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Stress and Alopecia Universalis – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I keep reading that stress is not a factor in Alopecia Universalis but my daughter who just turned 20 began losing her hair a year ago, a few months after her sister died in a car accident and now is totally bald, lost most body hair and eyebrows. We all know it is from the shock and trauma…why doesn’t the medical profession accept that and what is the prognoisis now that it has happened?

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I can not comment on what you were told, but I know that such genetic conditions, which may occur normally in those with the impacted genes, can be accelerated by stress. You are correct, in a sense, that stress can precipitate what genetically would have come with time.

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Smoking Cigarettes and Hair Loss – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Does smoking cause hair loss, will smoking affect the success of a transplant? Best Regards.

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There are known effects on blood supply to the scalp and other areas of the body when one smokes. This may or may not contribute to hair loss. Many hair transplant surgeons warn patients that if they smoke, they run the risk of losing hair from a transplant or reducing the yield from a transplant. I have not found that to be the case, but from a good legal position, I must warn you of that possibility.

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When Does Stress Become a Factor in Hair Loss? – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

i am a 23 year old woman, who has always had VERY thick curly hair. I have noticed that my hair is much thinner and requires many more wraps of the hair tie to put it up in a pony tail. I am very upset and wondered if you had any clue what is going on. I do not have a receeding hair line or anything. how stressed out does a person have to be inorder to affect their hair? thanks

The internet is no place to get a good examination of your head, scalp, and hair. A good dermatologist should be a starting point. Some people get hair changes with age that is not necessarily diseased hair, and others get hair thinning and loss from medical problems (search woman’s hair loss on this site to see the many medical conditions that can cause hair loss). You need a good doctor to make an assessment of you and your problem. If you have genetic female hair loss, then hair loss can be a problem anytime you experience stress.

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What is Sufficient Donor Hair? – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

what do you mean by “sufficient donor hair” …any link where there is a pic differentating between “sufficient donor hair” and “insufficient donor hair”?

Hair transplantation requires that the supply of hair is more than adeqaute to meet the demand for hair. The smaller the balding area, the less will be the requirement for donor hair. There is also a ‘must’ where the donor hair must be in adequate quantities (density) and adequate quality (healthy). Low densities or poor quality of donor hair (the presence of Diffuse Unpatterned Alopecia, for example) means that the donor supply is insufficient to support a hair transplant.

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Masturbation and Hair Loss – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Im 20 years old and I am noticing my hair thinning on both the front left and front right sides of my head. Receding hair does exist in my family, however, for a while I had been excessively masturbating. This may have also been a cause, so Ive heard. What do you think? Is it possible for my hair to grow back thicker? And what would be the best thing for me to do?

Thinning hair does come from family genetics and I gather from your question that you have the genetics in your family history, which may point to the most probable cause of your hair loss. Genetic hair loss is caused by the interaction between your genes, your testosterone (and DHT levels), time, and stress. The young man has a great deal of circulating testosterone (which creates DHT, which causes hair loss and thinning on the negative side and hair growth in beard, chest hair, and hair almost everywhere else on the body, except the scalp). Because testosterone levels are high, the sex drive in young men is also very high. Frequent erections (in some teenage boys as many as 20 times per hour in some situations) produce a desire to masturbate (when the opportunity is right) to relieve the sexual drive. High testosterone levels and the desire to masturbate are a perfectly normal response to both your erections and the hormone levels driving them. As a culture, we hide our masturbating with some shame but the process is a normal process.

Your frequency of masturbation will not impact your hair loss; only things like genetics, hormones and hormone blocking agents like Propecia will impact your hair loss/thinning. You should have your scalp evaluated for miniaturization and balding patterns. If you do have genetic hair loss, you should get on the appropriate treatment (like Propecia), for if you do not treat it, the family pattern may prevail. It is said that men who are bald, are more sexually active than hairy men. I do not know if this is correct or not or if that means that bald men try harder. There are better statistics for hair loss than the masturbating habits of young, balding men. I would suggest that you masturbate all you want, just focus upon getting your hair diagnosis and treatment going in the right direction by taking action, rather than ignoring the proper approach to your problem. Keep hair loss and your penis agenda separate and give both, the attention they need. If you are able to come to Los Angeles, visit me and I would be happy to evaluate your hair loss and recommend the appropriate treatment for you.

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Hair Loss InformationHappy New Year! – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Happy New Year!

Once again, I am taking a few days off, so today’s entries will stand until more updates are entered on Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006. I have enjoyed the many questions asked of me and I hope that my words are comforting and educational to the readership.

A special thank you goes out to all readers of this site for helping to make 2005 such a great success. In just 8 months since this blog launched, there are now over 750 posts! I just hope that you have found BaldingBlog.com to be an informative (and possibly even entertaining) daily source for hair loss related discussion. 2005 was a great year for both the blog and the New Hair Institute. 2006 should prove to be even better!

I wish everyone a safe and Happy New Year! Now it’s party time!

 

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Hair Loss InformationFather and Son Hair Transplants (with Photos) – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

The photos below are of a father and son duo that I treated. The father had advanced balding with fine hair, while the son had early balding. The father got a nice result, but because he lost about 50,000 hairs over his lifetime and got back about 10,000 hairs from me, he could never have the same head of hair like his son. The son started on Propecia and with his average weight hair, he has had wonderful results. Hopefully, with Propecia continuing for years to come, he will hold on to the hair that his father lost in the pictures shown below. Click the photos below to enlarge.

The son’s before photos are here (the first photo was taken immediately after surgery):



The son’s after photos, which were taken after one procedure of 1,295 grafts, are here:



With the son’s use of Propecia, I believe that he will not follow in has father’s foot steps with regard to his hair. Since the son is in the family business, now the new leadership will be hairier than the old one.

The father’s before photos are here:



The father’s after photos, which were taken after two procedures totalling 4,879 grafts, are here:



Since male balding is genetic, it is not unusual that I work on family members, in fact many of our patients are from these extended families. Once I had the privilege of performing hair transplants on three generations of individuals in the same family. Usually, one member starts it off and when they are satisfied, other family members follow. I have done 17 members from one overseas family who flew here every few months after the patriarch was satisfied with his results. Usually, the father has it done first, then the son, followed by the uncles and grandfathers. However, I remember one particular movie producer who sent his son in for a hair transplant ‘test’ and he watched the change occur over the next year. When he saw how great his son’s finial results were, he felt it was safe for him to have the transplant so he came to surgery with the confidence he apparantly needed. We do offer family pricing when they come together, extending the hairy appearance into the balding clans, a few patients at a time and hair by hair.

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Washing Scabs One Week After Surgery – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I just had a FU mega-session 7 days ago. I have been very careful with daily washing of the 3000+ grafts that I had. I have been washing and rinsing only through a washcloth. I have been using the post-op copper peptides etc. I have been so careful that I have not really lost any of the scabs or crust associated with grafts. I even have been sleeping with moistened guaze under a surgical cap at night.

I am needing these (scabs etc.) to be gone so that I can return to work. In a previous posting you mentioned advocating “aggressive washing”. How should I be washing the grafts at 7 days post-op, in order to expedite the scab removal. I haven’t been picking at them but maybe I have been too careful…….Please help.

Your sight and advice are very valuable and I thank you for them……

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Washing is something that must be started at the time of the surgery so that when the patient leaves the surgical suite, the recipient area should be clot and blood free. A good thorough washing the morning following the transplant is critical as it will impact the appearance on all subsequent days. Good washing protects most people against folliculitis and infections of the donor wounds so daily or twice daily washes are critical. There is a washing art form, one which we teach our patients at the time of the surgery and on the day after, when most patients return for a hair wash administered by us. After 5-7 days, the scabs should be gone. If they are present to a significant degree, then you must be gentle with them for if you pull one out, the graft may come off with it. Mostly, if the wounds are small and the scabs are already shedding, you can wet your hair, cover it with a good conditioner when wet, leave it on for 10-15 minutes to allow the scabs to soak up the moisture, and then wash your hair using your finger tips to gently try to get the scabs off. Dr. Robert Bernstein and I just wrote a scientific paper on this to show that when the scabs are off, the grafts are safely anchored. The scabs anchor to the grafts, so if you pull on a scab the graft can come out with it. If you follow the washing technique I just outlined the scabs should come off in a day or two, providing that they are not anchored too tightly to the scalp.

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Hair Loss InformationFollow-Up From an NHI Patient, ProCede Question – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Dr. Rassman,
I had undergone a surgery at NHI, San Jose in 2003. I must say the transplant has been one of the best decisions I’ve taken in life. Thank you and your awesome staff! I could see my photograph is now featured in the NHI website. Wow!

After the holiday season, I am going to seek an appointment to evaluate the present state of scalp. However, I just came across a “cosmetic” hair-product called Procede that claims to “increase diameter of hair shaft”. However, they also say it’s “not going to work for persons who already had undergone Hair Transplantation”. That, frankly, sounds a bit weird to me.

Do you have any idea what this is?

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I am happy to hear about your nice results. Your photos are very impressive and the change must make you quite happy. It certainly made my day reading your email. For those interested, this patient’s photos can be seen on the NHI site as Patient NO.

I’ve written previously about Procede here. As to why they say the product is not suitable for people who have had hair transplantation, I can not imagine why it would be harmful. However, if that is their warning it suggests to me that there may be something toxic about the product. I have no inside knowledge about this product or its potential toxicity.

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Hair Loss InformationFrontal Hair Loss and Propecia – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hello Doctor
Does Propecia help with the Frontal Hair loss. My Hair loss is more in the fronal top part of the forehead. My right and left side has no hair loss.

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Propecia slows or stops hair loss throughout the head. In some cases, it will reverse the hair loss. These select cases are often younger men, but on occasion we see return of hair in older men, mostly in the crown.

In answer to your question about frontal hair loss, Propecia slows or stops hair loss everywhere you are impacted by the genetic balding process. The reversal is less frequent in the frontal areas, however. On occasion, I have seen complete reversal of hair loss in the front, top, and crown area in some young men.

For photos of Propecia’s regrowth results, see past blog entries: