Hair Restoration Blog

They have setup specific guidelines for identifying these physical traits as well as for performing hair transplantation and surgical excision in order to achieve optimal cosmetic outcomes and minimize postoperative complications.

Los Angeles is known as the Mecca of cosmetic surgery.  Hair restoration is not an exception to this rule and the demand for high quality hair transplant surgeries attracted the best hair transplant surgeons to Los Angeles and Beverly Hills in particular.

We launched the first branch of the US Hair Restoration in Encino, Los Angeles, California. Its central location makes it accessible from many different areas including Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, downtown LA, Glendale, and all of San Fernando Valley. I did not believe that you should be in Beverly Hills to be able to provide high quality cosmetic surgeries and hair transplants until a few months after starting the first branch of US Hair Restoration. The volume of inquiries from Beverly Hills patients proved my theory wrong and we had to start our Hair Restoration Beverly Hills hair transplant office in the heart of Beverly Hills just a few months after establishing our Encino Hair restoration clinic in the San Fernando Valley.

Are all Beverly Hills hair transplant surgeons capable of providing high quality hair restoration procedures? I guess we all know the answer to this question. In fact, Beverly Hills, like any other high end cities, attracts a mixed crowd of both “good and bad” specialists. Truth is some mediocre hair transplant surgeons only established their hair restoration clinics in Beverly Hills for financial gain from the patients who don’t have time to do their homework before choosing their hair transplant surgeon.

Hair transplant is considered a permanent procedure and, good or bad, the results stay with you for the rest of your life. As much as a good hair transplant can remove years from your face and restore the beauty of it, a bad hair transplant looks unnatural and stands out as unreal. I do a few hair transplant repairs every month for hair transplants that are done with the old techniques that were once considered the standard of care. What’s more disappointing is some of those hair transplants are done only recently and by hair transplant surgeons that could not adapt to the new techniques of hair transplant surgery. I have seen micro-graft hair transplants done only one or two years ago which means there are some doctors out there that resist or are unable to learn the new techniques of hair restoration. Those procedures leave patients with unnatural looking hair and forces them to get another surgery to correct the pluggy appearance.

The good news is that having a bad hair transplant is not the end of the world and if your donor area was not violated badly, your transplanted hair can almost always be repaired with a follicular unit transplant that is artistically done by a good hair transplant surgeon whether in Beverly Hills or elsewhere.

Q:

Two weeks back i have just noticed while shaving i have a round patch on my upper lip where there is no hair which is very strange because i have seen last two weeks back i have perfect hair. so can you please advice me what to do? and what was the problem for losing the hair and it looks like burnt.
Thanking you in advance

A:

Patchy hair loss without any other symptoms or skin conditions is usually a sign of Alopecia Areata (AA). The form of alopecia areata that we have described in several posts in the past can be seen almost anywhere on the body where hair may grow. This disorder usually presents itself as patchy or coin shaped balding spots.

Alopecia areata is an autoimmune disorder that could be seen alone or with other types of autoimmune disorders that can involve the thyroid gland. In alopecia areata hair follicles are attacked and destroyed by the immune system in limited areas causing patchy balding spots.

Recovery can be spontaneous in most cases and usually no treatment is required. See my article on treatment of alopecia areata. Some doctors may decide to treat the hair loss lesions of alopecia areata rather than waiting for spontaneous clearance especially when the lesions are exposed or patients cannot deal with them for a few months. Treatment may include a variety of lotions or injection of long acting steroids into the lesions.

Hair transplant surgery is not an option when there is any chance of alopecia areata. If you transplant hair into the balding patches of alopecia areata, your body may react against the transplanted follicles. Transplanted hair can be destroyed the same way the native hair follicles were affected by the disease.

The balding spots of alopecia areata can occasionally involve the whole head. That condition is called Alopecia Capitis. It could even extend to the whole body and cause the patient to lose some or all of his or her hair. This condition is called Alopecia Universalis. However, the outcome of the patients with typical alopecia areata is usually good and recovery is complete in most patients. I highly suggest that you see a good dermatologist to confirm the diagnosis and treat the condition if needed.

Thank you,

A:

Hi There,

Thanks for your question. Hair is just like any other human organ (i.e. heart, kidney) and could be transplanted from other people. However, the recipient of the organ transplant needs to take anti-rejection medications. This treatment is generally not without its complications. In fact, the use of anti-rejection medication tends to suppress the immune system and can create many serious side effects.

If the donor organ is more like a vital organ or something you cannot live without, like your heart, an organ transplant is justified but for hair transplantation, it is generally not that practical. There are reports from people who have had hair transplants from other people while on anti-rejection medications with some success, however, as I stated, it is not something that I recommend to my patients at the US Hair Restoration.

Q:

Hi, My name is XX XX and I am from India. My age is 27 years. I am suffering from scarring alopecia from last 10 years. Initially I have 4-5 very small patches, but now they have increased slowly, these patches are very smooth and of red color. I never feel and pain, burn or sever itching on my scalp, but many times I feel sensation under my scalp area and on my face, it is just like something is moving. I have taken lots of treatments Dermatology, homeopathy, ayurveda but none of these worked, may be because I did not continue any one of them more than six month. One or two year back it was kind of arrest but from last one year it again starting and I can see some new small small smooth and red color patches. I am very depressed and don’t know what to do. Please tell me if you can help me in any kind of diagnose or treatment in your research center or by any other way, please help me out. I will be very grateful!!

A:

Scarring alopecia (Cicatricial Alopecia or CC) is a broad term that applied to a diverse group of hair loss disorders.  An inflammatory condition is usually present that causes destruction of the hair follicles.  Biopsy of the scalp is generally needed to establish the diagnosis. Treatment options are different based on the exact microscopic diagnosis.  In many cases the treatment of cicatricial alopecia is difficult and a complete recovery may not be achievable with medical treatments.

Hair transplant has been tried for the treatment of cicatricial alopecia for those who have a healthy donor hair with limited success.  In some cases the process of the disease may flare up and stimulate losing patient’s original hair along with the transplanted ones. I usually obtain a scalp biopsy from patients who have atypical patterns of baldness to role our cicatricial alopecia before planning for a hair restoration surgery in our Los Angeles Hair Restoration Centers.

My recommendation to you is to find a good dermatologist and stick with his or her plan. You need to understand that the treatment of cicatricial alopecia might be long and a complete recovery might not be achievable in many patients.

Q:

I have had alopecia areata since I was 3 years of age and now I’m 33. I have done as much research as I can to find the causes of this hair loss and there has not been any accurate information of the cause. But my question would be if you are cloning the hair and a patient has alopecia how successful will the procedure be if the hair growth from the patient is unhealthy in the first place?

This procedure is a billion to trillion dollar industry but the research has to be done extensively due to unknown side effects. Please keep posting more information as you go forward. There are many people waiting impatiently.

A:

Alopecia areata is one of those conditions that hair transplant, either from regular methods or through cloning, cannot help much. We have discussed the treatment options for alopecia areata on our website.  Alopecia areata is an autoimmune condition in which the immune system reacts against the hair follicles and destroys them.

If we were to transplant hair to an area with active hair loss due to alopecia areata, the chance of you losing the transplanted hair is very high due to the same mechanism in which native hair has been lost. We do not have much information on cloned hair, but the same phenomenon is likely to happen after transplanting cloned or multiplied hair.

There is just another study on a potential new medication that could be used for treatment of hair loss. Currently, there are only two FDA approved medications for male patterned baldness or typical men hair loss in United States. The two medications that we have extensively discussed on this web site are finasteride (Propecia) and minoxidil (Rogaine).

The article “Effect of Cuscuta reflexa Roxb on androgen-induced alopecia” was published in the Journal of cosmetic dermatology September 2008. The research is done in India and the authors discuss the significance of hair loss in men and the effect of androgenetic alopecia on millions of men and women. They classify typical men hair loss as androgen-driven disorder. They used Cuscuta feflexa Roxb for hair growth activity in androgen-induced alopecia.

The authors of the article used petroleum ether extract of C. reflexa for its hair growth-promoting activity on albino mice. They induced male patterned alopecia in mice by testosterone administration for 20 days. The inhibition of baldness by simultaneous administration of the extract was evaluated using follicular density, anagen/telogen ratio, and microscopic observation of skin sections. To investigate the mechanism of observed activity, in vitro experiments were performed to study the effect of extract and its major component on activity of 5alpha-reductase enzyme.

The researchers announced that petroleum ether extract of C. reflexa exhibited promising hair growth-promoting activity as reflected from follicular density, anagen-telogen ratio, and skin sections. Inhibition of 5alpha-reductase activity by extract and isolate suggest that the extract reversed androgen-induced alopecia by inhibiting conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone. They concluded that the petroleum ether extract of C. reflexa and its isolate is useful in treatment of androgen-induced alopecia by inhibiting the enzyme 5alpha-reductase.

This hair loss research needs more research on human volunteers on a long period of time before it can be considered as a balding treatment. There must also be more research done on the application of the product on human in terms of medication side effects and its comparison with currently available medications for treatment of hair loss.

We at US Hair Restoration continue to follow on the most advanced investigations and researches on hair loss treatment. We keep our patients and the readers of hair restoration blog updated with the new information and medical technology to improve the quality of our hair restoration treatments at our Los Angeles hair restoration clinics.

This article was just published last month in Dermatologic Surgery Journal.  I thought the results should be interesting for the readers of this blog.  The article title is Survival of densely packed follicular unit hair grafts using the lateral slit technique.

The authors, Nakatsui, Wong and Groot, describe their experiment on densely packed follicular hair units and follow up on the rate of survival of the transplanted hair.  They use a density of 75 hairs per square centimeter which is even higher than the regular hair transplantation methods currently in use. The authors explain that the use of densely packed follicular unit grafts (>30 grafts/sq cm) is a highly debated issue with some claiming decreased survival rates.

Those who perform dense packing routinely do not believe they have seen any impaired survival. However, no prior study has rigorously analyzed densely packed areas to assess survival rates.

This is true and some hair transplant surgeons still advocate the use of lower densities which make the patient commit to multiple surgeries. These hair transplant surgeons convince their patients that dense packing can negatively affect the circulation of the skin and jeopardize the rate of growth for implanted hair follicles.

The study was only done on one patient and needs to be experimented on a larger number of patients but this at least clarifies the mechanism of hair restoration with new methods of highly dense packing. The authors concluded that 98.6% of transplanted hair follicles survived and were able to re-grow a normal hair.  Obviously, this is the first study that demonstrates high growth rates in densely packed follicular units using the lateral slit technique, even at densities of 72 grafts/sq cm.

We do perform densepacking hair transplant surgery at the US Hair Restoration clinics in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and Orange County in California on a regular basis.

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 have been diagnosed with a thyroid problem called Hashimoto’s Disease.  I am 23 and I am losing hair on head, and also developing some bald spots on my beard area on the neck and scalp too.  My eyebrow hair is also falling out on the sides.  Doctors said that I have low function of thyroid and put me on thyroid pills.  Now that my thyroid is under control, I would like to know whether or not that my hair ever grows back.

A:

Hypothyroidism or low functioning thyroid can cause scalp and eyebrow hair loss.  However the balding spots that you are experiencing are not typical for hypothyroidism.  The patchy hair loss spots are usually due to a disorder called alopecia areata.  Alopecia areata (AA) is an autoimmune disease that could be seen in association with other autoimmune disorders like Grave’s disease or Hashimoto’s disease.  Thyroid disease is reported in almost 10% of the patients who have alopecia areata.

To confirm the diagnosis and start with a treatment plan, you need to see a dermatologist.  If the diagnosis of alopecia areata is confirmed then you can choose to wait for spontaneous recovery as it is in most of cases of alopecia areata or seek treatment methods that can facilitate the recovery and re-growth your hair.