A Doctor on YouTube Says Finasteride Will Leave You Impotent

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

Hi,

I was watching this video on youtube

This gentleman, John Crisler, D.O. says finasteride can smash an endocrine system ans leave you impotent, even in cases where a person has been taking it for as little as week. Can you speak to this? Is this doctor, just pushing his own concoctions. This is quite scary, no?

Thanks in advance

In my opinion, he is just promoting his own product. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and just because someone has two letters behind their name, it does not make them an authority. Yes, that includes me.

For what its worth, in the video he says he has NEVER prescribed finasteride. So how can he be such an authority just by reading unverified posts on a “Yahoo discussion forum”? I have been prescribing Propecia for over 10 years now and I have not seen a patient with such “terrible” and “irreversible” side effects. I do see some patients (1-2%) that have side effects, but when they stop or lower the dosage of the medication, the side effects reversed. Maybe I am just lucky.

Tags: propecia, finasteride, hairloss, hair loss, video, doctor

Dr Bernstein on Fox and Friends (Videos)

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

Dr Bernstein on Fox NewsMy friend Dr. Robert Bernstein was recently featured in a couple of segments on the Fox News Channel’s morning show, Fox and Friends. I got the 1st segment posted in a video below:

 

I can’t figure out how to embed the video for the 2nd segment (“After the Show”) on the page, so I’ll just link to it below. I hope I’m not spoiling any surprises, but in this clip, Dr. Bernstein gets asked about treating a seal for hair loss. And no, they were not talking about the singer.

Tags: bernstein, fox, fox news, hairloss, hair loss

Shampoo Eliminates Sebum, Allowing Follicles to Grow? (Video)

/by William Rassman, M.D./3 /,

What do you make of the video below. It claims excess sebum on the scalp can cause hair loss and that the tincture of herbals and scrubbing (and brushing?) help to allow the hair follicles underneath to grow. Is there any chance that this could work? I am under the impression that shampoo eliminates sebum. Off topic regarding shampoo, should we be shampooing our scalp and our hair or just our hair?

 

There is hope everywhere (after all, it springs eternal). I would doubt that anything shown here will work for another person as it did for the lady demonstrating the technique in the beginning of the above video from Honolulu’s ABC affiliate. It’s obvious the news anchors have no idea about what they’re talking about when discussing hair loss, and this is quite a puff piece for this herbal maker.

As to your other question — you should shampoo your scalp and hair (the main reason for shampooing is to clean the scalp).

Tags: herbal, shampoo, video, hairloss, hair loss, hair growth

Funny Video – DIY Hair Transplant

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

 

While there’s really no such thing as a do it yourself hair transplant, this man in the video above makes a fine attempt. There’s a funny and a serious side to it. Funny because it is an awkward approach that is somewhat uncomfortable to watch without knowing the end, and in thinking about how if his girlfriend ran her fingers through the lush patch of hair that came off in her fingers. On a serious side, this man showed just what a hair transplant could do for him and how it would change his appearance. He did his own sales job. I congratulate this man for proving the old adage that necessity is the mother of invention… plus, for having a great sense of humor.

Tags: hair transplant, video, funny, comedy, hairloss, hair loss

Hair Restoration for Black Men?

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

What are the hair restoration options for a black male with a receding hairline, and preferred style of a brushcut?

With respect to hair transplant surgery, there is no difference in black men or white men or Asian men or any other ethnicity or race. For very short haircuts, follicular unit extraction (FUE would likely be the way to go so that there isn’t any chance of a visible linear scar, but even the strip method doesn’t discount a short haircut in all men. Scarring is dependent on multiple factors that I’ve described before here.

Actually, I have seen great results for black men with hair transplants. I wish I had some very current results to show, but I can only use photos of those that allow me permission (privacy issues, of course), and with that being said, below is a patient that was featured in our NHI video from quite a few years back. His photos are also on our site here.

 

Tags: hair transplant, hair restoration, african american, african, black, hairloss, hair loss

Actor Patrick Stewart Discusses Balding on BBC (with Video)

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

Here’s an inspirational interview with Patrick Stewart (of Star Trek fame) conducted by the BBC. I think you will enjoy watching it, I know I did. Stewart talks openly about his experience with balding, dating and hair pieces.

Thank you for sending this! I wish I could embed the video below, but it’s been disabled. You’ll have to click the link to go directly to YouTube —

Parkinson: Patrick Stewart – Baldness.

Tags: patrick stewart, bbc, star trek, balding, hairloss, hair loss, actor, celebrity

Hair Implanter Carousel (with Videos)

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

I have heard alot about the Implanter Carousel which i find very interesting and a great method of preserving the hairs and keeping them moist in the ‘carousel’ unlike the choi implanter were the hairs are left on a tray open to drying with warm air until they are put into the implanter. If you dont mind me asking, was the choi implanter an influence with its design and was the carousel, put simply, designed to better the disadvantages of the choi implanter. As they are an automated method of implanting the hair would that not take remove the artistry of a manual job. You once said on a answer to a blog on the subject of ‘The choi implanter’, ‘The Choi implanter is just a surgical tool. It makes some aspects of the transplant easier to perform, especially for those people who did not develop the difficult placing skills with the more traditional transplant tools used throughout the world. An instrument is only as good as the person using it, so I can not package the tool with the technique. The Choi generally requires ‘skinny’ grafts, which tend to dry out more easily, therefore, this instrument requires special skills, different than those that do not have to make the grafts skinny’. My question is how is the carousel different in the sense that an automated implanter such as the choi implanter makes some aspects of the transplant easier to perform, especially for those people who did not develop the difficult placing skills. Thank you, for all your advise.

It sounds like you know all the technical difficulties associated with follicular unit transplantation — are you a hair transplant surgeon?

As you mentioned, I wrote about the Choi Implanter before — What is the Choi Implanter?. There’s nothing else I can really add to that. The Hair Implanter Carousel was patented back in the 1990s and it works distinctly different from the Choi Implanter. It was designed to take advantage of a ‘machine gun’ approach to loading the grafts for implantation and percutaneous use and keeping them moist (as you wrote). I’ve used both and found the Carousel to be much easier than the Choi. The drying of the grafts was not a problem for the Carousel as it was for the Choi. Unfortunately, the instrument manufacturer was unable to produce a consistently high quality product and we ended up in court trying to get my money back for the build out of the Carousel, rather than getting the tool into the transplant surgeons’ hands.

A paper about the Carousel was published in 1998 and three videos of the instrument can be seen below:

Part 1:

 

Read more

Hair Growth After Chemotherapy (Video)

/by William Rassman, M.D./10 /

I found this video and I thought you might be interested in sharing it on your blog. Its about hair growth after chemo.

Have a nice day.

Thank you for sending this! This is a fantastic photo journal that shows a breast cancer survivor’s hair regrowth timeline after her last round of chemotherapy.

Tags: chemo, chemotherapy, hair growth, hair loss, hairloss, cancer, survivor, video

Bald Spot Rap Video

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

hey there doc, i found this humorous music video online and was wondering if you were interested in sharing it on your blog.

i know its meant to be comical but being a young man myself i really related to some of the things in this video!

Thanks for pointing me to the video! While I’m not the biggest fan of rap music and this video is probably not for everyone, I can say that this was quite funny. Since the visitor demographics for this site are all over the place, I’d say this is definitely worth posting here. The video is for the song “Bald Spot” by Seattle, WA rapper Type.

 

Tags: hairloss, hair loss, video, rap, type, seattle, bald spot

Can Scalp Exercises Cause Traction Alopecia?

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

Hello doctor

Could exercises that many doctors are recommending to increase the looseness of the scalp, when performed for a long time, cause any problems ( e.g. traction alopecia ) ?

Thank you

Scalp exercises are used to increase the laxity to the scalp, as shown in this video:

 

As long as you are pushing down on the scalp and not creating constant pull 24 hours a day, you should not have traction alopecia from this. Traction alopecia occurs when you keep your hair pulled or braided too tight constantly over the course of many months. Traction alopecia and scalp exercises are two different things.

Tags: traction alopecia, alopecia, scalp, exercise, laxity, hairloss, hair loss

Hair Transplant on Nip/Tuck (with Video)

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

Doctors, did you see tonight’s episode of Nip/Tuck where they performed a hair transplant? How accurate was the scene, and the resulting effects? I’m sure they took a lot of creative license, I’m just curious, as I am sure others who saw the scene are now.

Nip/TuckNip/Tuck, an outrageous plastic surgery drama TV series on the FX Network, has two episodes featuring hair transplants — the first of which has just aired this week. We actually advised on the program and they elected to use the hair transplant Carousel (automated rapid fire hair implanter), which I invented in the 1990s. I just saw the first of the two shows with the Carousel. One of the two lead plastic surgeons got a hair transplant by his surgical partner and then resumed a full ‘work and play’ load. Doing too much steam and sauna, the plastic surgeon that received the transplant got folliculitis within a day of the surgery. I laughed like hell as I watched the spoof unfold. The focus of this first show of the season was how to build a successful cosmetic surgery practice. I think the message was right on.

With the permission of the show’s producer, I was allowed to post this video clip from the episode featuring the Carousel in it. I take no responsibility for the appearance of these transplants

Tags: fx, plastic surgery, nip tuck, nip-tuck, hairloss, hair loss, hair transplant, hairtransplant, tv, actor, hollywood, celebrity, invention

From Japanese TV — How to Build a Comb-Over

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

Taken from a Japanese talent show, this video is for those of you who want to know how to build a classy comb-over (if one could ever consider a comb-over to be classy). Actually, the result is quite impressive —

Tags: comb over, combover, hairloss, hair loss, japan, japanese, tv, talent, video

Using Donor Hair from Family or Friends?

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

Hi,

Great site. I am a long time reader, first time poster.

My question is this: Is it possible to use donor hair from a friend/family member with the same style hair your have if there not enough donor hair on a subject?

Hair could be donated from other people just like organ donation, but without drugs to suppress the immune response, it will be rejected. Patients who are receiving an organ transplant need to be matched before the surgery for antigen compatibility and stay on anti-rejection medication for the rest of their lives. If you have an identical twin, it will work because the hair has the same genetic code as you would have.

Here’s a clip from our NHI video about identical twins and hair transplantation:



Tags: hairtransplant, hair transplant, hairloss, hair loss, donor, organ