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Hair Loss from Pony Tail? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Does wearing your hair pulled back in a pony tail cause your hair line above forehead to recede???

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Wearing your hair pulled back in a pony tail rarely causes your frontal hair line to recede, unless you pull tightly on the hair most (or all) of the time. Traction alopecia is a common form of hair loss in the African-American community as the ‘pig-tails’ that are created by tightly braiding hair grows out, causing continuous pulling pressure to eventually produce loss of hair in the frontal and temple areas. Men who wear turbans all of the time suffer from the same type of hair loss as the African-American women, because the turbans pull on the entire frontal area creating permanent hair loss in the areas where the constant pull is.

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Hair Loss from Excessive Testosterone Levels? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

My husband is losing his hair due to excessive testosterone levels, this is an autoimmune cause am I correct? I was wondering if cortisone shots would help him.

Thank you

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I am not sure what you mean by excessive testosterone levels. Is he taking testosterone in large doses? Is he a weight lifter taking steroids? Are his testosterone levels high normally found as an incidental finding in a blood test? Has the test been repeated? What does your doctor say is the cause of the high testosterone levels? These are all critical questions that reflect your husband’s health that are pieces of the puzzle.

Now with regard to hair loss, testosterone does not cause hair loss unless there is a genetic predisposition to it or there is some other disease going on. If he has the genes for hair loss, then testosterone will be broken down by the body into DHT which will cause hair loss in these genetically prone people. If he adds exogenous testosterone treatments to his genetic predisposition, then hair loss will be accelerated.

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Female Hair Loss After Knee Surgery – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

I am a 26 year old female, just had knee surgery last year june 2005. I have been experiencing a tremendous amount of hair loss since then. I’ve read that it could be because of the anethesia, so, my question is how long after will this continue.

One of the manifestations (or presentations) of female genetic hair loss is that some women have hair that sheds easily with stress and then comes back. You will have to wait this out.

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Hair Loss InformationNHI and Bernstein Medical – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hi Dr. Rassman,

Thanks for this site. It has helped me with several of my questions on multiple occasions. My question is this: I followed one of the links on your site to Bernstein Medical and noticed that you have some pictures in your before and after sections that are of exactly the same people. The caption on his site reads: “view results of patients treated at our New York and New Jersey facilities using Dr. Bernstein’s pioneering hair restoration techniques.” Your website says that the pictures are all of NHI patients. Why do you have pictures of many of the same exact patients, and how does a customer know which patient was treated by which company?

These pictures are a big part of helping me decide where to get a transplant, and it is confusing seeing the same pictures on both sites so I really appreciate your answer.

Thanks.

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Dr. Robert Bernstein was part of the New Hair Institute from January 1995 – December 2004. These patients were treated by Dr. Bernstein and the NHI staff during these years. When Dr. Bernstein and I divided up the practice, the NHI staff in the east coast offices (that he and I trained) stayed with him. I had no interest in opening up another office at this time and have been trying to simplify my life with less offices. The split between Dr. Bernstein was only a business separation, as we continue to work together, sharing everything we do in this field. Any breakthroughs that either of us make are shared or jointly developed. We have continued to write scientific and clinical papers together for publication. I believe that Dr. Bernstein and I are doing almost identical work and that is because we developed almost everything together and published what we did so that the world knew it was a joint development. The patients that are shown on both sites were done by Dr. Bernstein, but they were actually patients of the New Hair Institute when Dr. Bernstein was working exclusively with us. Therefore, the photos should be on his site as well as NHI’s site.

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Hair Loss InformationEyebrow Transplants (with Photos) – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Is it true that eyebrow transplants do not behave like eyebrow hair?

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Hair for eyebrow transplants come from the head. As such, they retain their head hair characteristics. There is some need to match head hair and eyebrow hair to see that it is appropriate to use it. This matching is critical. In the afro hair, the hair from the scalp is kinky, and if that hair is moved to the eyebrow, it might not behave as you would hope and the kinky nature of the head hair may not look right in the eyebrow. If the shafts of head hair are too thick, it is possible to thin down the shaft thickness in the hands of an experienced surgeon. Most significantly, the eyebrow hair will grow long and it requires trimming a few times a week because it will grow out ½ inch per month. Not trimmed, it could obtain a length of 3 feet (or whatever the maximum hair length might grow to), which is something that will not look normal.

Here is an example of a patient who had eyebrow transplants in the medial part of his eyebrow. He had forgotten to trim it for almost a month before he came in.

The photo on the left is before; the photo in the middle is 6 months after (with long eyebrow hairs); the photo on the right is also 6 months after (with eyebrows trimmed).

The patient had less than 20 single hair grafts in the area where the long hair is seen. Click each photo to enlarge.

 

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Is My Hair Loss Normal? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hello there Dr. Rassman,thanks so much for your helpful blog. Here are 2 questions for you that I’m hoping you can help me with. I lost my full hairline (receding in temple area) when I was about 24. It receded for a couple of years and then stopped. I am now 33 and over the last 2 months has started again-very quickly!! It seems I can tell the difference weekly. I am now almost at just a strip in the center and this is quickly disappearing!! Is this normal or may other factors be at play. Also, does a 5mg Proscar pill cut in 4 have the same effect as Propecia?? Thanks for your help again, hope to hear from you soon.

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Male pattern baldness is never normal for the young man who wants to be hairy, but it is normal for your genetics. You are probably experiencing further hair loss and it could go through bouts of rapid loss. It is best to visit a doctor for thorough evaulation of your hair loss pattern by using a densitometer or a magnifying video camera to determine the amount of miniaturization that is present. Proscar and Propecia are the same drug, called Finasteride. Propecia is dosed at 1 mg of Finasteride. Many people cut Proscar (5 mg) into 4 pieces equal to 1.25 mg of Finasteride and the only difference is that the dose may vary based upon the size of the cut pieces.

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Hair Loss InformationAftercare Products for Eyebrow Transplantation – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Once one has had their eyebrows transplanted, do you know of, recommend or sell any products such as eyebrow gel, clear mascara etc. that helps keep the eyebrows in place (ie. something with a strong, long lasting hold)? Any information or recommendations you may have would be greatly appreciated.

Please get back to me at your earliest convenience,

Thank-you

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Most eyebrow transplants come from the scalp. I am assuming that the surgeon who did your eyebrow transplants put them in the correct direction and shallow enough to lay flat. Eyebrow transplants are a real art and they must be delicate and made up largely of single hairs.

Assuming that everything was done correctly, your new eyebrows will behave like head hair. If the character of your head hair is wild, unable to control easily, then the same will be the case for your new eyebrows. Relaxers for very wild hair may work, and using a good conditioner will relax it as well. You may have to put a fine wax on it. Speak to a good hair stylist for suggestions.

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Hair Loss InformationHigh Hairline in 22 Year Old Man – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Dear Doctor Rassman,
I am a healthy 22 year old man. I was born with a naturally receding hairline. It has been with me since I was a kid. I am experiencing no hair loss and I use Revivogen to shampoo. My receding hairline has always bothered me since I can remember and I wanted to know of some remedies to get rid of this hairline that is natural to me. I have been recommended a hair transplant and would like some recomendations from a professional such as yourself.

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At only age 22, you can not be sure if the hair loss may come on in the future. By age 30, you can tell by mapping out the hair for miniaturization. For this reason, we generally do not treat high hairlines, but that is a generality and is something that should be worked out with your doctor. I have transplanted the frontal hairlines in actors and male models your age, and would only do so after I had made a diagnosis and developed a Master Plan with them for a worst case scenario. I would consider this non-therapeutic and might consider doing it.

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Hair Loss InformationHair Regrowth After Waxing Scalp, Part 2 – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hi i recently sent you a question about waxing. [see Hair Regrowth After Waxing Scalp]

For some reason the waxed area appears worse. I am worried that I may have developed folliculitis on my scalp as a result. My entire scalp itches. It would be helpful if you could give me some information about folliculitis as well as the differences if any between folliculitis and folliculitis decalvans. Also it would be helpful if you could tell me what to do to contain the hair loss to only the waxed area basically prevent it from spreading.

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Folliculitis is a condition where the hair follicles get infected because of bacterial invasion, often secondary to some irritation or wound of the skin. Folliculitis can spread from one hair follicle to another by touching or scratching it, making it worse. It is a fairly common condition.

Folliculitis Decalvans is a rare condition affecting mainly the scalp leading to scarring alopecia. The cause of the condition is still unknown, abnormal host response to Staphylococcus aureus (a bacterial infection) has been postulated. Folliculitis Decalvans causes scarring with hair loss (alopecia). There are areas of “corn stalking” (grouped hairs arising within the area of alopecia), redness (erythema), crusting, and pustules. Due to severe scarring, permanent hair loss occurs in the involved sites.

As you may be aware, this is a diagnosis not for the amateur. Get a good dermatologist to take care of you, starting off with a proper diagnosis. Appropriate antibiotics will be recommended by the doctor, if indicated.

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Weak Results 6 Months After Transplant – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Hello. i’m 23 and had a 2000 graft procedure in new york on july 1st 2005. its been about 6 months and some weeks and i havent seen the dramatic results i thought i was suppose to see. I asked the doctor and he says its early and everyone is different, just wait and be patient. What do you think? I “feel” some hairs growing in different spots but not everywhere, and i have some slight cobblestoning, does that go away?
Thanks so much

I always tell my patients to wait a full 8 months before judging what the results look like. At 8 months, 80-90% of the transplants should have grown and much of them at styling length of 2 inches or so.

Be patient and wait it out. Significant changes will probably be evident in the next few months.

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