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Hi.. 5 years back a lady left the relaxer too long so I had a bad burn and ever since hair started to get thinner & thinner. I ended up with a bald area on top of my head. its pretty big in size. around 2 inches wide & 1.5 inches deep. Do you think my hair would never grow again in that area? are there any products that you suggest I use to help me fix this mess?

Its very unlikely that you would see hair growing back again at this stage. It sounds like the chemical treatment may have caused scarring to that area of the scalp or burned the hair follicles resulting in permanent hair loss. This could be confirmed with a scalp biopsy.

On the assumption that you have a good supply of donor hair at the back and sides, hair transplant surgery could restore hair to a reasonable result. Another option is a reduction or excision of the hairless scarred area. This excision might be likely to need scalp expansion in your case if the area is very large.

Without further information, I cannot recommend any products that would restore significant hair in your case. However, you can try temporary camouflage type products like Toppik that can disguise the loss when the need arises. The picture on the right shows a badly damaged hair with the fibrils inside the hair shaft broken out like the spindles inside electric wires.

I used the Hairmax Lasercomb for 6 months or so. I expected major new growth but saw nothing to that extent. The only thing the product really did was make my remaining hair appear healthier. Overall i don’t know what to think of the Lasercomb. From what i’ve read it doesnt seem to target DHT or regrow the long lost hair lost due to DHT. “It is only to be believed to promote healthy anagen hair growth” (From hair follicles that have not been damages from DHT im guessing?). So wouldn’t the LaserComb be great for newly transplanted patients?

I’m two weeks post op. My grafts are securely anchored and the transplanted hairs are shedding, would it be safe for me to use the lasercomb and how effective would it be?

I don’t think that the LaserComb would produce any harm to transplanted hairs. I doubt it’ll be “great” for them, but if you’re happy with your hair health on non-transplanted hairs, by all means…

This 22 year old patient came to see me for hair loss she’s been experiencing for the past 2 years. She did all of the right things, saw two dermatologists, and received a complete medical work-up for a variety of disease entities and vitamin deficiencies and was found to be normal. What I told her is as follows:

1. Obtain a new test for androgen sensitivity of her hair based upon a genetic test
2. If she is sensitive to androgen, we might try her on an androgen blocker such as finasteride or dutasteride in the hope that this will block enough of the androgen to allow better hair growth.

The science is minimal that support this thesis, but it is better to try to block the androgens on women who are positive to the genetic test for androgen sensitivity than to put all women on the drugs.

In addition, as we could not offer her an immediate benefit with drugs, we used a concealer treatment on her hair and showed her how to do this herself. Her comment after the application of DermMatch was, “I have been reborn”.

I apologize for the blurriness of the before photo. Click the photos below to enlarge. Before (left); After (right)

In the local pharmacies in the UAE a hair-loss treatment product by the name of Foltene is readily available. What are your thoughts on it’s components and do they hold any merit on it’s effectiveness? foltene.eu

I haven’t heard of Foltene before, but I checked out the site. The ingredients are a bunch of vitamins and something they are calling “Tricosaccaride”, which according to information I can only find on their company site, is something that they discovered in the 60s. Common sense time — If this really worked as claimed, don’t you think in the past 40+ years it would’ve been a little more well known? The vitamins in the ingredients will nourish the hair, but I have no idea how they can assume that means it’ll regrow hair. Looking a little further into what Tricosaccaride is, it seems like it is an acid that helps with blood circulation to the scalp. The idea of poor circulation leading to hair loss is false. See here for more on that.

The product claims to change the number of hairs in the anagen (growth) and telogen (sleep) phases. In other words, it claims to be able to tweak the cycling of your hair growth. Hair cycle is something that is controlled below the skin (genetics) and not above the skin… so a topical treatment that can do as they claim just doesn’t make sense.

I was looking online for numerous hair loss products and after researching about the products I found, it turned out that most of them are scams. However, I found a product called Yuda Pilatory Platinum Edition. (chinahairloss.com)

I couldn’t find any information on this product. Does anyone know if this product actually works or is it just another scam?

Thank you

I don’t have a clue if these herbals work, but I love the cartoon they use at the top of their site of the fellow spraying this stuff in his mouth and got a hairy tongue. Ridiculous! In fact, at the top of the site it says that it is an herbal formula “without color and taste”, and then at the bottom lists a caution as “can not be eaten”. Uh…

The ingredients listed on that site certainly don’t lead me to believe this Yuda “platinum edition” will provide the benefits the seller is promising (the box art says hair growth in 10 days — ha!).

I recently noticed that one of the first ingredients in pretty much all the hairsprays out there is some form of alcohol. I understand that the chemicals in gels, mousses, foams, waxes and sprays don’t directly cause hair loss, but it is also widely agreed that alcohol-based hair products are not good for the scalp and therefore are not good for hair either.

I know that in your book you give a warning that hairsprays can aggravate hair loss if one is not careful due to excessive strain/traction of the hair, but would the alcohol in hairsprays also contribute to hair loss by doing bad things to the scalp like overdrying? I think your book is great including the section on hair shaping products, but one thing I am still wondering is your general stance on hair shaping products and their effect on hair loss (more hairspray than anything else). Thanks.

Alcohol based hair products will not cause hair loss. The body has sebum which coats the hair as it exits the scalp and that process protects the hair most of the time. Alcohol based products can dry the scalp, so the use of good conditioners for dry hair is a good way to manage your scalp and hair.

If you liked the book Hair Loss and Replacement For Dummies, why not submit a review to Amazon? I could use the boost, since there’s only been one review thus far. I’m excited to see that the book is now #1 for all books on hair loss, though. And for those that don’t know about the book, buy it here!

I’ve read you’re only supposed to shampoo hair a couple times a week tops, like the Europeans. But I live in a windy locale, so if I don’t use cream/pomade/wax/clay/glue and/or hairspray in my hair each day for work, when I get to work my hair looks crazy and if I don’t shampoo it, combing it after is extremely hard, especially with hairspray. Someone suggested to me that you can use conditioner everyday but I haven’t tried that yet. Any thoughts?

Considering what you said, I would recommend that you shampoo daily. There are many good shampoos have have conditioners in them.

You’ve said that daily shampooing of hair won’t cause hair loss unless we wash too rigorously. Disregard the physical aspects of washing. Can the chemicals in shampoo be affecting our hair follicles? I know that hair is “dead” when it grows out of the skin, but I’m concerned our hair follicles are shallow enough that the shampoo may be affecting them. Although if this were the case, perhaps a lot more women would have the same type of hair loss as men.

Sorry, but you’re completely off base with this. Shampoo itself has nothing to do with hair loss… absolutely nothing if it is a good commercial shampoo.

I’ve been taking Saw Palmetto Capsules for the hair loss control but discontinued because I started taking provillus dietary supplement(because containing Saw Palmetto), Can I continue with the Saw Palmetto capsules (The reason: I’m interested in the protate benefits)along with Provillus. Thank you in advance for your help.

Saw palmetto and Provillus are over the counter natural supplements, though Provillus now contains minoxidil along with saw palmetto. The use of saw palmetto may or may not work, but one of the problems is the dosage between different manufacturers and as it is an herbal remedy it is not covered by the FDA regulations for claims. I really don’t believe it works in treating hair loss, but I also see no harm in taking it. I would be careful not to take excessive dosages of any natural supplements, though. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you what an excessive dose of saw palmetto would be.

Provillus has 5% minoxidil in it now with their “improved formula” (it should say so on the bottle), which means that it is now as good as the cheaper generic minoxidil you can get at any pharmacy or most supermarkets.

I just read your article about flat irons and I was impressed with the information, the reason being i purchased a ceramic flat iron in which i was told it was the healthy way to get the hair straight but after using it about six times i started experiencing breakage like you described in the article. So my question is do you know anything about ceramic flat irons being different from regular flat irons?

The article you’re referring to can be found here, just so everyone is on the same page.

That article is a good review of the process. As I understand it, a ceramic hair iron ceramic is supposed to be more gentle on hair compared to a traditional metal hair iron, but the best information for you would be obtained through a good hair stylist who has experience with this process. Other sources you can try include cosmetology schools for stylists or even Wikipedia.