Everyday Hair Loss Prevention Tips from Hair Restoration Experts

In the midst of the exciting University of Pennsylvania hair loss stem cell study, the U.K. Daily Mail decided to canvas the hair community and find some helpful, everyday tips to prevent baldness. The hope is that these suggestions will help hair loss sufferers maintain native hair while eagerly awaiting potential applications of the stem cell therapies.

The U.K. hair restoration experts, including Coalition hair transplant surgeon Dr. Bessam Farjo, provided the Daily Mail with some helpful tips and hints for maintaining a healthy head of hair and preventing hair loss. These suggestions include: avoiding harsh hair brushing, eating a balanced, cooked breakfast, avoiding petroleum-based hair waxes, relaxing, eating foods rich in iron (nuts, red meat, dark green vegetables, etc.), avoiding hair coloring, and refraining from smoking.

It’s important to point out that while many of these suggestions promote good total body and hair health in general, few have been proven as detriments to hair follicles or confirmed as true preventive measures. At this current juncture, the only proven, effective measures for stabilizing, preventing, and possibly reversing hair loss are medications like finasteride/Propecia, and minoxidil/Rogaine, and, in appropriate cases, surgical hair restoration. While we do encourage all hair loss sufferers to utilize proven methods and remain “cautiously optimistic” toward future breakthroughs, it is interesting and informative to review these types of suggestions and potentially pick up some new hair restoration tips and tricks!

Click here for the full article.

_______________
Blake – aka Future_HT_Doc

Editorial Assistant and Forum Co-Moderator for the Hair Transplant Network, the Hair Loss Learning Center, the Hair Loss Q&A Blog, and the Hair Restoration Forum

Follow our community on Twitter

Watch hair transplant videos on YouTube

Get Proven Hair Loss Treatments at the Best Prices by visiting our new Online Hair Loss Product Store

Technorati Tags: hair loss, stem cell, baldness, hair loss sufferers, stem cell therapies, hair restoration expert, hair transplant surgeon, hair follicles, finasteride, Propecia, minoxidil, Rogaine, surgical hair restoration

View the original article here

I’m Experiencing Extreme Side Effects on Propecia: What Are My Options?

I’ve been taking finasteride (1mg) for more than two years. I started on a regimen at the age of 20. I started taking it and, within two weeks, had absolutely no erections. I continued taking it for three months hoping the symptoms would go away.? The symptoms never went away and I stopped taking finasteride. After a 2 week sabbatical, the erections came back.? After a month-long abstinence, I started taking it again and the erections subsequently diminished. I continued taking finasteride for 14 months and could never get an erection. I then took another sabbatical. After 6 weeks, the erections came back. According to my dermatologist, I’ve receded from a Norwood 2, measured at the age of 20 to a Norwood 4, measured last month (2 months before my 23rd birthday). However, she noted that I have a very thick donor area.

Should I continue taking finasteride in light of my inability to maintain erections when I have the medication in my system and in light of the fact that it hasn’t reversed or stopped my hair loss? If I decide to get a hair transplant, would that mean I would have to continue a life-long therapy of finasteride? That would obviously mean a lifetime of no erections.

I hear a lot about not getting a hair transplant at a young age because your hair could potentially still recede and then you’d be chasing your hair loss–given you have enough donor hair. With that said, I also hear a lot about the possibility of cloning hair follicles and how it could be a viable option in the near future. Furthermore, a recent study came out about the possibility of awaking progenitor cells through the use of already present stem cells as the catalyst. My question is this: Although nothing is for certain, do you think it would be worthwhile for me to engage in a high density transplant operation which would result in a densely packed packed hairline and leave me with very limited donor hair? My only reason for doing so would be the possibility that should my hair continue to recede, I could remediate the progression of the hair loss through new potential advances in hair restoration.

Most hair restoration physicians highly recommend using Propecia (finasteride) combined with Rogaine (minoxidil) indefinitely after hair transplant surgery. This gives the patient the best opportunity to maintain the appearance of fullness over the long-term. However, if you discuss your desire to forgo finasteride, your hair transplant physician may recommend a more conservative approach conserving more follicular unit grafts to address further balding in the future.

Personally, if finasteride caused me to have no erections, I believe I would not take it. No matter how much I prefer having hair, the main reason I want hair is to be more confident and attractive to the opposite sex. If I were not able to act upon that desire then having hair for me is just not that important.

This is an exciting time for medical research. It seems that every week a new and interesting theory or potential hair loss treatment is announced. However, those of us who have already been dealing with androgenic alopecia for decades have seen many “10 years till the hair loss cure” predictions come and go. While I generally don’t consider myself an optimist, I do believe that young men your age can expect more effective hair loss treatments in your lifetime but I don’t think that reputable and ethical hair transplant physicians will plan surgeries that may depend upon as yet unavailable treatments to maintain their appearance in the future.

—-

David – aka TakingThePlunge
Assistant Publisher and Forum Co-Moderator for the Hair Transplant Network, the Hair Loss Learning Center, the Hair Loss Q&A Blog, and the Hair Restoration Forum

Get Proven Hair Loss Treatments at the Best Prices by visiting our new Online Hair Loss Product Store

Technorati Tags: finasteride, hair loss, hair transplant, hair restoration, Propecia, Rogaine, minoxidil, follicular unit grafts, balding, hair loss treatment, androgenic alopecia, hair loss cure

View the original article here

Is It Normal for Hair Transplant Techs to Place the Follicular Unit Grafts?

This following article was written by recommended hair restoration physician Dr. William Lindsey and posted on our Hair Restoration Social Community and Discussion Forums.

Is it normal for a hair restoration surgeon to have his techs do most, if not all, of the grafting? I read that the physician I am considering does this.

Back in the days of minigraft hair transplantation, I probably placed about 75% of the grafts. When we switched to follicular unit grafting and increased the size of the cases, techs became more involved. Once we passed 1200 grafts, I essentially put in about half the grafts and the tech(s) did the others, with me finishing up.

Now, with bigger cases, and techs who really are quicker, more delicate, and more gentle than my 46 year old hands are, if I were having a hair transplant I’d want my techs to place my grafts preferential to me placing my own grafts if, of course, it were even possible.

The three key elements to a successful hair transplant are: a well thought out hairline design, dense placement and proper orientation of the slits? and gentle placement in an expedient fashion. The doctor should perform the first two and oversee and quality control the third item.

William H. Lindsey, MD, FACS
McLean, VA

—-

David – aka TakingThePlunge
Assistant Publisher and Forum Co-Moderator for the Hair Transplant Network, the Hair Loss Learning Center, the Hair Loss Q&A Blog, and the Hair Restoration Forum

Get Proven Hair Loss Treatments at the Best Prices by visiting our new Online Hair Loss Product Store

Technorati Tags: hair restoration, hair transplantation, follicular unit grafting, hair transplant

View the original article here

Treating Hair Transplant Scar Stretching Before it Begins

Due to issues associated with the traditional follicular unit transplantation/FUT “strip scar,” many hair restoration patients?seek advice on how to prevent hair transplant scars from stretching and treating the issue if stretching does occur. Recently, Coalition hair transplant surgeon Dr. William Lindsey shared helpful information regarding scar stretching with our Hair Restoration Social Community and Discussion Forums and helped address some of these concerns:

The golden window for pre-treating scar issues is from post-operative week 1 to 6. I ask all my hair transplant patients to come back for a free scar check at the one month mark and unfortunately less than 20% of patients follow through.

I do this because if the follicular unit transplantation scar looks good at a month post-operative, it is really rare, but not impossible, for the scar to act up later. And if it looks good, I tell folks to stop vitamin E or mederma – both of which, in my opinion, are useful modalities for pre-treating and possibly preventing scar stretching if it occurs.

Bottom line, if you are prone to scar issues, make sure your hair restoration physician is involved with the post-operative care.

Dr. William Lindsey
_______________
Blake – aka Future_HT_Doc

Editorial Assistant and Forum Co-Moderator for the Hair Transplant Network, the Hair Loss Learning Center, the Hair Loss Q&A Blog, and the Hair Restoration Forum

Follow our community on Twitter

Watch hair transplant videos on YouTube

Get Proven Hair Loss Treatments at the Best Prices by visiting our new Online Hair Loss Product Store

Technorati Tags: follicular unit transplantation, FUT, strip scar, hair restoration patients, hair transplant scars, hair transplant surgeon, Hair Restoration, hair transplant, follicular unit transplantation scar, vitamin E, mederma, hair restoration physician

View the original article here

Is Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) an Option for African-American Patients?

This following article was written by recommended hair restoration physician Dr. William Lindsey and posted on our Hair Restoration Social Community and Discussion Forums.

I’m considering a hair transplant and I prefer follicular unit extraction (FUE) because I like to wear my hair very short. However, from the research I’ve carried out, I can’t seem to find any evidence that this procedure actually works for black men. There are plenty of before and after photos of FUE patients available on the Net but I haven’t seen any featuring black men. Can anyone give some information about the availability of FUE for black patients?

 In my opinion, it’s harder to perform follicular unit extraction on curly African hair than with straight-rooted (non-black) hair. However, I’ve now done 6 FUE cases on? black patients and each hair transplant has been easier than the previous one.

The last one we did in early December was super easy and, coincidentally, he was also our very first black FUE patient. His post-op photos can be seen in this discussion thread, FUE into Black Male Donor Scar by Dr. Lindsey McLean VA. Our first case on him took all day to harvest about 100 follicular unit grafts. We performed another FUE on him in May and it took all day to get 300 grafts. Last month we were able to extract 723 grafts by 11am. Now, either he got easier or we got better.

Anyhow, I’d never say it was a “breeze” to perform this type of surgical hair restoration on patients of African descent but it’s a viable option for those balding guys that would like to wear their hair very short.

William H. Lindsey, MD, FACS
McLean, VA

—-

David – aka TakingThePlunge
Assistant Publisher and Forum Co-Moderator for the Hair Transplant Network, the Hair Loss Learning Center, the Hair Loss Q&A Blog, and the Hair Restoration Forum

Get Proven Hair Loss Treatments at the Best Prices by visiting our new Online Hair Loss Product Store

Technorati Tags: hair transplant, follicular unit extraction, FUE, follicular unit grafts, hair restoration, balding

View the original article here