Hair Restoration Blog

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.

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.

We have discussed different methods to repair hair transplant donor scar in the past. There was an interesting article in Dermatologic Surgery Magazine last months on repairing the wide donor scar using body hair by Dr. Robert Jones from Oakville, Ontario, Canada.

Dr. Jones has reports revising a wide donor scar after previous hair transplant surgery by body hair transplant. He uses chest hair removed by follicular unit extraction method using a 1mm punch device. He has transplanted the grafts directly into the scar area so follicular unit grafts did not have to wait more than a few seconds.

Three months post-op follow up pictures were shown with some hair growth on transplanted donor scar with some reasonable coverage. The growth of the transplanted hair is not completed before 6-8 months after hair transplant and it is expected to see better coverage by the end of that period.

I have had a presentation on revising neurosurgical scars using hair transplant with follicular unit transplantation in the annual meeting of International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery in 2007. In that meeting, I presented four patients who underwent hair transplant surgeries to revise the widened scar of their neurosurgical scars. The results of the hair transplant on those patients were great and the appearances of the scars were completely vanished in all four of them.

Again the current article by Dr. Jones proves that hair restoration could be used effectively for improving the appearance of scalp scars. My personal preference and the method that I use in our Los Angeles hair transplant clinics is to use scalp scar rather than body hair unless patient’s donor area is completely depleted and there is not enough harvestable hair on the donor area. In those cases body hair transplant could be an alternative if patient have good quality body hair for a body hair transplant through FUE (Follicular Unit Extraction).

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.

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.

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.

 

Searching for the best Los Angeles hair transplant surgeon may not be an easy task, but Los Angeles has always been a referral center for most cosmetic surgeries, even though hair transplant surgery is one of the newer branches of cosmetic surgery. You can find a wide variety in style and levels of Los Angeles and Beverly Hills hair transplant surgeons. Some of the most updated hair transplant surgeons practice in Los Angeles and San Diego, California, but you can also see lousy surgeries done by some hair transplant surgeons. Overall, hair restoration surgery like any other cosmetic surgery is a buyer‚Äôs beware market, and one must be careful not to fall into the trap of signs such as “Number one Beverly Hills hair transplant surgeon” or “the most experienced Los Angeles hair transplant surgeon”. You can see similar advertisements and a lot more like Extreme make over hair transplant surgeon or doctor 90210.

The good news is that today, most hair transplant surgeons offer free initial consultation. It is importantto take advantage of this situation and shop around. It is your look and your desire to live with it for the rest of your life after all. It is not enough to visit several hair transplant doctors; you also need to educate yourself on hair transplantation process, surgical techniques and hair transplant surgeon’s background before visiting the doctor. This way, you can appreciate a good technique and knowledgeable doctor when you see one while you can find the most affordable hair transplant. US Hair Restoration – a Los Angeles hair transplant surgery center offers free physician consultation for everyone. We offer state-of-the-art hair transplant surgery with exclusive follicular unit transplants (FUT), mega sessions for people with extensive hair loss and follicular unit extractions (FUE) or noninvasive hair transplants that does not leave an scar in the donor area.

Los Angeles is Hollywood and in Hollywood “appearance” is everything. Modern hair transplant surgery with undetectable results has become a demanding field in Southern California in last few years both because of the number of people looking for hair restoration surgery and the ones looking for the best hair transplant surgeon in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and Southern California over all. Many people travel the world to get their hair transplant surgery done in Los Angeles or Beverly Hills. Los Angeles is and will probably always be the Mecca of hair transplant surgery for people who cannot accept anything but the best.

How much does a hair transplant cost. This is a question that people ask me on this blog every day. Hair transplant cost in LA might be a concern for many individuals who are trying to obtain a full head of hair. Today, advanced technology has helped thousands of hair loss sufferers to restore their natural hair and improve their self esteem.

Hair transplant have become a much better value in last few years. The quality of transplanted hair has improved drastically as long with the cost of hair transplants. Many people were interested in undergoing a hair transplant surgery, but were discouraged by the costs of hair restoration surgeries. Many modern hair transplant centers are performing larger hair restoration surgeries, which have made hair transplants more cost effective for the patient while also finishing the restoration process possible with fewer procedures.

Generally, hair transplant costs can range anywhere from $4000 to $20, 000 dependings on where and how it is performed. Regardless of the center, the cost of your hair transplant always depends on how many grafts patients need.

It is crucial to stress that hair transplant costs vary. The question really should not be “how much a hair transplant costs”, but what the value of the procedure is. That is why it is imperative that you consult a few doctors before choosing one. The possibility of monthly financing with low monthly payments is also often offered to make hair restoration even more affordable for a larger group of people.

Other expenses to keep in mind when calculating a hair transplant cost is the price of any extra medication, blood tests, anesthesia, and facility fees that are included in the cost of hair transplant surgeries in some hair restoration centers. At the end, your cost is associated with which clinic you select. At US Hair Restoration, patients are encouraged to shop around and find the best value hair transplant (not the cheapest). USHR has a high patient satisfaction rate, considering that US Hair Restoration offers the most recent standards in hair restoration surgery leading to the most natural results with a very affordable price.

Los Angeles hair transplant surgeons and hair transplant centers; how do they compare with hair restorations surgeons of the other cities or countries? Los Angeles is the mecca of cosmetic surgery. Is this also true in the field of hair transplant?