2018-05-07 06:24:192018-04-18 08:09:12I Had an FUE and Now Have Scars in the Back of My Head (photo)
Taking Finasteride After a Hysterectomy?
Is it safe for a 50 year old woman that has no uterus to take Finasteride for hair loss
Yes. Finasteride is often tried in post-menopausal women, but the results are a mixed bag and the drug will not reliably return more hair to the thinning areas. There is an androgen sensitivity test for women by HairDX that could help determine if you’ll see possible benefits from the medication. Read more about that here.
Finasteride is a prescription drug, so you should discuss this further with your doctor.
FUE Transection
Hello Dr. Rassman,
One of your patients just checking in to say hi and ask a simple question:
Its been 10 years since your famous article on FUE (you link it frequently on this site)
How have your transection rates improved since then?
Back when we originally defined this procedure and published it in a peer reviewed journal (see here), we classified patients in 5 different categories defining the difficulty in doing FUE and the transection rate. These groups still apply and there are occasional patients (under 10%) who are still not good candidates for FUE. In other words, the human physiology has not changed over time.
Some patients may NEVER be good FUE candidates. We still strive for improvements, and with Dr. Pak’s engineering and clinical background we have changed our technique with a much better instrument that we pioneered to minimize transection. We recently received a patent on this instrument. When we made the breakthrough years ago, we called it the FUE2. This technology combines injecting fluid into the wound around the punch simultaneous with the extraction. The actual instrument has an injection needle welded to it. This has allowed us to decrease our transection rate in most of the patients years ago that we called “FOX negative”. The instrument design also allows us speed in the extraction process. Thanks to these innovations, the procedure is more practical, more efficient, and just plain better than most other instruments available (at least in our hands). Note the quality of the grafts in this link. The grafts are beautiful shaped and clearly show no transection.
Transection rates of under 10% should be the norm and when the transection rates go up above this number, we address with each patient who is impacted by a less efficient process. We still occasionally perform our infamous FOX test, which is essentially a test of up to 10 grafts extracted and the transection rate examined in this test group so we can anticipate the transection rates in advance. Unfortunately, not many doctors offer this test and the world continues to believe FUE is the best way to go about surgery (without taking transection into the equation).
Worse still, many doctors may misrepresent their transection rates and claim numbers that are unrealistic in their hands, but for marketing reasons they make claims suggesting they are as good as the best doctors out there. I know of a few doctors that live in an illusion which reflects technical skills that are way beyond their reach… and we see their patients frequently in the office for a second opinion.
Taking Propecia Preventatively
Dear doctor,
how do i find out if my hair loss has started or not? (my dad starting to lose his hair when he was 50, he has not lose all his hair yet but he you can see his scalp after washing his hair) …..do u think it is a good idea/time to start taking proprecia? i have been taking proprecia for nearly 3 months. what happen if i find out that my hair loss has not start, will i trigger the hair loss if i stop taking proprecia? Please teach me what to do. thank you so much for your time.
Get your hair mapped out for miniaturization and you will know for sure if the balding process has started. I doubt that Propecia will completely prevent the balding process if taken preventively. If I assume you saw no benefit yet on the drug, I would doubt that you would lose hair by stopping it now.
Funny hair piece video from Reddit
2021-07-15 11:06:532021-07-15 11:06:53Funny hair piece video from Reddit
Tattoos That Spread Can Be Mistaken as Cancer Metastases
I found this article of interest. It was in a woman who had extensive leg tattoos and known cervical cancer. A whole-body PET-CT scan revealed what appeared to be cancer spread in the left and right ileac lymph nodes, the team reports and this resulted in a surgical exploration of these lymph nodes which revealed the tattoo pigment in the lymph nodes not cancer. We know that Tattoos spread and in many body tattoos particularly when the tattoo is placed deep in the dermis. This produces lateral spreading to obtain the color backgrounds that the tattooist wants to achieve (Not what we do in scalp micropigmentation). These tattoos however do not stay in the deeper dermis, but move up the body’s lymphatics into the regional lymph nodes. Many of these pigments have heavy metals in them that have a tendency to migrate as the body tries to ‘clean it up’. Some of the temporary tattoos that are used in scalp micropigmentation have a silicon base, and silicon is known to migrate from the placement site to as far as the brain and lungs and if it is silicon based, that is a real risk.
We perform scalp micropigmentation with organic pigments (no silicon or heavy metals) and keep them located to the very upper part of the dermis to minimizes systemic spread. We are very aware that proper placement of the pigment is critical, not only to obtain the discrete ‘dots’ we create that looks like cut hairs, but to keep these ‘dots’ very superficial so that lateral spread is minimized.
Generic Hair Loss Drugs
Hello Dr. Rassman,
Well I am 23 year old student and I have been experiencing hair loss since I was about 22. My question is regarding dutas or the generic avodart that is made in India. Do you believe that this is a legitimate form of .5 mg dutasteride? Furthermore, I just order procerin and was going to take it in conjuction with the .5 mg dutas as a supplement as well as revivogen and tricomin. Do you recommend this and if not what do you recommend that I take to supplement the dutas. Thank you for your time.
I can not advise you on medications made off shore (India). The other supplements you discussed are not scientifically proven to my satisfaction. That does not mean that they do not work, just that I can not advise you that they do work. I generally stick to what I know works and that is limited to two approved medications Rogaine (or the generic form of it) and Propecia. The rest is up to you, the buyer.
tell me about body hair transplants, how good are they?
It is more than possible as many people have this done. The problem is the growth cycle of body hair which is about 6 months and the telogen cycle is 6 months. That means that if you are transplanting 100 hairs, only 50 will be growing at any one time. Because of the short hair cycle, the length is limited as well as the character which comes with the body hair texture. This, in combination, makes for considerable expense when doing these, you are only getting half of what a scalp or beard donor hair transplant would give you.
Getting a hair transplant before starting medications
Hey Dr. Rassman, so was just wondering on some advice , i’m considering getting a transplant as i’ve thinned fairly in the back and towards the front how ever have somewhat density there so i’m considering getting a transplant to give back some thickened and a hairline ! However like most people i’m worried about the sides of Fin , I have never taken fin before so don’t know i’m prone to side affect and don’t want to spend 1000s on a HT to find out i can’t take the fin to maintain is there a way to find out if i’d be prone to sides or should i just take sone before i got the th transplant and if so how long should i take it for to be sure ?
If you are in your 20s, it is likely that a hair transplant performed on you, might accelerate your hair loss. It almost always kicks out miniaturized hair and many of those hair may not look miniaturized but may be extensive where you think that you are thinning in the back and towards the front. Be careful at jumping the gun on hair transplant. Finasteride is a good way to stabilize the hair loss. Get a good doctor who will work with you. Go slow on your decision for a hair transplant especially if you are under 25
Terminal Hairs at Hairline
I read that all persons have peach fuzz and miniaturized hairs in the beginning of their hairlines, but my question is that if it is normal to see solitary terminal hairs 1 cm before the beginning of the hairline
Most hairlines are transition zones between the bare forehead and the thick hair of the scalp. Some people have a wider transition zone than others. Some people have solitary hairs in front of the transition zone, while others have a tight frontal hairline. We are all different. When I create a hairline, I always build a wide transition zone between the forehead and the scalp hair behind it so that the point where the hairline starts does not come on strong. Some patients want a strong hairline so I often find myself negotiating with these patients on this very point as we plan the hairline for the day of surgery.
2009-07-08 14:35:452009-07-07 13:29:40Terminal Hairs at Hairline