surgeon and discuss your concerns.

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Robot Hair Transplants

I read a small blurb in MensHealth this month that said there is technology being developed that uses machines or robot like devices to perform transplant surgery without damaging the skin.
It is also stated that the technology is only about two years away from being used. Have you heard of any such technology or have any other information on it?

The license to use our patent for this was granted to Restoration Robotics a few years ago. I have seen the technology and it works, but far less efficiently than we do in our office (with humans, not robots). The entire process is not perfected yet, so we all wait out the product release when and if it will come out.


2009-04-24 14:57:23Robot Hair Transplants

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Has my donor area been over-harvested with 5500 grafts? (photo)

Your donor area is clearly over-harvested and this will be a problem that only scalp micropigmentation can solve, see here: https://scalpmicropigmentation.com/scar-covering/. Some doctors just don’t get it and many doctors think because they can perform a successful FUE, that they understand what they are doing. More and more doctor are entering this field today for the money, maybe good for them but not good for the victims they produce. They are not bad people, just ignorant doctors. You have to be sure that your surgeon is (1) well trained in this field, (2) have a lot of experience, (3) are actually doing the surgery and not delegating it to technicians (often for hire techs) very commonly done with the Neograft systems, and (4) meet actual patients so that you can judge the competence of the doctor through the eyes of a few patients that had it done.

To help doctors out, I wrote an article to define how a doctor can determine what is the safe limits to FUE (https://baldingblog.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=20123&action=edit) and when you get problems like this man in the picture below where he exchanged a bald top of the head for a bald back of the head, NOT A GOOD EXCHANGE!

overharvested 16

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Rogaine Shedding, Nizoral

Hello, I’ve never used Rogaine, in fear of the “shedding” phase I’d heard about. What exactly is the “shedding” phase, if I may ask.

And will this product cause that? And is there a list of the ingredients anywhere or should I not be asking that? I’m just very curious.

Last but not least question, if this products is discontinued, I am assuming everything on the scalp goes back to “as it was” before, and are there any products that shouldn’t be used, such as Nizoral Shampoo?

Your help is greatly appreciated. Sorry, where can I purchase only the “hair grow” product, not the cleaner etc?

To answer your question about shedding from Rogaine use, please see my past response in “Hair Loss Worse After Rogaine”.

I am not completely sold on Nizoral shampoo, although I do believe that it is a good shampoo. I do not believe it is necessarily good at regrowing hair. There is not enough scientific data to support hair growth claims. You can buy Rogaine over the counter and I doubt that minoxidil (generic form) will ever go off the market. The miniaturized hairs become dependent upon minoxidil when you take it and when it works. If you were to stop the Rogaine (minoxidil) and there was a benefit of it, you will go back to your ‘before’ status, plus losing whatever hair you would have lost prior to starting the medication. This may very well leave you worse off.


2006-01-19 08:38:03Rogaine Shedding, Nizoral

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Safety of oral finasteride and minoxidil

I understand thank you once again. I was simply asking if oral min was generally considered safer in the long term then fin?

The answer for the drug finasteride and oral minoxidil is that if you don’t develop complications from the drugs, then they are safe for you. For example, oral minoxidil has a very rare cardiac side effect that is dangerous and must be picked up early (fainting, heart palpitations, allergy).

these are known complication of this drug so should you eliminate taking it because of this potential, even if it is rare? If you get sexual or other side effects from finasteride, then speak with your doctor and see if you should still take it. A few people believe that if you get sexual side effects and you stay on the drug, these side effects will continue (Post Finasteride Syndrome)


2020-07-14 06:51:24Safety of oral finasteride and minoxidil

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Dr. Gho’s Method for Hair Regeneration/Cloning

A reader send this posst to me:
Subject: New data on Dr Gho’s stem cell method

Message Body:
In 2012, you suggested the circumstances for making an exhaustive documentation on Dr. Gho’s ‘stem cell method’. The idea was to count the number or percentage of transplanted hairs that actually grew, along with investigating the donor.

Fine, but what then? Who validates it? Who can say whether such an effort is scientific or not. And what about credibility?

A sizeable study of such sort was made very recently, with photos. See it here:
https://www.baldtruthtalk.com/threads/26632-HASCI-analysis-w-photos-results

There is nothing here that looks lkike science to me. This is the problem I have had with Dr. Gho’s research.