Wanthairs recently pointed out a publication by Dr. Rassman in which he states that a hair transplant may accelerate the balding process. He was given this advice to an 18 year old, but nonetheless is this applicable to everyone? Has anyone heard about this before? It is in his response to the question "Im 18 and want a lower hairline" in the following link:

http://www.baldingblog.com/

This would be extremely counterproductive for anyone who is not completelly bald yet. Any thougths?

notgoing2gobald, thats crazy! What the fuck!? how could this be!??!?


WHAT, NO ONE HAS ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT THIS?

notgoing2gobald,

Patience my friend and someone will answer .

What Dr. Rassman is most likely talking about is permanent shock loss. Hairs that are already miniaturized have a greater chance of being "shocked" and sent to early retirement. These hairs will have inevitably retired anyway but surgery can expedite the process.

There are a few ways to minimize the risk of permanent shock loss.

1. Hair Loss medication such as Propecia and/or Rogaine used for at least 6 months to a year, if working can strengthen the hairs enough so that they are more resilient to shock - and even if they are temporarily shocked, will grow back

2. With minimally invasive incisions using ultra refined follicular unit transplantation, there is less trauma to the scalp, therefore the risk of shock loss lessens

3. Transplanting grafts further apart between weaker native hairs will also lessen the trauma to the scalp and therefore reduce the risk of sending miniaturized hairs into early retirement.

I hope this helps.

Falc

Falc,

patience is one virtue (among others) I dont have. Yeah, I was hoping that is what he was reffering to, but it was somewhat alarming as I have never heard it described as "accelerating the balding process".

So, whats up with evryone jumping to the defense of Anonymous's doc? I dont think he ever claimed the doctor did anything wrong, he was merely "dissapointed" by his results. I understand everyone (myself included) wants to know who his doc was, becuase thats a huge part of what this forum is for, right? Sharing our experiences?

i would like to know one thing.
If you have HT and have shock loss,and all natural hair comes back after shockloss,does it mean that your natural hair (that came back) is not weak and will stay there (almost) forever?

no.

Ok,let's get level headed here

1- A HT may accelerate hairloss short term due to shockloss, as well as the meds you start aka shedding..

2- You may lose some native hair due to shockloss but that is why you should take meds to stabilize hairloss prior to a HT

3- YOU MUST BE PATIENT . No exceptions. Hair transplants take time and you will go through a phase where you look worse..

There are no quick fixes here .. I used Concealers for close to 15 years to hide my hairloss including the 2.5 years during my 3 HT's.. Now I am reaping the benefits but it is not easy..

These are the facts.

I think (hope)I am going through that right now.
I started Propecia about a week after surgery.
Everything was going good until about the 3 month mark. My hair got thinner even in the nontransplant areas. Looks really bad wet.
I am just over 5 months now. I see some growth in the hairline and some in the crown (yeah!)but I still look like crap right now. I even have several pimples in the nontranspalnt area. Could that be regrowth? It seems there is no way I can tell if new hair is growing in or if it is hair that will be shed? I thought I read on here that it may take 6 months or more for the hair to recover from med kicking in and shockloss?

Would it be shockloss or shedding in the area
right on the border between native hair and transplants? I am so glad this forum is here
because of the ups and downs I have been going through.

Any more thoughts Falc or Mrjb?

Justgrow,
You are experiencing a roller coaster of emotions, trust me we all go though it. As far as your situation goes, it can be a combination of both, temp (hoping for you) shockloss and a med shed. It is really hard to differ if the meds are working for you. I just passed the six month mark on meds and I really believe it has stabilized my hair loss. I am one month post op and I look like a freak with my bad hair cut. Cutting my hair in the recipient area was a small price to pay for receiving quality work from a great doc. The theme on this site, and reality is, this is a long process and commitment is vital. Hang in there my friend and keep taking monthly pics and start a blog this will help you and others on the forum estimate your progress. If you already started or have a blog than disregard that last part. Hope this help take care..

justgrow,

I think everyone is different and theres is many variables that may affect your results. During and after my second HT, I was under a lot of stress and going thru a lot in my personal life . I also drank alcohol heavily. I noticed that it affected my results. I did extremely good after my 3rd HT when I ate well(high protein, low fat, high fiber and good carbs) and took my meds.It also healed very quickly.
Just make sure you take care of yourself and make lifestyle adjustments if you need too. Take and maintain good monthly picture records of your progress. you'll be ok.

I dont know if Im helping here, but just wanted to share what affected me personally post HT

Thanks for the support. I have been going through it alone until I found this site.

I will take and use your advise trigerhappy and Arrie. This was my first HT and I have been getting educated since joining here.

I can totally understand why someone may get better results shving the recipient area.
I work in an office and am not sure if I could do that even though I may want to. I dont much about the conceilers either.

Mrjb,
..."level headed"...I hear what your saying, but on the same token its somewhat alarming to hear a DOCTOR use the phrase "a ht can accelerate the balding process". If he was merely reffering to shockloss, then I would think (or hope) he would have stated it as such.

Hi

Well, that is why it is essential you are an informed patient & do your research before hand.. Ask questions like " what do you mean accelerated hairloss"? That would been my first reply!! I would bet he was speaking about shedding which is common and is a well known side effect ( short term) That is why we are here to help.

Look losing your hair is not a level headed experience but it is important that you know what you are dealing with.

It may not solve you anxiety but it may reduce it

Im going to try and contact Dr.Rassmans office to get a direct response to see exactly what he he meant by that.