Balding Blog – Page 1298

June 17, 2009

Benicar and Minoxidil – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

I am a 62 yr. old woman who has been using Minoxydil for about 15 years since I had always had very thin hair and its usage really helped prevent fallout and even made my hair a bit thicker.

About 3 months ago, my doctor prescribed a blood pressure medication (Benicar) and it appears to be causing terrible hair loss (even though I am still using the Minoxydil). I will speak to the dr. about the hair loss but is it harmful to continue using the Minoxydil if I am taking BP medications? I am hoping to find a medication that will not have this side effect. I look forward to your answer as this is very depressing and worrisome

Benicar Benicar causes hair loss in 1% of patients… so it is quite rare. Speak with your doctors and see if there is an alternative medication that he/she would consider. The blood pressure impact of topical minoxidil should not be enough to impact your blood pressure management, but again, discuss this with the physician that is already treating your blood pressure.

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June 17, 2009

A Free Hair Transplant Would Solve My Depression – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Dear Dr. Rassman,
I started losing my hair after using hair gel at the age of 15 and now i am 19 years old. i lose hair from the top of my head and from the sides, is there anything that i can do to stop the hairloss. also could you tell me please if i could get a hair transplant from the NHS in england for free, because the hair loss has caused me to become very depressed and a hair transplant would solve my depression.

Hair loss is not from hair gel. If your loss started around the time you started using gel, it’s a coincidence. I doubt England’s National Health Service (NHS) would just hand out hair transplants because you wanted one. Genetic hair loss is found in roughly 50% of all men, so your case is not unusual. To halt the hair loss, you should talk with your doctor about the genetic process and a prescription for Propecia if your doctor believes it is genetic in origin.

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June 16, 2009

Hair Loss InformationIn the News – Removing Someone’s Wig in Taiwan Can Get You Jail Time! – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Snippet from the article:

A man who tore the wig off a telegenic Taiwan legislator last year was sentenced to five months in jail for depriving the MP of his freedom to look good, a court spokesman said Tuesday.

The Taipei District Court sentenced Huang Yung-tien, 50, to jail for snatching the toupee off the head of ruling Nationalist Party lawmaker Chiu Yi. Chiu has become a household name for his media-friendly offensives against the political opposition.

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Read the rest — Man toupee for revealing bald truth

The freedom to look good! I love that. I guess this actually happened in December of last year, but the article is about the man’s jail sentence. Seems a little harsh, but I’m no judge in Taiwan. The photo I included above is of the wigged man in question.

June 16, 2009

Wearing a Hat After a Hair Transplant – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

hello doc, I have to questions

i recently had a HT via FUE on thursday, today is tuesday so it has been 5 days so far. I have been wearing a hat and realized that it was breaking off a few transplanted grafts. When I look closely the stub of transplanted hair is still in my scalp but the rest of it has broken off. Do you think I killed my grafts this way?

Another Question. I washed my hair on friday night (next day after ht procedure) but then i read some where that I wasn’t suppose to wash it for 3 days. Could washing my grafts with a sponge and water next day after HT damage the grafts completely?

Thank you for your time

Hat I suppose if you see stubs of hair follicles out of your body with bulbs on them, it could reflect grafts and if that’s the case, what you lost will never grow. I’m really not sure what you’re seeing. A tight hat can pull out grafts, though the grafts should’ve been secured by the 5 day mark. I don’t know enough about your surgery — like where you had your hair transplant or what was really done.

You can wash your hair 12 hours after the surgery. As always, I am happy to answer all questions, but sometimes questions like these bother me. Why are you not asking this to your doctor? Why haven’t you got instruction on how to wash your hair after a hair transplant? Special instructions should’ve been supplied to you for the washing technique.

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June 16, 2009

I’m in My 20s — I Don’t Want to Take Viagra Because of Propecia! – Balding Blog

I’m in my mid-20s and began taking Propecia about 6 months ago. I was quite scared of the possible sexual side effects before I started the medication, and after 2 weeks on it, I think I experienced the erection troubles. A couple weeks later, the side effect went away. I went for a few months with no sign of symptoms, no problems with maintaining the erection… until I started seeing a new girl. We fooled around a few times and I didn’t have any troubles whatsoever. Then one night she got a little liquored up and we started to mess around. I was rock hard, but after several distractions I went to half mast. Since she’d been drinking, I think she just figured my problems in the bedroom were due to that. Like maybe I didn’t find her attractive when she was drunk or something.

The next day I got some Viagra from a friend so I wouldn’t have to worry about my performance and ever since then I’ve been using it whenever I thought I’d need it. But if I don’t take that blue pill yet and we start to get frisky, I start to wonder if I’d be able to keep it up. So is this just a case of me worrying about things too much, or could this be from the Propecia? I don’t want to have to constantly worry about taking a pill before I get physical with a girl.

Libido It sounds like you could be willing yourself into having problems like this. I mean, it sounds like you got so worked up about the possibility of side effects that you had a nocebo response. It could be from the Propecia, but erectile issues occur in less than 2% of men and the vast majority of claims made on the internet are unsubstantiated, so that percentage can seem greater than it is if you rely solely on fear-mongering web forum posters. The 2% number comes from actual medical studies. The erectile dysfunction symptoms can occur in adult men of any age without a medicinal cause, particularly in cases where you have a new sexual partner (or maybe even alcohol in excess). It’s not uncommon, but it’s just not something younger men… or men of any age… will openly share with their friends.

Talk to your physician about your own prescription for Viagra or a similar drug if you’re really concerned, and you should let him know that you’re taking Propecia (or go to the same doctor that prescribed that to you). You may want to experiment with Viagra when and if you get a steady girlfriend so you can sort through the psychological effects and the physiological effects. When men take Viagra and build psychological dependencies, that tends to take the fear factor out of sex.

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June 16, 2009

How Can I Tell if New Hair is Growing After TE? – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Hello Dr Rassman, I was wondering how you can tell if new hair is growing. I had Telogen Effluvium starting in october or so and it has stopped and i can only see new growth right at my frontal hair line. I am also using retin A and it gets applied around there so im not sure if it is the retin a regrowing the hair or my hair is growing everywhere. IN SHORT: Is it possible to see new hair growth mid scalp amongst long hair.

Also, Im unclear about when people say hair may not regrow from TE. Is this only if the people were going to bald within the next few years, in other words will hair always grow back from TE so long as you have no predisposition to genetic balding .

With telogen effluvium (TE) you will likely regrow the hair, but in some people it may not always grow back to the full thickness you once had. In your case though, you stated that you are seeing new hair growth. So there you go! If you want to see it under a video microscope, these new hairs show up well. Logically if you are seeing short hair growing amongst long hair that would be new hair growing, right? There is no big secret to seeing hairs grow.

With respect to Retin A, I doubt that is causing the hair growth, as it is an irritant.

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June 15, 2009

Hair Loss InformationIs There a Drug to Block Propecia Side Effects? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I am male and in my late 20’s and starting to see that my hair is thinning. I was on propecia for a very short time and had to stop do to side effects(breast pain and ed). I tried cutting down the dose (without stopping) but the side affects continued. I’ve read on a few sites including wikipedia that Sweden claims finasteride has permanent sexual side effects. Has anyone found something to take with propecia to eliminate or block side effects? If you think I should give it another chance how would you suggest I go about it? I don’t want to take minoxidil because how it works is fairly unknown. If topical Spironolactone works for acnea doesn’t that mean it does absorb into the skin enough to compete with dht receptors? Topical spironolactone inhibits dihydrotestosterone receptors in human sebaceous glands: an autoradiographic study in subjects with acne vulgaris.

If I decide to try topical spiro, is it something my gp can prescribe? if not could you varify if the much talked about Dr. Richard Lee is credible (or atleast not another scam). I’m not opposed to a hair procedure but because I’m just starting to thin I’m not sure how and how often it would be done and the cost. I know this was lengthy but it’s much appreciated

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I do not know of anything that will block the possible breast and erectile side effects of finasteride that a tiny percentage of men will see. If you experience erection issues, Viagra or Cialis will likely solve that. For my patients that might see a side effect (real or otherwise), cutting the dosage is better than stopping it completely. In other words, some finasteride is better than no finasteride if you want to treat your hair loss. Most men will choose the hair transplant approach if the side effects are a problem, but the risk of shock loss in young men with transplants is the other side of that coin.

Spironolactone is a prescription medication, so while your doctor could prescribe it to you, he/she might not be willing to do so. That article you referenced is over 20 years old, and spironolactone is still not a popular hair loss treatment for men… so that should tell you something about it’s effectiveness. And as for Dr. Richard Lee, he has a number of customized minoxidil and finasteride treatments for sale via his website, one of which I have written about before.

June 15, 2009

Did Actor Dolph Lundgren Have a Hair Transplant? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Do you think that Dolph Lundgren has had a hair transplant? Does he have a norwood 2 hairline?

Thank you Dr!

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I would guess that the answer is no on the hair transplant and yes on the Norwood Class 2. For starters, anyone in Hollywood with a transplant scar at the back of his head would likely never cut his hair that short (note the photo below on the left from late 2006). Even an FUE procedure would produce a small set of punctate scars. In addition, the density I can see appears normal, indicating that it is not a hair transplant… but pictures could be misleading.

Photo sources: Dolph at Rocky Balboa premiere (2006), Dolph (unknown year), Dolph in Rocky IV (1985)

June 15, 2009

Will I Have Hair Loss After My Hysterectomy? – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

I am having a hysterectomy July 31st and was instructed to stop taking my birth control pills which I did as of March. In the meantime, I ruptured both of my achilles tendons and had major surgery. I started losing my hair not too long after the surgery and thought the hair loss was due to the surgery. After reading some comments online, I realized that the hair loss is probably due to having stopped taking the pill. Now I’m concerned that with this major surgery and another coming up soon, I will continue to lose more and more hair. Is there anything I can do to stop the hair loss? I am terrified of going bald!

I doubt that you will become bald. Reactive hair loss after a major surgery is often cyclical and often will return if you are one of the unlucky people to experience. There is no way to prevent this in those that have experienced it in the past.

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June 15, 2009

Kronos Hair Care – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Wow…just wow…they really are making people believe this stuff can prevent hair loss and “help hair color retention”…

kronos.glow.com

I hope no one wastes money on this stuff.

I haven’t heard of Kronos, but with their “patent-pending t-sfere technology” how could you go wrong? The product looks to be another of the many volumizing shampoos on the market. Nothing special I can see, aside from the aforementioned “t-sfere”, whatever that is. My dictum, as to paraphrase your comments, is “let the buyer beware”!

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