2011 ISHRS Meeting Review, Part 2 – Female Hair Loss

Note: The annual meeting of hair surgeons was in held in Alaska this past week. The following review is very selective and is biased by the things that were interesting to me and what I (Dr. Rassman) thought could be interesting to the readers.

This is part 2. More to come…

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What is the role of immunity in the development of androgenic alopecia in women?

In men and women, it was suggested that there is an immune response in genetic hair loss that could either trigger the process or be an early sign that hair loss is about to start. Dr. Neil Sadick of New York has been following female hair loss for years. He showed his results from scalp biopsies of the scalp in women with hair loss. What he saw were findings that were similar to the conditions found in diseases like lupus (an autoimmune disease). He believes that female pattern hair loss is attributable to immune driven inflammation and he believes that this interferes with hair stem cell activity as they enter into the growth phase of the hair cycle.

The earliest symptoms of many women and some men start with pain and itching of the scalp, a set of symptoms that reflect the inflammatory response that he believes is always present, but often ignored. He raises the issue that if the connection is correct, the scalp may respond to the use of steroids in the earliest phases of the hair loss process.

 
Double trichophytic closures

Double trichophytic closures were demonstrated in a poster presentation, suggesting that this procedure can “wipe out” scars from FUE in 99% of patients. I personally doubt this claim. This reflects first time surgery patients only, as these patients are at a lower risk for significant scarring.