The official half life in the blood is about 6 hours and in the body tissues is 4-7 days. But as you take the calculation forward, some will remain for a few weeks after that. I tell my patients that 4-6 weeks is a reasonable expected target.
Beard hair is a good donor source for hair transplants but the character of the hair is kinky in most men, so a hair transplant using beard hair will produce a kinky appearance in the recipient area and as such, should not be used for the leading edge of the hairline. Neck hair on the back, on the other hand, is not permanent hair so if it is transplant, there is a good change that sometime in the future that hair will be lost
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32202088/
Of course, taking medications for life as one must for finasteride and dutasteride for hair loss has never been evaluated for long term safety (decades). The authors raise the alarm, but we need data here. There is a balancing act, to get the immediate benefits of these drugs vs suffer long term ill defined harm yet to be made clear. I don’t know the answer but I thought my readers should be aware that this is a relevant issue for those on long-term use of these drug. In a study of finasteride use over 20 years ago published in the New England Journal of Medicine with men over 55, there was a decreased incidence of prostate cancer in those who took finasteride by 25% compared to a control group. As prostate cancer is the leading cancer in men, this was an impressive finding.
What if it thins out, and it looks like the front part of the hair is forming an island? Not like noticeably, but just slightly looks like that when the light shines from the top and you take a picture? I don’t notice any unusual shedding, and I never find hairs on my pillow. I am blonde though, but I specifically bought dark black pillow cases for this and have been using them for about a year now. I never find any hair. The slight horseshoe/island hair pattern when taking pictures from the top is really the only thing that worries me. Is that just the normal pattern hair grows in, and that’s why I’m noticing it more now that my hair is thinning as normal?
Many men have persistent frontal forelocks (which is an island in the front of the hairline) but bald around it. These forelocks sometimes are family findings and in some men, they can be completely bald and keep these islands of hair (Forelock). When this happens, it can frame the face if the forelock is large enough. If you are balding and have a good strong forelock, check your family history and see if the forelock lasted the lifetime of your bald dad or grandfather. This is very important for any balding man, if they are lucky enough to have inherited this.
This is the result from fresh microneedling that is done
The Sea Otter has the densest hair of any mammal in the world at 1 million hairs per square inch
Over-harvested donor area in an area where too many grafts were done too close together resulting in a loss of blood supply to the scalp
I have had FUE procedure 2 months ago and was thinking of having another for my beard. Was curious how long I’d have to wait before another one, and whether the back of my hair could be used again for my beard. I came across some articles that really concerned me, mainly about most people have a limited amount of grafts they could use in their lifetimes, usually around ~4-6k
Some remarks that I’ve read from doctors on this topic:
You can have many FUE procedures over your life time as long as you keep your total donor hair supply in mind. If your donor hair supply is 6000 grafts You can have six 1000 graft surgeries or three 2000 graft surgeries.
I really don’t understand the science of this works. The hair on my donor area is completely full now after 2 months. Is this in spite of some hair follicles permanently removed, and the full hair is due to remaining follicles after 2k grafts taken from there? I was under the impression that what was taken from the back would grow back. Is this not true?
FUE removes grafts from your permanent zone forever. You have a limit of donor graft supply and a good doctor will measure that limit and should quantify what your total available, lifetime graft supply will be. For many people, large FUE sessions will cause a balding, see-through donor area as shown here: https://baldingblog.com/collection-victim-photos-internet-harvested-depleted-donor-areas/ As you can see, either these men had incompetent operators, or greedy ones who left some of them balding forever in the back of the head. For the advanced balding patterns, strip surgery (called FUT) is a better option as well as for most women expect for those who have very small procedures.
Our research indicated that the stem cells that actually kick the hair into action are located at the upper part of the hair follicle just below the basement membrane of the epidermis which is 0.5mm thick. So the stem cells that we want to kick into action are located between 0.6-1mm below the skin edge.
3mo finasteride, minoxidil & microneedling. More info in comments from tressless
Clearly this man has had a nice response to finasteride and microneedling. I am convinced that microneedling has contributed nicely to this response.
I have MPB which has hairs receding from temple region.I went to a dermatologist today and she said even if you do hair transplant, the hair in the middle section of your head will continue to fall. So she said take Finastride 1mg every day for 3 months along with mintop 10% twice a day everyday and vitamin 3 tablets. Also she said she would do PRP once a month for 3 months which will most probably bring some hair back in the temple region.
I would like some opinion on the medications that she has given and the PRP. Please help.
When it comes time for a hair transplant, the drug finasteride will usually protect the native hair including the miniaturized hairs on the head. As far as PRP, I have written about it here: https://baldingblog.com/go-looking-prp-used-hair-transplant-good-thing/. Minoxidil is a good medication, but 10% concentrations tends to produce more side effects than the traditional 5% and 10% it is not a standard dose.
Nice return of your more youthful hairline, Congrats
If most hairless is due to increased testosterone output can someone explain how a hair transplant saves your hair? Wouldn’t you just lose it again due to hormonal issues?
Genetic balding never impacts the hair around the back and side of your head (donor hair) so a hair transplant moves this hair and put it where you lost it. The donor hair never react to DHT so it will grow in its new location for your lifetime.
The photos say it all but the long term is unclear once this man stops the medication or the microneedling. I suspect if he keeps the treatment up, he will likely get more hair growth; however, it is likely to go back to his original status once he stops treatment suggesting that he may have to continue this for life. A hair transplant, if this is the case, may be a better alternative.
Finasteride, minoxidil and dermaroller in 4 months but some of the benefits shown in the photo are related to hair growth.
