Propecia and The Doctor
Dr. Rassman, I saw one of your comments on Propecia on the balding blog. You are welcome to use my pictures to show your bloggers what the drug can do. As you remember, I am 39 years old and I got these results in just 8 months on the drug. Contrary to what some say about the sex drive, the drug did nothing to suppress it. Sometimes I wish it did. I saw a couple of other doctors before I started Propecia and one had a salesman who tried to sell me 1500 grafts. He said Propecia would not work. Glad I did not have the surgery and listened to you guys. Thanks for coming forward on this very important issue. The young man can get an outstanding response from Propecia, especially the ones under 30. You are an exception to the rule and a lucky one at that. Although sometime I feel like a Merck salesman because I suggest this medication for many of my patients, it is because of people like you that I have become an enthusiast for Propecia. Although the corners did not return, the fullness you wanted was achieved and you are happy. That is what this is all about. You were wise to seek out other opinions. I applaud you for such persistence. There is no ‘A’ given in school for such decisions. In the real world, the hairy guy you look at in the mirror every day is better than an ‘A’ on a report card.
Hello Doctor
Does Propecia help with the Frontal Hair loss. My Hair loss is more in the fronal top part of the forehead. My right and left side has no hair loss.
Propecia slows or stops hair loss throughout the head. In some cases, it will reverse the hair loss. These select cases are often younger men, but on occasion we see return of hair in older men, mostly in the crown.
In answer to your question about frontal hair loss, Propecia slows or stops hair loss everywhere you are impacted by the genetic balding process. The reversal is less frequent in the frontal areas, however. On occasion, I have seen complete reversal of hair loss in the front, top, and crown area in some young men.
Thank you for your very informative and interesting site. I have read about Propecia extensively and it seems the wording describing the known benefits on the frontal hairline are very vague. I know Propecia has “very little evidence to support regrowth in the temporal regions,” but what if you still have hair in the frontal region? Will Propecia help or hurt the campaign to maintain hair growth in that specific area?
I am assuming that you are a male. What is your age? I can not do you justice to work in the dark. I will therefore answer your question as if you are a young man, under 25 years old. Propecia was only studied for its impact in the crown, so the drug company can make no claims about its impact on frontal hair loss. I can, however, tell you my experience as a clinician. I have seen frontal hair loss reverse (not commonly) and hair fill in behind the hairline in many young men with thinning. Propecia has no impact on non-genetically damaged hair. A normal person taking Propecia (one who has no balding) will not get any observable effect from the drug. Therefore, any hair that is normal and still present in the frontal area will not be negatively impacted, but if hair is being lost in the frontal area, then as a young man you can expect that if you do not protect the hairs that remain in the frontal area, they too will be lost. If you are balding, be sure to get your hair mapped out for miniaturization to determine the diagnosis and get a baseline that will form a Master Plan for your future under the guidance of a good, honorable, caring doctor.
Hair transplanting looks like it hurts! Does it hurt is my question? I saw the video and almost threw up. So please respond to my question! Does it hurt? Especially with at least a couple of thousand grafts! Please respond! Thank you for your time.
Yes, part of the process is painful. The first part (with anesthesia) hurts for about 1 minute. This part can be subsidized with appropriate medications to reduce the pain and possibly eliminate it if you choose this option. The more medications, the slightly more risk you may experience with side effects. Pain is also present after the surgery. If you elect to have an FUE procedure, the pain is very minimal and rarely takes any medications after surgery. If you have a strip harvesting procedure, then there is pain in the donor area, particularly more on the first night, which is easily treated with strong medications that are supplied by us. Some doctors do not like to use the word ‘pain’ because its meaning might frighten patients away, so the word discomfort is used instead. Discomfort = Pain!
On the other hand. there is also the pain of hair loss. This pain is often described by our patients as far worse than anything that they experienced in the surgery. As the old saying goes, “No Pain, No Gain” which essentially means that you need to weigh what you are willing to experience against what you are not willing to experience. A 2,000 graft procedure does not really hurt more than a 500 graft procedure. I prefer the larger procedures, because the patient has to invest less time and have less surgeries to get the final end product of their hair restoration desires.