Balding Blog

We have performed many reconstructions on Transgender females creating a rounded female hairline, and in your case, we would also add hair to thicken the thinning areas as well.

Is it possible for someone to get a transplant basically without affecting follicles that may be able to be saved still on the hair line without damaging them? I have a very diffuse hairline and am wondering if a good hair transplant doc could like weave transplant hairs in with the current for extra thickness. I think would look pretty good thanks

Transplanting a person with existing hair and transplanting into that area is a problem when the hairs are miniaturized. Miniaturization usually indicates the end of a hair’s life and if a hair transplant is done in these areas, then the hair loss of the miniaturized hairs gets accelerated. If you think about your question, if the hair was not miniaturized, then it would be unlikely to need a hair transplant in that area. I personally believe that if you ‘stabbed’ a good hair follicle, it would just bounce back and grow normally, even if it went through a shed and that is because the stem cells that back up these hairs know that the hair must be there and the hair cycling clock is always ticking on a normal “Terminal’ hair. I have seen some men transplanted who didn’t need a hair transplant and when I measured their hair bulk with the HAIRCHECK instrument, I found increases in hair bulk well above their normal level (using their donor site as a reference). In those young men, I knew that the doctors who did their hair transplants, did them for NO REASON other than MAKE MONEY off the backs of these naive men who didn’t do their research to find a caring, competent and HONEST doctor.

Almost all of the grafts collected by this surgical team was either transected or mutilated. It was surprising that the team was proud of them enough to publish this photo. Significantly less than half of these hair will survive the transplant. Is this a brargain?

A young man, about 30, went to 5 different doctors, and each performed a hair transplant. He changed doctors because the surgery failed each time, so he thought he would find a better doctor. He has well over 7,000 grafts after six surgeries. The last and final surgery brought him to a doctor who performed 10,000 body hair grafts, and that too failed, bringing his total graft count to well over 17,000.

I became aware of this man’s plight. I can’t even imagine how much money he spent, and how much debt he must have built up to pay for these transplants. My first thought was that maybe this man has a disease in his scalp that causes the hair grafts to reject. There are many such diseases that fall into the field of autoimmunity, and a biopsy should be done to determine if he, indeed, has one of these diseases. His donor site is fully depleted, so more transplants are not an option. His scalp is scarred, so he now he needs to wear a hat – not a good option for his profession.

He was referred to me for Scalp Micropigmentation, which is an excellent option if he is willing to take on the shaved look. We have managed many such patients with a depleted donor area and scars on the scalp, and they end up looking normal. See here: https://scalpmicropigmentation.com/scar-covering/

The good news is that transplanted grafts, especially if they are plump with a special type of fat, will help rebuild infrastructure.

I have done hair transplants on many patients who have alopecia, and they have seen a remarkable rebuild of the fatty infrastructure that comes along with the transplanted hair grafts.

The use of your turban with the pulling that is created from the tight wrap is the most likely cause of the hair loss. If the loss has been there for more than 8 months, it is probably permanent and the only good treatment is a hair transplant. We see this commonly in Sikh men and have treated this successfully with hair transplants many times.

Male, 19, Sikh… formerly had long hair, suffering from Traction Alopecia and created an account specially just to post on here and take your guys’ opinion on what should I do regarding this. Feel free to recommend anything although I think minoxidil would greatly help me. from tressless

I am 19 years old and I used to tie my hair up very tightly in high school and I wore hats which made me lose a lot of hair. My hair currently looks like (https://imgur.com/a/Rw7qVdf). I went to a dermatologist (looked at my head for 2 minutes), who prescribed me 2% ketoconazole and 100 mg minocycline, which helped for a while, but stopped working. I just ordered a months supply of: DHT shampoo, finasteride (1 mg), minoxidil, biotin gummies. I was wondering what your advice would be on taking each of those and what you think wouldn’t help me that much based on my circumstances. I believe I am/had suffering/suffered from traction alopecia. I completely stopped wearing hats and I shaved my head bald a few months ago. My hair grew back but it’s noticeably thin on the top and extremely thin in the crown area. Again, I appreciate you taking your time reading this.

Let me know if there’s any other information you need, or anything that would help you come to a conclusion on what I should use.

This doesn’t look like traction alopecia to me. It is very hard to get traction alopecia in the top and crown. In the frontal, it is a different story but your frontal hairline is good. I would suspect that this is early but quickly advancing male pattern balding and at 19, with this much balding, you should commence treatment immediately with finasteride, which is the only medication that might stop it.

Hi,
I am 15 and I have traction alopecia. I got it because I am of Sikh decent and I recently cut off my tightly tyed hair. I have bald spots in the back of my head, on my forhead, and the front of my sides by my forehead. I am desperate for help as Im just 15 and I want to do things with my hair. Right now I just have long hair to cover things up. Please tell me any medicines like rogaine or something that will help. Thanks

Traction alopecia in many young Sikhs may be permanent, even at your age. If you have not worn the turban for more than a year and no hair has grown back, chances are that only a hair transplant will solve the problem. Many Sikhs have this problem. You may consider seeing a hair restoration doctor (with your mother/father) to consider surgical options.

Hello. I have experienced thinning on my scalp and my transplant surgeon who did 2 of my eyebrow transplants & is now doing a third was going to put me on propecia, but I seriously doubt I have MPB. I think I have a bad case of traction alopecia because I believe I have sebhoraic dermatitis and in the past I used to scratch my head a lot and used a comb on it and I believe that is the cause of my recent thinning. it thinned at the time my scalp was extremely itchy and I have an intense itchiness in the thinning areas, however this was a few months ago. When i wet my hair it looks like it breaks into streaks. I read that you said that traction alopecia is reversible with most cases but since this was several months ago do you think there is still hope? How is traction alopecia reversed? I still have to see a dermatologist. My last question is, I have read that massaging your scalp with essential oils is good for your hair but I am afraid of massaging the thin areas since I don’t want to cause traction alopecia.

Seborrhea does not cause hair loss. Rubbing any oils into your scalp will only pull out the hairs that are already damaged from genetic causes. Once a person has real traction alopecia, is is usually permanent, but the pulled hair from one or two episodes of picking or scratching should reverse. Get a good doctor and establish a good working relationship with him/her.

Could a head band cause hair loss? I know the answer will probably be “if it pulls on the hair it may cause traction loss” which I understand, but I honestly don’t know if something like this has potential to pull on the hair.

Here is a photo of the item in question, it would be good to hear your thoughts on the possibility of traction loss: Photo

I guess another question is, since something like this pushes down on the hair, is traction possible from something pushing down on your head like this would? Thanks.

The band you are using does not appear tight. If that is correct, I would doubt that this would be a problem.