Hair Restoration Blog

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.

I have performed a hair transplant surgery on this 42 year old man who had another hair transplant last year with micor- and minigraft with another office last year. I would like to assume that the era of mini and micro-grafts are over, but still every now and then I see patients who are recently operated with micrograft or minigraft techniques. This 42 year old patient had small number of grafts for a large area with less than adequate coverage.

The patient’s old hair line is lower than where it should be on the corners for his age and race. He had some pluggy hair growth on the corners and on his hairline. We restored his hairline with 400 single hair FUT grafts, removed some of the pluggy hairs on the hairline using a 1mm punch biopsy device. We increased the density of hair on the front are with total of 2293 follicular unit grafts.

The frontal area was densely packed and the some of the frontal grafts with pluggy appearance were removed. I expect great result in a few months for this patient at our 10 month follow up.

Patient immediately after hair transplant surgery with 2293 FUT grafts including 400 single hair grafts on hairline.

Q:

Dear doctor Parsa Mohebi

I have got some questions that I request you to answer them, so that I can have a better decision.

1- Is it possible to use the hair of other members of the family as donor?

2-May the transplanted hair at the fore part of the head recede again? If yes, how long does it take to begin?

3-If the hair recedes to the back of the head, the scar of the surgery appears and it is so ugly. What should we do in this case? And in the case of FIT after receding in the back, that area looks very sparse and with little hair? These make a bad appearance. What should we do in this case?

I appreciate you before and I wish more successes in life for you.

Truly yours
Patient name

A:

I will answer your questions in the order you asked them:

1- Is it possible to use the hair of other members of the family as donor?

No

2-May the transplanted hair at the fore part of the head recede again? If yes, how long does it take to begin?

No it will not. Transplanted hair is considered permanent and there is no chance that you lose it in regular male pattern baldness. However you may continue to lose your own hair if you have any left in and around your transplanted hair. Here at US Hair Restoration we recommend finasteride to most patients around the time of surgery to prevent shock loss that could be seen after surgery.

3-If the hair recedes to the back of the head, the scar of the surgery appears and it is so ugly. What should we do in this case? And in the case of FIT after receding in the back, that area looks very sparse and with little hair? These make a bad appearance. What should we do in this case?

Scar or the surgery should never be seen if placed properly. The only way you can see the scar is if you decide to shave your head. If you plan to shave your head for any reason scar of the strip technique hair restoration surgery will be seen and you may want to choose FUE (Follicular Unit Extraction) or as some people call it FIT (Follicular Isolation Technique). FUE transplant or FIT are the same and if done properly should remove hair follicular units evenly throughout your donor area and it should not look thinned out in any particular area. Of course the donor area will be thinner than before the hair transplant surgery, but density of the hair on the back of our head is not what makes you look bald. Not having a solid frame around your face is responsible to give you the appearance of baldness and can make you look older.

I have announced on some TV talk shows that I will be in Dubai this summer along with my all surgical staff to present our high quality hair restoration surgeries to people who prefer having their surgeries closer to their country of residence or have difficulty traveling to the United States. As I said before, I prefer to have a full photo consultation through email and then phone conversation and then book the patients who are interested to have hair transplant surgery with us in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

We will be in Dubai from August 14, 2008 to August 21, 2008. We have already done some consultations with patients from Dubai, UAE, Iran and. If you are interested in having a hair transplant surgery with US Hair Restoration, please don’t purchase a ticket or arrange for your travel before completing your hair transplant consultation and booked your hair restoration surgery with us. We do not accept walk in patients while we are in Dubai.

The process of online consultation is very simple. You need to visit US hair Restoration online hair transplant consultation page in US Hair Restoration web site and fill the questionnaire. In the comment section, mention that you are interested in having your hair transplant surgery in Dubai, UAE. When we receive your email, we will send you another email asking some more questions and pictures that could be sent through email. At the end, we will have a phone conversation with you to answer all your questions and if you are a good candidate for hair transplantation book you for your hair restoration surgery in our Dubai office.

I hope this service can provide US Hair Restoration quality hair transplant surgery including follicular unit transplant (FUT) and follicular unit extraction (FUE) for people of Middle East, such as UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and Kuwait and other countries of the region. Our Dubai hair transplant clinic may also be easily accessible from India, Pakistan, and European countries. If you have more questions on your hair loss treatment with US Hair Restoration, please email us at info@ushairrestoration.com or call our Los Angeles Hair Transplant center at 1-818-788-8363.

Dr. Parsa Mohebi

Medical Director

US Hair Restoration

Los Angeles, California

Can shampooing affect our hair loss? Can I hurt my hair by doing too much washing and shampooing? Is there a shampoo that can help the growth of my hair? These are some questions that patients ask me in my office on a daily basis.

The answer is simple. The external factor such as shampoos and conditioners cannot really affect the growth or fall of your hair much. You can wash your hair on a regular basis with shampoos if you have oily scalp and greasy hair. You can choose special shampoos for that matter as well; shampoos that have a stronger cleansing effect for oily scalps. You cannot possibly hurt your hair by washing your hair if you are not having obsessive compulsive disorder. Not washing hair may cause you to lose your partners or friends, but it does not affect your hair strength much.

You can find many different shampoos in the market with the claim of helping your hair growth and preventing further hair loss. Unfortunately most those statements are not quite accurate. Even using the shampoos with some effective ingredients such as minoxidil or DHT blockers chemicals cannot be that effective on preventing your hair loss. The active ingredients of the shampoos cannot freely enter the skin and even if they can be absorbed to some degrees, they cannot reach the generative layers of the skin. The contact time of the shampoo and conditioner with the skin is also limited that does not allow for the ingredients to penetrate the skin.

My suggestion to those patients is to stick with whatever shampoo that they are comfortable with and not to change the shampoo because of the miracle shampoo advertisement they saw on the news paper.

Dandruff is a scalp skin flaking condition due to the extreme shedding of dead skin cells. It is quite normal for skin cells to die and flake off, but the usual amount of flaking should not be grossly noticeable. If you experience an unusually large amount of dandruff or flaking, which can also be accompanied by redness and skin irritation you may be suffering from scalp skin inflammation due to several dermatologic conditions. One common disorder that can lead to excess dandruff is seborrhoeic dermatitis. Seborrhoeic dermatitis needs to be diagnosed by a dermatologist and treated properly. Seborrhoeic dermatitis may also accelerate the process of male pattern baldness or female pattern baldness if patient has its gene. I have seen many patients who came to me with an exacerbated androgenic alopecia due to activation of their seborrhoeic dermatitis. Other causes of Dandruff are:

• Psoriasis
• Infestation with head lice
• Fungal infection of scalp

In all above caused of excess dandruff, you need to be seen by a dermatologist. For milder forms of exacerbated dandruff there are many shampoos that some could be even purchased without a prescription.

There are several shampoos for treatment of dandruff such as:

• Head & Shoulder (include zinc pyrithione)
• Fungoral or Nizoral (Ketocoazole)
• Selsun Blue (Selenium sulfide)

US Hair Restoration is proud to announce the opening of its new Beverly Hills hair transplant center. We have posted another title in this blog titled “Beverly Hills Hair Transplant” before and mentioned that our patients constantly ask us why we are not present in Beverly Hills cosmetic surgery world. I think continuation of the same trend of demand from the patients asking for a Beverly Hills hair transplant surgeon was the reason behind considering the option of having a hair transplant clinic in Beverly Hills. In our Beverly Hills Hair Restoration center, we perform free hair loss consultation for men and women. We offer a comprehensive hair loss evaluation including the microscopic evaluation of the scalp and hair.

Beverly Hills hair transplant office of the US Hair Restoration collaborates with a team of cosmetic doctors including a cosmetic dermatologist, a plastic surgeon and a facial cosmetic surgeon. Dr. Parsa Mohebi personally evaluates patients for hair transplant in the Beverly Hills office.  We hope that Beverly Hills office of US Hair Restoration can increase our accessibility for the patients in Beverly Hills, Century City, Holly Wood, downtown LA, Santa Monica, Pasadena, Pacific Palisade and many other locations in Southern California who would need quality hair loss treatments from a good hair transplant surgeon.

US Hair Restoration offers the most recent techniques of hair restoration including Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE), Body hair transplant and Mega Session Hair Transplant Surgery.

Different types of body hair and the indication for the procedure is a question that I have been asked many times in last week. So that is why I thought I should write a post to answer it for everyone. Body hair transplant has been discussed in Hair Restoration Blog in the past in several posts. Patients ask which one is a better source for body hair transplant to the scalp: chest hair, abdominal hair, pubic hair or armpit hair.

Hairs of the body have different characteristics, than hair from the scalp Pubic hair is generally thicker and curlier than other areas of the body. Chest hair may be thick in some patients, but may be finer than scalp hair. Armpit (Axillary) hair is also generally curlier than scalp hair, but may not be as thick as the other types of body hair.

Before deciding to use body hair, a hair transplant surgeon has to examine the scalp donor hair carefully and then only consider body hair if the scalp hair is severely depleted. Depending on the area that you want to use body hair, you may choose different types of body hair. If you want to choose body hair only to fill in the crown area in patients who already have good coverage on top and front, pubic hair could be a good option.

Research has shown that body hair characteristics may change and become longer when transplanted to the scalp. It also shows the anagen phase of body hair may become longer after transplanting it to the scalp. Which is why this is one more advantage for body hair transplant, but still body hair transplantation needs to be done selectively.