Hair Restoration Blog

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.

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:

Hey there!

How’s everything? I had a quick question.  What do you think about nanogen hair?  From the fibres to shampoo?

Thanks!

A:

Nanogen manufactures a group of products for hair loss treatment and balding camouflage. You can read more on their products on their website at http://www.nanogen.co.uk.  I will go over the two products that you asked in your question, Nanofiber or as they called it “Precision Cut Microfiber Camouflage System” and Nanogen hair loss shampoo.

Nanogen Microfiber is made from keratin that is also the substance that hair is make from. The fibers bind to the existing hair electrostatically adding volume to your hair shafts. Nanofibr is similar to the hair product, Toppik that has been around for a while in the United States and works through attaching to the hair shafts and increasing the volume of each hair.

Nanogen Shampoo is claimed to work through different mechanisms:

1. Inhibiting sebum output in the scalp that has been stated that can control the waxy build up and associated problems. We know sebum production does not have anything to do with male patterned baldness.
2. Reducing dandruff and associated flaky skin by treating the causes of dandruff. Dandruff is not necessarily the cause of hair loss of any kind.
3. Containing anti-fungal properties that can control the fungal outbreak in the scalp. Some fungal diseases of the skin used to be causing infectious balding in past that are not seen as often now with the increased levels of public health. Typical men hair loss definitely doses not have to do with fungal diseases.
4. Reducing irritation and inflammation in the scalp that has been claims that can restore the barrier function of the skin. Again I have to question the role of this mechanism on restoration of hair in men with men hair loss.

In the other parts of the site of Nanogen, the causes of having unhealthy scalp is states as a combination of sebum, fungus like malassezia furfur, dandruff, scalp irritation and problems with inhibiting the barrier function of the skin. As we mentioned before, none of the above is the real cause of typical baldness in men hair loss or male patterned alopecia.

Q:

Dear Doctor,

I had a hair transplant at another clinic, X Medical, 8 yrs ago. The donor area was 1 strip 1 inch wide, 4 inch length, going diagonally from the occipital protuberance bone towards the right ear.

When I woke up the day after the procedure, I could tell something was really wrong. The whole back and right side of my head was really tight. It felt like the scalp was being pulled backwards, mostly on the right side. It hasn’t changed to this day and its constant. It’s a crippling feeling and I’ve been having problem with it since then. I understand there could be some tightness from removing the donor area. But this is something different than just tightness or scalp stretching; it’s a whole other type of problem in the tissue under the scalp surface. The clinic said the tightness should go away after awhile but hasn’t given me any possible solutions or possibilities.

I thought I might get some answers by contacting other hair transplant doctors who do these procedures frequently and who know the anatomy of the head. It would be so helpful if you could try to give me an idea of what could have happened or went wrong.

Thank you for your time,

A:

Hi,

This is an unusual condition that I have not seen or heard. The donor skin tightness usually improves in two to three weeks following a hair restoration surgery with strip technique. However the numbness and tingling around the donor incision may continue for a few months due to violation of the very small superficial branches of nerves of the donor area.

Although removing the donor strip may look simple, it should be done meticulously. The best method of removing the strip is to trace the skin on the back superficially while having a good control on the depth of the incision and then remove the right thickness of the scalp skin. We follow this procedure religiously at the Los Angeles hair transplant offices of US Hair Restoration. The incisions should be done within the subcutaneous fat layer, which is the safe zone with minimal chance of injuring the main sensory nerves of that area.

Since you have an unusual sensation on the back of head, you need to be evaluated by a physician for confirming your diagnosis. I have not examined you, but one of your sensory nerves might have been injured during the strip removal. Mild nerve injuries recover within a few months with complete return of the sensation. More serious injuries may leave patient with a numb area or a sense of tingling or tightness for a longer time or permanently. This complication is generally rare, but may be seen in any skin procedure that involves making incisions around the sensory nerves. If this is the right diagnosis and you are experiencing a phantom pain or sensation due to injury of a nerve, a pain specialist might be able to help you with the injections of some medications into the local nerve to block the irritated nerve.

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.

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.

Hi Dr. Mohebi,

A couple of questions for you and the blog perhaps.

Just wondering - I’ve noted that one LA area hair transplant doctor has used Vaseline on patient’s heads after surgery to prevent graft scabbing - what’s your opinion on this?

By the way I’m mentioning this as I feel I may have a greater tendency to scab as despite the twice daily washings my three grafts that you so kindly placed scabbed up and still are scabbed on this 6th day out, Sunday, but seeming to loosen up a bit now (patient had a FOX test with us to check his candidacy for FUE procedure and we implanted the three intact grafts that we biopsied to his crown). I’ve had prolonged scabbing before despite the washings and frequent wetting that I was advised with prior procedures. Also, I don’t necessarily mind the scabs other than I’d prefer not to have to return to work with them if they could be minimized with the Vaseline possibly or something similar.

Otherwise I’m wondering if Neutragena shampoo is okay post op vs. baby shampoo? Here’s a Neutragena link for reference.

http://www.drugstore.com/qxp14485_333181_sespider/
neutrogena_shampoo/shampoo_anti_residue_formula.htm

Thanks much,

Patient’s name

A:

Scabbing after hair transplant is very important and if not treated properly may affect the growth of the transplanted hair grafts. We are very meticulous on the care after hair transplant especially hair wash after hair transplant.

Many shampoo s are recommended and used by different hair transplant doctors, but we really don’t have a strong researched based proof for many of those. The only thing that I can tell you is to increase the number of washing in every day to minimize the chance of scabbing. In terms of using shampoos, I prefer using baby shampoo for the first 4 days that skin incisions area still healing, but after that you can use whatever you were using before. We know that there are some solutions and shampoos that can minimize the scabbing and crusting that is seen in the process of wound healing, but since we don’t know how they affect the growth of transplanted grafts we really cannot recommend them in our Los Angeles hair transplant centers. Not until we can have the evidence of their safety on the grafts from a medical study.

Using Vaseline falls in the same category. I prefer not using it in the first two days when the tiny incisions on the recipient area might not be quite sealed.

 

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.