Balding Blog

Scalp reduction is the answer to your question. This is when there is a bald area in the back of the top of the head, and the surgeon removes the bald area and leaves a large scar running down the excision area. This is a permanent scar, and the bald area’s removal usually returns or worsens too quickly and makes the person more bald. Most of the time, in those days, the surgeon chased the recurrent balding with more and more Scalp Reductions. I know from personal experience because I had three of them done on my head, which left me scarred and with a paper-thin scalp that used to bleed regularly. I then figured out that if I transplanted it, the transplants would restore the infrastructure to the scarred area. I was lucky because I only had crown balding and a lot of donor hair. Still, I suspect that Donald Trump was not so lucky and ended up chasing his hair loss with the old type of plugs, leaving his donor area heavily depleted, as seen in this video.

I will assume that such a density will produce less than 100% growth. As the first doctor to perform dense packing (1994), I think that this is a reasonable comment. Also, with such a high density, the area covered will be limited so if this person is very bald, then it is possible that there will never be enough donor hair to cover the bald area as donor hair is limited. Most people (particularly from India) have donor densities that limit the number of total harvestable grafts to under 7000. With the densities shown here, this patient hopefully will never bald or he will run out of donor hair.

Hair transplant FUE- highest density ever achieved- Mumbai India- +91-9699581541; +91-9022725969 from tressless

Hi Doc, I have purchased 3 supplements for working out…ce2 ethel ester (creatine), papaya enzyme, nitro tech whey protein made by muscle tech. Are you aware of any of the ingredients in these that cause hair loss?

No, I am not aware of any specific ingredients in any supplements (when taken as directed) that could cause hair loss. Some of the supplements that may have steroid type effects cause hair loss. Keep in mind any medications, supplements, and food when taken in excess can be harmful to your body.

I have walked outside very briefly to do things like get groceries. I’ve also driven places with the sun coming through the car windows and sat in the car with the sun blockers down. Is this enough to have ruined my hair transplant? I’ve noticed one side seems thicker than the other and I’m about 19 days after surgery. I didn’t know the sun exposure issue was something that you’re supposed to avoid so hardcore or for so long (‘m reading anywhere from 3-6 months).

The hair transplant has skin at the top of the graft. This skin, which comes from the back of the head, has been protected by the hair for your entire life. They will get sunburned quickly when they are in the recipient area because they never saw the sun. Protecting these grafts is important. I have seen some men with multiple red dots on the transplanted grafts, reflecting a sunburn to the tops of these grafts. It takes months for these grafts to be able to tolerate the sun. In addition, the UV Light may not be great for healing.

Dr. Rassman,

I appreciate all of your feedback on a variety of issues. It really is so helpful for all of us.

I had a HT 3 weeks ago (FUE) with a top notch doctor. Everything went fine. At day 15 post op I was exposed to the Florida sun without a cap or sunscreen, but with hair covering the recipient area, for a total of 10-15 minutes — also during a car ride the sun was shining. I know you have written on this issue, and I have read all of the sun-related posts. However, I would like your thoughts on my situation please.

I noticed some slight pinkness, and the blotchy white and pink spots that I have read about, and some minor sensitivity to the scalp after the sun exposure. I did not have any blistering, and have not yet had any peeling in the area. I am now, since, using sunscreen 70 spf. My question is: is it likely that I affected the grafts, and their growth by this limited exposure (not a severe “red” burn) to the sun?

Please say “No”, but otherwise be objective, and thanks again.

“No”, I do not think you affected the graft.

Most doctors generally recommend protecting the skin from sun exposure (especially after any surgery), because the UV light can cause discoloration of the scar. I would think 15 min in the sun or riding in a car would not be an issue.

More and more healthy adults are raising the issue of “rational suicide” and we are ill prepared for this concelt. Doctors have thought about it for themselves if they should get very sick an terminal. Doctors are just people with the same concerns and at the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP) 2015 Annual Meeting, there was a session dedicated to the issue “aimed to provide guidance to clinicians who may be faced with elderly patients expressing a desire to die by suicide while they are still relatively healthy and cognitively intact”.

If you saw the movie Still Alica where Julianne Moore played a woman who knew she had early onset Alzheimer Disease and while she was rational, she made a tape in the hope that the ‘Alice of the future’ would see. She recognized that the Alice of the Future might be unable to take her life, so she created this video, step by step, on how to overdose herself with a bottle of pills she hid and tole that Alice how to find and what to do with it. OF course, as Hollywood or the writers would have it, she was incapable of following even the simplest instructions and failed to do what the rational Alice (the same person who should have been able to control her destiny, wanted.

I am 73 and healthy. My Great Grandmother lived to 114 and one Grandfather to 102. I hope that I will never be confronted with Alice’s problem whatever my age. If the terminal cancer patient who lived a good life and rationally wants to move on, he should be given the choice between suffering and a rational death. Death is something that we all will face and we should have the ability to face it with the dignity we want, particularly if we are rational and at the end of our lives. Governments should not only, not tell us how to live, but not interfere with our choices at the end of our lives.

There are good solutions. Any thoughts of suicide suggest you should speak with a support network or seek professional help. Doctors can help you with hair problems so that the man in the mirror will be acceptable to you. If you are in the Los Angeles area, come see me. The consultation is free.

On the verge of suicide from tressless

We’d both be 19 if he was still here. We were pretty alike. Both were studying together. Life bummed him out but not that much. Then hair loss hit. He started losing hair all over his head. Every doctor just said it was aggressive hair loss. His worries become amplified ten fold. Everything bummed him out, he wouldn’t leave his house. I wake up one day to my mum telling me that he hanged himself in his room when everyone was away. Nobody talks about how hair loss made everything worse. I understand depression plays a huge factor but it would have never happened if hair loss treatments were not complete bull shit. Guess what though? Now i’m going through the same thing. Rapidly losing my hair and people are noticing it. My own parents won’t even look at me the same way. Can the industry get its act together? I want to live. Why can’t people understand how balding screws up your mind at a young age.

Hair loss can be treated and today, with modern technology, almost every person can get the hair that they are losing back when in the hands of an experienced, ethical and skilled doctor. There is no hopelessness with balding, not at all. Yes, our industry may not focus well on people like you and your friend. I, for one, have had too many young men in your situation and I spend a lot of time with each of them. Most of the time I am successful in bonding in a positive way to impact their depression; however, depression needs professional help. I had one young man commit suicide after being mutilated by a hair transplant doctor with the old plugs and many scalp reduction surgeries. I knew about him because his mother and I bonded over his management, but he lived far away and a phone connection was not enough. When his mother called me and told me the terrible news, I felt that maybe I should have flown out to see him or send him the money to come to visit me in LA, Hindsight does’t help. Hair loss just adds to the depression that already exists in such young men and I keep seeing young men voice their depression about hair loss and relate it to hopelessness.