Homeopathic Hair Cures?

/by William Rassman, M.D./0 /

Any comments on Dr.Batra, he claims to have cured 70,000 hairloss patients. It supposedly worlds biggest homeopathic chain of clinics. Does homeopathy have any drugs that are proven?

I’m not familiar with Dr. Batra, but homeopathic treatments have been used for years and are claimed to be effective in a variety of ways. Unfortunately, most of these claims are not supported with scientific research and third party studies that do not have a financial interest in the success of the products, are rare. This clearly applies to claims of cures for the treatment of baldness. We can recommend a procedure or treatment only if it is proven to be safe and effective.

Tags: batra, homeopathic, homeopathy, hairloss, hair loss

I Have Alopecia Areata — What Can I Do About My Eyebrows?

/by William Rassman, M.D./0 /,

Hello baldingblog staff!

My question for you, I’m a guy , 35 years old, im suffering alopecia areata (patches). I really can do nothing, Im very affected by this disease and decide to completely shave my head and i deal with it. My real problem here to resolve is the eyebrows… I’m wondering what i should do for this particular case. Im not sure about tattooing my face. I’m sure the same way you just wrote it in your article, that it will look fake on a man… Anyway, I’m asking you what’s the best avenue for my needs here?

For men tattooing the eyebrow may look “fake”, but a stippled effect with some pencil on it may be helpful. There is no real great answer. Unfortunately for patients suffering with alopecia areata there is not much hope in terms of a hair transplant procedure as long as the disease stays active for then a hair transplant will not work. When the disease burns out (become inactive) then hair transplants can work and you can get your eyebrows back. There is always a risk that the disease may return.

Tags: eyebrow, tattoo, alopecia, hairloss, hair loss, hairtransplant, hair transplant

Hair Washing After Hair Transplants

/by William Rassman, M.D./0 /,

I had hair transplants a month ago. My hair looks like it is caked with crud. When can I wash my hair?

A month following the surgery you may wash your hair as you normally would. You should have started to wash it after the surgery, but the ‘crud’ you are talking about reflects scabs from the surgery and skin that normally sheds. To wash it clean, apply shampoo and leave it on for 5-10 minutes, then gently with your fingers, rub off the built up ‘crud’. Repeat it until it is clean and then all you must do is wait for the new hair to grow in.

Tags: hairtransplant, hair transplat, washing, shampoo, wash

What Is Telogen Effluvium?

/by William Rassman, M.D./0 /

i am a 13 year old female with pretty bad hair loss. last week, my mom brought me to a dermatologist and she said that i had a dry scalp with dandruff and telogen effluvium. do people go bald or have bad hair thinning when they have telogen affluvium? how long does it last? it has been happening to me for about a month and 7 days or so. i take vitamins and am very healthy. should i be nervous and scared to get my hair wet or to brush it? what can i do? please help. thanks. goodbye

You will find extensive reviews of this subject at eMedicine and Wikipedia.

Tags: telogen, effluvium, hairloss, hair loss

Correlation in Genetics Between Body Hair and Scalp Hair?

/by William Rassman, M.D./0 /

First let me start off by saying this is a great site. Now to the question: Is the similarity of body hair between father and son determinative of the likelihood of MPB? Basically, no one on my mother’s side has ever balded, going from cousins to grandfather. However, my father has 4 brothers, of which him and one of them are bald, while the other 2 have a full head of hair. I’m curious as to which genes I’ve been given. I’m 26 with no signs of balding, although my father claims he didn’t visibly start until his early 30s. Anyway, me and him have totally different body hair. He has very little body hair, while I have a lot. Also, he has a full beard, while I don’t. My beard is extremely patchy. Is there any correlation in the genetics between body hair and scalp hair?

It has been said that you inherit the male pattern hair loss gene more so from your mother’s side (about 51%). However, the genes that are responsible for hair loss have not been clearly identified and we know very little about the specific inheritance pattern for balding (male and female). This may be due to multiple genes that are responsible for hair loss. The same probably applies to body hair growth/loss as well. There is no direct correlation with the hair loss gene from the scalp and body hair genetics.

Finally, does it really matter whose genes you have received? If you are going to bald, you will. There is also no connection between body hair and the absence of head hair (many people think that bald men always have hairy bodies and hairy body men always have hair).

The key to managing balding is to be proactive with early diagnosis and as I have said before many, many times on this site, mapping out your hair for miniaturization does address early diagnosis if you are going to develop balding.

Tags: genes, genetics, hairloss, hair loss

Body Size of Patients Used in FDA Trials on Finasteride?

/by William Rassman, M.D./0 /

Hi there,
Can I just say that you have a great site! I’m a regular reader, and think that I have a question for you that may be interesting. I’ve searched through your archives and haven’t found a similar question, but if I have missed it, please accept my apologies.

Recently I have had a look through the FDA trial reports on finasteride, but cannot find any information on the body sizes and characteristics of the patients used in the study. Are such data available? (Histograms, Mean/median, SD, etc).

Whilst I am assuming that the effective dose of finasteride for treating MPB is related to body size, and that the occurrence of side effects increases with relative dose, could there be a case for smaller dosages being suitable for people smaller than the people used in the FDA study – Asians and orientals for example? As this blog is international, I feel that we “vertically challenged” of the rest of the world need to know! :)

I passed your question to Merck and I just got an answer. Essentially, the only thing that was studied was the average dose that is effective and it was not related to a person’s weight. Body size was not studied.

Tags: merck, hairloss, hair loss, finasteride, fda, propecia, proscar

Curis Hedgehog Agonist Hair Growth Program Terminated

/by William Rassman, M.D./2 /,

Hedgehog

BusinessWire – Curis Provides Update on Hedgehog Agonist Hair Growth Program

This press release shows us the difficulty to bring a “hair loss cure” to market. Much hope had gone into the possibilities that this new treatment for hair loss could bring, but ultimately, it did not meet safety requirements for Procter & Gamble, who collaborated on this product with Curis.

From the press release:

Procter & Gamble has notified Curis that it has decided to terminate the collaboration agreement with Curis because the Hedgehog agonist compounds under development pursuant to the collaboration did not demonstrate an acceptable safety profile. Pursuant to the collaboration agreement, the agreement will terminate in six months.

Tags: hedgehog, curis, procter, gamble, hairloss, hair loss, agonist, terminated

Woman with Head and Chest Pain, Losing Hair

/by William Rassman, M.D./0 /,

I am 47 year old female.

February of 2006 I was hospitalized for 12 days. I had double pneumonia and I was also diagnosed with TB and was put on medication. The medication ended in May of 2006 because numerous tests began saying that the TB was negative.

There was a small lesion in my upper right chest that created bad burning and hurting sensation which that feeling has spread throughout my entire chest.

I use to have full “a head of hair” and now I have barely any left. Since February of last year, I can barely brush my hair without the pain being almost unbearable. On a breezy day, my hair rips right out of my head. It is now April of 2007. I have several bumps at the top/back of my head in addition to weird looking brown marks on my scalp. I can’t scratch my head because more hair falls out.

I was using Nioxin since last 2006 and changed to Bee Propolus and now using Arbon organic products. Nothing is bringing my hair back. My head continues to hurt ALL OVER and my chest hurts and burns still. All of this is WORSE than last month.

Do you know what this is? The doctors in southern California appear to NOT know what to do in my situation.

Can you PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE help me?

Thank you

There is not substitute for a good doctor’s analysis who knows about hair loss. If you lost most of your hair, you probably have some medical condition causing it. I can not diagnose you over the internet. What you are describing sounds complex, at the least.

Tags: female, women, woman, hairloss, hair loss

How Much Dutasteride Should I Take?

/by William Rassman, M.D./2 /

Good day Dr Rassman. Im about to start Dutasteride/avodart.. my question is. what type of Dosage would you recommend, could 0.5= a pill a day do the trick??? thanks in advance i really appreciate it

The dose for dutasteride for treating hair loss is not well understood, because the drug has a half life of 5 weeks. The long half life suggests that once a month dose would work, but the doctors who are using it tell me that 0.5mg per day is the right dose. This is the problem with this drug, as nobody knows the correct dose. When the FDA study in Korea is complete, we should have an idea how the dose response relationship works.

Tags: dutasteride, avodart, hairloss, hair loss, fda, dosage

A Note From a US Soldier with a Hair Transplant

/by William Rassman, M.D./1 /,

This is a note I received from a GI going back to Iraq for another tour that I wanted to share. It was really nice to hear from him, and I was particularly pleased to hear about his result, of course.

Soon it will be a year from the time of my transplant and normally I would schedule my follow up shortly there after but I will be on deployment here starting next week but be back in September so will schedule then. Presently I am pretty happy with the result.

I am hoping for some additional filling in on the crown area but it is greatly improved. Especially the ones that went into my pre-existing scars. They have made it so I can wear my hair extremely short without being uptight about it anymore. The coverage on them was superb. And I have continued to see improvement throughout and I am hoping that I get a little bit more fullness on the crown area but so far like I said I am very pleased with the result.

Thanks again hope to see ya end of summer.

Tags: hairtransplant, hair transplant, hairloss, hair loss, soldier, iraq

Minoxidil Destroying My Hair Texture

/by William Rassman, M.D./0 /

Dr Rassman,
I have been using Rogaine for more than a year now and it had done nothing to my hair loss, actually it increased the rate of loosing my hair plus destroying its texture. My question is; if I stop it now, will it get worse and I would loose more hair, as I have read some blog about huge shedding after stopping Minoxidil ?

Thanks for your help

If you have been using minoxidil for a long time and stop abruptly, you may experience some hair loss for whatever hairs may have been benefited. There is no way to tell how much hair loss (if any) would occur. If you did not see a dramatic increase in your hair growth from minoxidil, I doubt it would have much impact if you stopped using it.

Tags: minoxidil, hair loss, hairloss

Hairs that Fall Out Are Different Thicknesses

/by William Rassman, M.D./0 /

I notice that when I brush my hair, some of the hairs that come out are thin and wispy and approx 6 months old, some are normal thickness but only about 3 months old. The rest of my fallen hairs are full length and obviously time for them to fall. Does this mean anything. Thanks

You can lose up to 100 hairs or so a day. They may break off when you are brushing and that could be the cause of the different lengths of hair. If you think your hair is thinning or falling out at an alarming rate, you should have you scalp hair mapped for miniaturization.

Tags: hairloss, hair loss

1 Year Post-Op Photo of FUE Donor Area?

/by William Rassman, M.D./0 /, ,

doctor, can you please post a 1 year post op picture of the donor site of a patient whose undergone FUE how much density is left in the area i have seen the pictures of immediately after the surgery but it would be nice to see how much of hair actually fills up the donor site after such a procedure is performed! thanks and keep up the good work!

Below, please see the close-up photo of a patient who had 1108 FUE grafts done slightly over a year ago. There is a variability of scarring in any patient, some people just heal better than others. This particular patient had a good density to start with, so the missing follicular units are less evident than one might see in a person with a lower density. Also, the hypopigmentation (white spots from punctate scar formation) which is seen in some patients is not present in this patient. I hope that this helps.

Update: I added some red arrows to just a few of the spots where grafts were extracted. Can you find the other spots? There are easily another 100 places where the follicular units were removed in this field of view.

FUE 

For more info, please see:

Tags: fue, hairtransplant, hair transplant, hairloss, hair loss, donor, photo

Propecia and the G-Spot

/by William Rassman, M.D./0 /

Dear Dr. Rassman, I have a question about Propecia’s impact on the prostate. I’ve read other posts but have not been able to find anything regarding my particular question.

Like women, men also have a g-spot and it’s located on their prostate. My question is, if Propecia shrinks the prostate does it impact the g-spot too? For better or for worse? Will it make the g-spot disappear? Thanks.

Your question is an interesting one. I do not believe that men have the same type of G-spot that women have, but the nerves that surround the prostate in men are in the same vicinity as where one would find the G-spot in women (just above and behind the pubic bone). Propecia will not shrink a normal prostate, only one that has benign swelling from age. I do not know if there is a perceptible difference in the feeling of a swollen prostate and one that is less swollen (I might venture a guess, but not here). Gay men who have anal intercourse or digital stimulation may be better able to answer this question if they are in the upper age group. Having done many rectal examinations and having had them myself during my annual physical examination, I know what it feels like to have pressure put on the prostate (I do not particularly like it, nor do most heterosexual men).

Tags: finasteride, propecia, proscar, prostate, g-spot, gspot, g spot

Is More than 1ml of Minoxidil More Effective?

/by William Rassman, M.D./0 /

minodoxil/rogain in liquid alcohol based form is to be used twice a day 1ML each time. What are the effects in terms of B.P or any other side effect if the drug was used in slightly more capacity (say 1.5 ml or even 2ml each time) to cover a larger area over a long term period. Will it have any adverse effects in the long term? or patients are strictly advised to use 1ML twice a day? in short is more than 1ml minox more effective?

Some people just can’t tolerate higher doses of minoxidil. You could try a higher dose and see if it makes you light-headed. If it does, then the dose could be too much. There is a suggestion that a higher dose of minoxidil is more effective and some doctors make up their own formulations in the 15% range. I do not offer this, because I have no experience making up medications in my office.

Tags: minoxidil, hairloss, hair loss, rogaine