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Ringworm on My Stomach — If It Spreads to My Scalp Will I Lose Hair?

I have ringworm on my stomach. I am kinda freaking out about it! Every little itch I have, I think it’s going to be a new spot of ringworm. I have a really dry scalp as it is, but my main question is, if the ringworm has spread to my head, will my hair fall out? Does this happen in every single case of ringworm on the scalp, or can it possibly not cause hair-loss and continue to grow?

If you have ringworm on your abdomen, it can be treated and it will not necessarily spread anywhere if it is under good treatment. Ringworm is not really a worm, but a fungus. See a doctor about this soon so you can stop freaking out!

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Ringworm and Hair Loss

Do I have Ringworm, that is scarry? Where are the worms? I looked very carefully for them and did not see them. Are they like earthworms? Here is a picture of what my doctor called Ringworms as the cause of my hair loss.

Ringworm is a terrible term and I apologize for the medical profession’s use of it. A better term is tinea capitis and it is not a worm at all, but rather it is a fungal infection of the skin. For more info on this, please read:

This is one cause of localized hair loss that is relatively easy to treat and diagnosis is easy in the hands of a good family practice doctor or dermatologist.

Here’s a photo of what tinea capitis (better known as ringworm) infection looks like on the scalp:


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Rheumatoid Arthritis and Hair Transplants

Hi Dr. Rassman

I’m a 46 year old male and had an operation about 2 years ago with apprx. 2000 grafts. I had pretty good results after 1 year my hair had grow in fairly thick in the front where most of the grafts were placed. I have Rheumatoid arthritis so I’ve been on Methotrexate, Embrel, prednisone and a lot of vitamins for about 4 years. I’ve also been taking Finesteride for about 6-7yrs. On 5/14 to 5/17 I had tried a new drug (hydroxychloroquine) it is suppose to help the methotrexate for the RA. I had to stop it due to the many unpleasant side effects, which I think has something to do with my recent dramatic hair loss. Just in the last month my hair has been shedding dramatically and has thinned everywhere and very thin on the top crown area now. We are not sure if it is the hydroxychloroquine that caused the hair loss, but it’s very suspect. I’m still shedding 1 month after I stopped the (hydroxy- ) maybe a little less, but maybe because there is less hair now. Have you heard of hydroxychloroquine and hair loss?

1. My concern is does it hurt the chances of the hair that fell out from the medicine, if the case, from growing back when we put new grafts in or on top off the potential dormant hair?
2. Should I wait a little longer to see if some of the hair grows back before I do another procedure?
3. My other concern is would I have two scars or do you take just below the 1st donor area and somehow minimize the size of the 2 scars into one.

Thank you for your time…I’ve found some great info on this blog!

Yes, hydroxychloroquine (marketed as Plaquenil) can cause hair loss as a side effect (see About.com). In your situation, waiting a little bit on a hair transplant makes sense. It does not pay to have a hair transplant when you’re experiencing active hair loss, possibly from a drug. I can not comment on your scarring without seeing you. Usually, we can minimize the scars into one, but it depends upon what kind of scarring you currently have.

As you indicated that you are in Los Angeles, I would be pleased to see you and give you an opinion in my LA office.


2008-06-26 10:19:27Rheumatoid Arthritis and Hair Transplants

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Revivogen’s Study

Dear doctor,

Please go through the clinical study URL given below. I want your comments on this:

Revivogen clinical trials

Regards

As the article says, the study was conducted on reconstructed tissue samples. In other words, the study was done in a petri dish (not on live humans), in order to “assess the effects of the test compound on the metabolism of testosterone in reconstructed human epidermis.” Nothing about growing hair, stopping hair loss, etc.

The study doesn’t show anything about actual hair loss treatment results on living humans, so if the Revivogen makers are using it as a sales point, I hope people actually take a moment to look at the study first and judge for themselves. I’d expect most consumers would want the treatment they purchased to actually have proof that it works as advertised on living people… not just in theory based on lab results. Also, the study was not peer-reviewed, which means it wasn’t checked for errors or reliability.

I’ve already made it clear about the hair loss treatments I’ll give a thumbs up to (FDA approved finasteride and minoxidil), but if you want to try unproven treatments then please, by all means, do so. Revivogen ingredients include saw palmetto and numerous vitamins in a topical treatment and they claim no side effects. While that could be true, if this was the magic bullet to hair loss treatment it would be universally recommended. Instead, the product is just another in a long line of “all natural” treatments that I wouldn’t expect to provide much help aside from lightening your wallet and dashing your hopes.


2010-08-06 12:07:12Revivogen’s Study

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Revivogen vs Finasteride/Dutasteride

Hello,

What do you think of Revivogen and this recent study, comparing it to Finasteride and Dutasteride: study (PDF File)

The science looks interesting, but it is not clear from this study that there will be actual hair growth. If you want a known DHT blocker, finasteride is safe and proven to work. Nonetheless, I appreciate the link and thanks for sending.


2008-03-05 09:10:34Revivogen vs Finasteride/Dutasteride

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RevitaLash as Hair Loss Treatment?

What is you opinion on the product Hair by Revitalash? Do you think it has potential as a hair loss treatment? I know you would have to be careful not to get it in your eyes.

This post gets two responses…

Response from Dr. William Rassman:

There is no proof that this product will work on scalp hair, although there are some doctors trying it with their own form of human experimentation. I will certainly let you know when there is a credible scientific study released. I spoke to a representative of the manufacturer and they are interested in learning if it has an effect on scalp hair loss but they have not begun testing it.

Response from Dr. Bessam Farjo:

Actually at the ISHRS annual meeting in Amsterdam 2 weeks ago, I (Dr. Bessam Farjo) presented some initial data from a study my centre is working on in collaboration with University of Bradford in the UK. Our work so far is on human hair in the laboratory, but there were encouraging results showing that Bimatoprost (the active ingredient in Latisse eyelash treatment) can make the hairs grow longer and faster and prolong the anagen (growing) phase. We also identified that there is a receptor for this compound in the hair follicles explaining its mechanism of action. Further work is ongoing and may in the near future result in a clinical trial that would show what value if any these medications have for scalp hair.


2009-08-04 16:25:45RevitaLash as Hair Loss Treatment?

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Revita Shampoo

Hello,

I am 25 years old and have a gradually receding hairline around the temples and thinning hair for about the past two years, but I’ve been wary of getting propecia because of the health risks, and I thought about Rogaine Foam, but I heard that it it smelled and led to shedding, among other things. Since I’m trying to hang on to everything I have left, I didn’t want to take the risk of incurring significant shedding with Rogaine, as well as no promise I’d grow any hair back around my temples or forehead, so I did nothing but occasionally browse message boards until I came across information on Revita. It seemed like just what I was looking for; a shampoo that would at least reduce hair loss/thining. Well, I started using Revita about 5 weeks ago, and the first time I used it, leaving it on my hair for 2.5 minutes, then approx. 4 minutes, and my hair seemed a little thinner, but shinier. The next day I got a haircut so my hair was a little shorter and I continued using Revita 5-6 days a week, for the prescribed times, and I’ve noticed I’ve shed a couple 1-4 hairs just about every time I use it. This has been exceedingly disturbing, but I’m not sure if it’s just something that has to happen before it starts working better . . . I don’t know.

My theory – the reason I’m still using it – is that the hairs that are shedding are the ones closet to my forehead and temples and these are the real light hairs that already seemed on the verge of falling off. So I’m thinking that maybe just keeping the shampoo in the hair for so long and then rinsing it out is causing the weaker hairs to come off b/c of the contact. I’m hoping it’s just the weak hairs that will shed and the healthier hairs will become even healthier. But so far, I’ve seen none of the benefits promised by the company.

Thank you very much

RevitaI need to make this very, very clear to everyone — there is no shampoo currently available on the market that can regrow your hair. None!

This Revita product contains ketoconazole, which is a volumizer and can increase the hair shaft diameter by about 7%. This increase in shaft diameter may look like you have more hair and in fact, considering that fullness is a result of numbers and thickness of hair, you will have more hair that produces more fullness. Any shampoo that uses ketoconazole will have the same effect. By keeping it on for a few minutes before washing it off, the ketoconazole probably does a better job with thickening the hair shaft.

For those keeping score, ketoconazole is the active ingredient in Nizoral, and is a commonly used antifungal medication and dandruff treatment.

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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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Revising Non-Transplant Scars

Dr. Rassman,

This is a bit of a tangent. I had 3 surgeries with you folks between 97 and 2000, and I continue to be pleased with the results. It appears it will be quite some time before I need more work done. When I researched different groups, you folks stood head and shoulders above the rest in terms of professionalism and especially how much research you had done. It was clear you were at least as interested in advancing the art as being successful from the business end.

Thus I am interested in your opinion on scar revision. I have two 6-7 inch scars – one on my elbow from nerve transposition surgery, another one that is horseshoe shaped above my armpit from reattaching a torn pec from a snowboarding mishap. Both scars spread kind of badly, such that at spots they are about as thick as my index finger. Apparently both those spots tend to be high tension, which causes the spreading. Both incisions were sutured with plain stitches or staples, not any interior stitches.

I’ve been doing web research on and off for several years, but I haven’t been able to convince myself that there is any group or technique that has a good chance of making a big improvement. What are your thoughts about the state of the art of scar revision? Perhaps this is a new area of study to apply your innovation. 🙂

When a person has stretched scars on many parts of their body, I often think of diseases that produce this problem. You should first be sure that you do not have any of these diseases such as Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome which is a connective tissue disorder. You are correct that some scars that come from wounds which are located in areas where the skin is stressed, can stretch in any person, even those without a connective tissue disorder. Plastic surgeons are often good at dealing with changing the way forces are applied to these stretched areas. One common procedure for managing scars is a process called a Z-plasty, where a linear scar is change to a Z type scar so that the forces do not oppose each other to stretch the scar. In the scalp, there are other factors far too complex for me to cover in a blog response here.


2005-08-19 15:59:09Revising Non-Transplant Scars

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Revising a Donor Scar with a Tight Scalp?

I have hair transplant done 2 years ago about 2000 grafts, however I have a donor scar that runs from ear to ear and wider than 1 cm since the skin got constantly pulled. My head skin is very tight,so i am wondering what can I do to fix this ? I want to cut my hair short in the back. Should I transplant hair from other part back to the donor area or any other solutions?

thanks.

You should start doing scalp exercises (see video) and then try to get a surgeon to perform a scar revision surgery with new techniques that are available today. These do not always work, because your body has a new baseline after you have a surgery. You can also try transplanting hair to the scar using the FUE technique, which will work if a revision of the scar does not work. None of these methods are perfect, but they can minimize the look of the scarring. You need to see a doctor to discuss these options for your specific needs and expectations.


2008-09-12 09:44:32Revising a Donor Scar with a Tight Scalp?