Several years ago, after waxing my eyebrows twice monthly, I decided to get electrolysis to shape them permanently. Now older and wiser, I realized that I took off too much on the ends and I am considering an eyebrow transplant. However, the remaining eyebrow is extremely thick, so I was wondering if you could so an eyebrow transplant using this excess eyebrow hair?

There are two issues here:

1. Theoretically, you can transplant eyebrow hair from one eyebrow to the other, but it may produce unwanted hair loss and/or scarring in that area (even by using the FUE technique). And if you can harvest the excess eyebrow hair, it may not always grow. This in the end may leave you scarred and looking worse. I’m not trying to scare you from looking into this more, but it is a potential risk that you need to understand.
2. You can have your scalp hair transplanted to your eyebrow with good results, but no doctor can reproduce the exact look of your original eyebrow… no matter how good the doctor says he/she is.

I am in a pickle. My entire scalp and even my eyebrows are almost continuously itchy. This itching occurs especially often during physical activity where the body temp rises in the head. My hair has been shedding rapidly at the same time, specifically in the past few months. Hair has been pouring out of my head, but evenly throughout the scalp, making doctors skeptical of my concern. I have seen a number of doctors, none of them with advice other than propecia or rogaine. The itching has stumped them a well, causing me to be referred to a dermatologist, which cannot get me in until November.

Please let me know if you have heard of a similar case or if there is anything you would recommend. Thank you!

I am not sure how I can be of help if you have already seen a number of doctors. You are doing the right thing by seeing a dermatologist. Keep the appointment and let me know what you find.

Hair loss is mostly due to genetic causes in men. Do you see a particular pattern developing on your scalp? Generally, itchy scalp or skin may be a sign of infection (such as fungus, scabies, etc) / irritation (from chemicals, shampoos, soaps, etc). Your doctor (not me) can tell you if you have an infection.

Snippet from the article at MSNBC:

Thanks to advances in technology, hair-transplant procedures are sprouting up all over the country and the human body. While the majority of transplants still involve the scalp (and that remains the primary donor area), doctors are now able to harvest and replant hair follicles into eyebrows, eyelashes, beards, mustaches, sideburns, chests and beyond, allowing a growing number of people to become members of what you might call the “movable hair club.”

Nearly 99,000 surgical hair restoration procedures were performed in the United States in 2008, according to the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery, a non-profit medical association. Of that number, approximately 93,000 procedures were scalp transplants (hair transplants to fill in bald or thinning areas), followed by 3,484 eyebrows, 1,369 mustache/beard procedures and eyelashes with 531 procedures.

Read the full text — Hair here, then there: Odd transplants take root

I guess it is still news that hair from the scalp can be transplanted to any part of the body, but we’ve been doing this for many years. There are some examples of transplanted eyebrows and sideburns here (scroll towards the bottom of the page).

Hi Dr. Rassman,

just wondering if you could place some images or a few examples of actual balding people of all the norwood scales say from 2 to 7, so all us readers can have something to refer to? So we can get a better idea of what stage were at.

Thanks!

There are over 300 different patients posted on the NHI website and they should each have the Norwood class listed. It’s not always easy to tell from just one angle, so be sure to click each to see more photos of that particular patient (and to see their hair transplant results).

Here are examples of each of the main Norwood classes:

Norwood Class 2	Norwood Class 3	Norwood Class 4
Norwood Class 5	Norwood Class 6	Norwood Class 7

Here are some of the variant classes: Norwood 3A, Norwood 4A, Norwood 5A, and Norwood 3V.

To see more patients, check out:

• Full Face Photo Gallery
• Hairline Photo Gallery
• Repair Work Photo Gallery
• Other (Crown, Temple, Female, Eyebrow) Photo Gallery

This is a patient who had reversal of frontal hair loss by just taking Propecia for 2 years. The miniaturization in the frontal area was 50% 2 years ago and now is 30%. This is rare to get such a good response to Propecia. The patient is 25 years old and I suggested that he wait 1-2 years to see what was going to happen on the drug. As it turns out, waiting and postponing surgery at 23 when I saw him initially was a good choice. No surgery is needed now.

Before on the left; After 2 years of Propecia (no surgery) on the right. Click to enlarge.

Hi Dr. Rassman,
I had the pleasure to meet you at your open house and I think your great and honest. I have very very major concern right now. I want to have a HT and I think you said I am not ready, however I am going to be a NW 4A. I have been taking Rogaine foam for about 2 years now and for the last month I am shedding extremely bad and I mean bad. every morning about a hundred hairs on pillow. if I sneeze in sink I see 10 hairs in sink. the shower is clogging up the drain. If I run my hand thru hair over sink about 30-40 hairs fly out with each stroke.

DO I STOP THE ROGAINE FOAM? I still need A HT but don’t want to let this get completely out of control.

Thank You Very Much

You should be on finasteride. Didn’t I tell you that? If I met you and you’re a Norwood 4A, I surely would’ve suggested you get on Propecia.

Sneezing does not cause hair loss, and if you’re losing 30-40 hairs each time you run your fingers through your hair, your loss does sound pretty bad. If you stop the Rogaine Foam after 2 years, you’ll likely see more loss as the benefits from the foam will disappear. Come back and see me again.

hey doctor, im a 19 year old male with terrible acne, i have had acne since i was about 15 years old. and since then i have been taking all kinds of acne medications like creams etc…(only external not orally) and i can bearly grow facial hair im wondering if that could be the cause of it, is there any possible chance that it could? my dad, grandparents all have full thick beards. is there any ingredients in acne creams that would prevent hair from growing?

Facial hair growth is determined by genetics. Just because your father or grandfathers (you said “grandparents”, but I assume your grandmothers were excluded) had full thick beards does not necessarily mean their genes will be passed on to you. It can skip generations, much like genetic male pattern baldness. I’m not sure what acne medications you used, but I highly doubt that any over-the-counter creams would impede facial hair growth. I even doubt that prescription creams would cause a problem to facial hair.

Today I hurt my head in the area where I am going to have the operation (hair transplant next week). Is this dangerous or is it no problem? Will I have to wait for the wound to heal first or is it ok to operate since the surgeon is going to create scabs anyway?

It all depends on how big the cut, exactly where the cut is, how deep the cut is, how clean the cut is, etc, etc. Your surgeon needs to make that assessment.

Dr Rassman,

This following thread discussed one of your patents: hair-restoration-info.com

Now in the patent there is a discussion of fluid being introduced during the procedure to separate the follicles. This is the same discussion that i saw on a hairloss forum you gave about the new FUE2 procedure which you said uses a water jet principle.

What i wanted to know what are your thoughts on Dr feller’s comments that

1. Because the follicles are tiny, no amount of suction is powerful enough to actually grip and pull the graft out with any appreciable traction.
2. The second is that FUE practitioners acknowledge that appreciable amounts of fluid are NOT required for FUE as once breifly thought in 2004. In fact, the less fluid the better.

Thanks

The patent mentioned in that forum was actually built by Dr. Jae Pak when he worked for me as a biomechanical engineer (before he became a doctor) and it was proven to work. The patent was eventually purchased by Restoration Robotics and there is an actual robot that does the FUE extraction (still in development, as far as I know). The patent they are referencing in that thread is not FUE2.

1. Before all of this, there was another device designed by Dr. Boudjema in the late 1990’s that incorporated suction for the FUE. It did grip the follicle and pull the grafts out with traction, but it was not efficient.
2. FUE is highly variable in terms of how it is performed and who it is performed on. There is no rule. Less fluid does not mean it is better. Sometimes more fluid works on some patients.

Since I introduced the FUE technique to the ISHRS meeting in 2002, FUE has blossomed and took a life of its own with different techniques and opinions by doctors all over the world! I believe it is a wonderful thing, as doctors will continue to innovate the technology and technique. To date, there is no one standard accepted universal method for the perfect FUE and that means that no one technique seems better for all of the doctors and all of the patients. Variability in technique is not good for patients as the concept of standardization just does not materialize, which is the sign of a mature technology.

Good afternoon Doctor! I just want to thank you for this site.

Im an 18 year old boy, and since i was around 17 my hairline changed into what it now is today. However I’m not sure where to class ito n the norwood scale. The frontal hairline is, like you say in the normal place, exactly half an inch above the furrowed brow, however my concern is asscociated with the corners of the hairline. From the highest wrinkle, if i place a tape measure to the furthest point of the corner of the hairline it measures around 2 inches.

My question is with a corner reccession like this, could i still be placed in the Norwood 2 section? Because if you look at the stage 2 of the Norwood scale, the measurements found on this site for the mature hairline don’t appear to fit with it. The front of the hairline and the corners appear to have a far greater gap than the ‘norm’ of 1 - 1.5 inches…..

And just as a last question, if i start on Propecia at this age, is there a chance i could keep this hairline for the rest of my life? I hope i’ve been clear in what i’m saying. THanks alot and i look forward to your reply.

I’d stop trying to categorize yourself into a particular Norwood class. Perhaps you are a class 2 or class 3, but I really do not know (photos might help). Are you measuring at an angle? Assuming you’re seeing 2 inches when measuring perfectly vertical from the brow to the corner, it sounds like it’s past the Norwood class 2 level. But it seems more like things are changing and evolving as you are maturing. You’re 18 years old, and a maturing hairline is definitely not uncommon at that age. The real issue is finding out if you are actually balding or not.

Before thinking about Propecia or putting yourself into a category, go see a doctor and get your scalp mapped out for miniaturization. If you are indeed thinning, Propecia may be an option to halt further loss.