Hair Restoration Blog

Q:

Hi, I was wondering does shaving your head cause the hair to grow back thinner? Does it affect the thickness of the way your hair grows back? I hope it doesn’t but I’m not exactly sure.

A:

No it doesn’t.

Shaving head does not cause hair to grow back thinner or thicker.  I have have heard the opposite of your question more frequently.  Some people believe if they shave their hair, it cause their hair to grow thicker.  However shaving hair does not affect the thickness of hair shafts and in fact whatever happens to the hair shaft is not even sensed by the hair follicle, which is the generative part of the the hair.

You can dye your hair, curl it, cut it or shave it, and none of these can influence the growth of your hair.

Q:
I am 30 year old man with male pattern baldness. I have been on Propecia for two years. I have been feeling hot flashes in the last month to the point that I cannot tolerate them at night. My doctor thinks that I have to stop Propecia, but I am hesitant to do so because I have seen good results from Propecia in last 2 years. What do you think I should do?

A:
Hot flashes are seen in some hormonal imbalances. More commonly it is seen in pre menopausal women and in men following castration or using anti-androgen medications. Hormones such as FSH, LH and lactogene are responsible for hot flashes. None of the Propecia studies did prove association between those hormonal levels and Propecia use.

Since you have been on Propecia for about 2 years, but only experiences hot flashes in the last month it may not be related to Propeica. There are many other medical problems that can produce hot flashes such as other hormonal disorder like thyroid diseases.

You need to be seen by an endocrinologist and be evaluated for other medication problems, which can mimic hot flashes. Many of those conditions could be easily diagnosed by a simple lab work. Some medications can also be responsible for hot flashes and need to be considered.

One simple solution is to stop taking Propecia for a short period of time and see if your hot flashes get better. If that is the case then you have the option of switching to other medications that can help your hair loss but don’t give you hot flashes.

Q:

I had gastric bypass about 10 years ago. Not only have I lost a lot of my hair but i have never regained it. Especially after taking a shower i notice that i loose a lot more hair then i should. I have brought this concern up with my doctor but all he tells me is to increase my vitamin intake. I have also been taking Biotin for about three months and vitamin B12 along with a multi-vitamin but have not seen a difference. In addition my eyelashes are thinner and I have lost the thickness of them. I am thinking about rogain for women but if you can please give me any advice I would really appreciate it I am only 38 and fear i will be bald byt the time i turn 40.
Thank You,

A:

As we discussed in the article “Gastric Bypass Surgery and Hair Loss”, it is common to see hair loss or changes in the quality and color of hair after a gastric bypass surgery. The changes are generally seen in the first few months after the gastric bypass surgery. Similar hair loss conditions could also be seen in a variety of other medical conditions, major surgeries or trauma.

The immediate few months following a gastric bypass surgery mimics sever starvation conditions in which body may have difficulty obtaining many essential elements or nutrients through regular diet and supplement of nutrients and vitamins may become necessary.

Hair loss after a gastric bypass may be seen in the patients who don’t have any obvious vitamin or mineral deficiency. Patients need to be evaluated on a regular basis by their surgeon and with regular lab tests. The initial hair loss should return to normal if there is no other underlying condition exists.

In case patient has any other medical condition that can accelerate hair loss or in the case of genetic male patterned or female patterned baldness, patient may never gain their hair back. In those conditions the stress of the surgery acts as a stimulator forcing patient scalp hair to fall on a faster than normal pace.

My recommendation is to see a good hair transplant surgeon and undergo a miniaturization study to rule out any other treatable causes of hair loss.

Q:

I am 27 and have a very high laying hairline.  My hair line is the same as my mother and aunts.   High hair line resembles a male hair line with mild recession on the corners.  I know I am not balding because a few other female members of the family have an exact similar hairline patter.  Can you help me with a hair transplant procedure?

A:

There are several methods to lower a hairline both in men and women.  Hair line can be lowered by hairline lowering hairline surgery, in which a strip of skin is removed from just below the frontal hairline to bring the hairline lower.  In this method a trichophytic incision can help to blend frontal hair into the forming scar.  The result of lowering hairline surgery is instant and the surgery is less time and labor consuming in comparison with a hair transplant procedure. 

At US Hair Restoration, we recommend hair transplant using follicular unit transplant methods for lowering hairlime in men and women for the best cosmetic results.  Hair transplant cannot make such a drastic change in such a short time, but the result is completely normal with no visible scar on the frontal area.  The presence of linear scar at frontline is a major disadvantage of hairline lowering procedure.  The scar of hairline lowering surgery could be camouflaged with a hair transplant surgery with placement of minimal number of grafts on the frontal area and in front of the hairline scar.

Intercytex has recently released some information on its hair multiplication experiments in a new article in the Journal of experimental dermatology. The title is “A graft model for hair development” and the article discusses what is done so far for hair multiplication experimentally. Intercytex has been involved with hair stem cell, hair culturing and hair multiplication, which is also known as hair cloning.

In this article follicular cell implantation (FCI) is discussed as an experimental cell therapy for the treatment of hair loss that uses cultured hair follicle cells to induce new hair formation. The process of culturing hair cells is based on the demonstration that adult dermal papilla cells (DPC) retain the hair inductive potential that they acquired during hair morphogenesis before birth. To obtain FCI, the investigators isolated hair inductive cells from scalp biopsies and then propagated them in culture media in order to provide adequate cells to generate several new follicles from a few hair follicles.

Following expansion of cells in culture, they implanted those cells into the scalp where they induce the formation of new follicles below the level of skin. They describe a consistent, reliable method in which they can test hair induction. Since the process relies on the ability to retain the potential for hair induction during the expansion of DPC in culture.

They go over a simple graft model that supports hair morphogenesis. In this experiment, they combine dermal cells with embryonic mouse epidermis that provides the keratinocyte (one of the skin cells) component of induced follicles. The grafts are placed under a protective skin flap in the host athymic mouse (a special mouse without capability to reject the transplanted grafts from human) where the cells will form a skin graft with hair if the dermal cells are hair inductive DPC.

Using the assay freshly isolated and cultured mouse embryo dermal cells as well as cultured dermal papilla cells from other species all induced hair formation. They also showed that induced hairs were aesthetically indistinguishable from those of the epidermal donor in length, thickness, and pigmentation. The investigators stated that the newly formed hairs were histologically normal and could resemble a complete natural hair.

We at Los Angeles hair transplant surgery centers of US Hair Restoration will closely follow up with the progress of hair multiplication and cloning techniques. Although the result of the cultured hair on animals has been released before, the current released article is interesting and elucidates more on the characteristics of cultured hair during the process of hair multiplication so called hair cloning. It seems like we still have a long way to go till we can practically use hair multiplication techniques in restoring human hair.

A Los Angeles Hair Restoration patient asked me today about Kevis products for medical hair loss treatment in men the other day. His father used to use those hair loss products when he was in Europe and He recommended that he can use them as well. I had to do some research on the website of the company to find out what are the ingredients of this presumed hair loss medication.

Kevis products are claimed to be natural and chemical drug-free. They work through the biological compound, hyaluronic acid, which is found in eyes and joints in its highest concentration.

Kevis uses a high-molecular-weight product called HUCP, to address hair loss and follicular mal-nutrition. HUCP is claimed that it directly impacts hair follicles, cuticles, and shafts in a positive way, bringing about stronger, thicker, and healthier hair. HUCP also hydrates and balances the moisture levels in hair and the skin of the scalp.

Kevis hair loss prevention and hair care products gently clean hair and selectively remove residue from the scalp, encouraging follicular health and greater natural hair production.

It is all nice to have a product to help cleaning the scalp and the root of our hair and also to keep the moisture to the hair shaft, but neither dryness nor dirtiness of hair is the cause of hair loss. I could not find a significant research on the effect of any of those ingredients on the health and growth of hair. We at our Los Angeles hair transplant clinics of US Hair Restoration recommend products with solid medical research showing their effectiveness and safety.

Q:

I am a 35 year old woman with history of scalp dermatitis. My doctor gave me steroid solutions for my dermatitis that helped the condition, but I have been suffering from hair loss now. Could steroid solution be the cause of my hair loss or could the scalp dermatitis be the cause of my hair loss?

Although hair loss is reported as a rate side effect of many medications, losing hair is not a common condition that could be seen after topical steroid use. Dermatitis or inflammation of skin could be seen as part of many other skin conditions. I think you have to see a good dermatologist and get an accurate diagnosis for your hair loss condition. Microscopic evaluation of the scalp or miniaturization study is a great tool to diagnose the condition of your hair loss and to see whether your hair loss is still active or not. I perform a miniaturization study on almost all my patients to determine the activity of their hair loss condition and also to predict their future hair loss. The type of your hair loss and its association with other medical conditions could be assessed by a hair specialist after taking a history and examination of your hair and scalp including performing a miniaturization study. We do perform

miniaturization study on all patients while evaluating them for hair transplant. If you are diagnosed with a treatable condition that has caused or accelerated your hair loss, proper treatment may cure your balding and give you your full head of hair back.

Q:

I take Errin Tablets for a few months as a contraceptive. I have also been experiencing hair loss recently. I wanted to know if there is a correlation between losing hair and this particular contraceptive. I had a baby 4 months ago. I see thinning everywhere but it is more obvious on the front and top as diffuse thinning.

A:

Your hair loss could be related to your pregnancy and delivery of your baby. Human hair grows in cycles and goes to resting phase (telogen) between the growth cycles. About 95% of your hair is in growth phase (anagen) at anytime and about 5% of them are in resting phase. You may not see any hair growing from the follicles during resting phase. That is the reason we normally lose scalp hair on a regular basis. In fact losing up to 200 hairs every day is normal and part of the cycling of our hair. Some stimulants can put a large number of our hairs into telogen phase. This condition is called Telogen effluvium. Telogen effluvium (TE) can be seen in women after delivery of a baby. Telogen effluvium is especially seen between months one to five following delivery of a baby, when the load of estrogen is removed. It is usually seen in 40 to 50% of women after pregnancy, and like most of the changes in pregnancy, it is temporary. Wait 4 to 6 months and you should grow your hair back. Meanwhile, make sure you are taking sufficient minerals and vitamins on a daily basis.

Any other cause of imbalance in estrogen level may increase hair loss. Scalp hair loss is reported in users of oral birth control pills containing norethindrone and ethinyl esteradiol, like Errin tablets or other brands: Brevicon, Norinyl, Norethindrone. However the association of those contraceptives and hair loss has not been completely confirmed through medical literature. I women think their hair loss may be linked to the use of birth control pills, they need to stop the pill and use another birth control method after discussing that with their doctor.

Q:

I am a 41 year old woman and have been suffering from hair loss for over 10 years. I have had some type of scalp dermatitis for a long time that has been treated with topical steroids over the last 20 years. Could dermatitis be the cause of my hair loss? Or could I have lost my hair due to the steroid solution that I used on my scalp?

A:

Topical steroids are not generally causing hair loss. Dermatitis on the other hand, can increase the rate of hair loss in people who are prone to patterned baldness. Sever scalp skin inflammation can also cause severe hair loss in some patients. Dermatitis has several types. Dermatitis can also be seen as part of other skin diseases that may cause hair loss. You need to see a good dermatologist or a hair specialist and get your hair mapped for miniaturization. Your hair loss type and whether it is simple female patterned or is associated to other medical problems could be determined after direct examination of your hair and evaluation of its miniaturization status.

Previously I published an article on the Hair Transplant Forum International titled Psychology of Hair Transplant. Our study evaluated the significance of hair loss on men’s psychology. We also discussed the improvements that men experienced after hair restoration surgery.

I just read another article that was just published on the International journal of clinical and experimental hypnosis titled: Hypnotic approaches for alopecia areata. I initially thought they have been able to treat Alopecia Areata (AA) with hypnosis. What they studied though was managing the psychological effects of alopecia areata with hypnotherapy.

Patients with alopecia areata like androgenic alopecia experience increased levels of anxiety and have higher rates of depression. Here are the synapses of what was researched by Willemsen and Vanderlinden from Department of Dermatology of Academic Hospital in Brussel, Belgium and put together as an interesting article:

AA or Alopecia areata is an autoimmune disease leading to loss of scalp hairs. The disease is generally triggered by stress. Data on the possibility of using hypnotherapy in the treatment of AA are very limited. In this study, twenty-eight patients with extensive AA, all refractory to previous conventional treatment, were treated with hypnosis at the Academic Hospital UZ Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.

The authors‚Äô hypnotherapeutic approach combining symptom-oriented suggestions was discussed in the article they also came up with suggestions to improve self-esteem. They are suggesting that twelve out of 21 patients, including 4 with total loss of scalp hair, presented a significant hair growth. All patients presented a significant decrease in scores for anxiety and depression. Although the exact mechanism of hypnotic interventions has not been elucidated, the authors’ results demonstrate that hypnotic interventions may ameliorate the clinical outcome of patients with AA and may improve their psychological well-being.

This article again is focusing on the significance of hair loss and hair loss treatment on patients psychology as we discussed before in our article titled: psychology of hair transplant that could be found on the website of US Hair Restoration, the Los Angeles hair transplant center.