Comments on: Women’s Hair Transplant

By: Eva Frederick

Eva Frederick — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 12:52:50 +0000

According to this I might not be a candidate for surgery. I still have hair and looks normal but at the rate that is falling I figure I have 2 years of a normal appearence.
I am fighting it as much as I can taking herbal medicine and the Lasercomb.
I will not go for any other chemicals due to breast cancer history in my family.
I was considering transplants, I also have questions like
Is it posible to receive hair from a donor, I mean they transplant livers and hearts why not hairs?
Is it possible to clone your good hairs and put them on your head and keep a sort of stach of hairs? They clone sheeps compare to that hairs seem very simple.
Is gene therapy doing any work on the matter?
Hopefully someone has the information about this there must be a scientist out there trying to find the cure for this incurable desease.

By: admin

admin — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 19:41:07 +0000

Hi Gypsy - How long have you been losing your hair? I ask because when I first started losing my hair it was mainly noticeable from the top then it spread to the sides and over the years it spread all over to the back as well. I have A LOT of thinness in the back and sides of my hair today that I didn’t exist early on in my hair loss for the first few years. That is why it is so tricky for a woman to get a hair transplant. Had I gotten a transplant years ago that hair that was cut out of the back of my head and moved to the top or sides, would have mostly likely just fallen out because it wasn’t resistant to hair loss and I would be left with the a scar on the back of my head that may be visible the thinner my hair got. There is also something called “shock loss” that can occur from a hair transplant and could result in losing even more hair. These are all things to consider.

Propecia is usually prescribed to men, but some doctors prescribe it to woman as well, although it has not been approved for the treatment of female pattern hair loss and the long term effects in women have not been studied either. I actually took propecia myself for treatment of my hair loss early on and it absolutely did not help me. It made my skin very oily and greasy and I broke out with a lot of pimples which is very unusual for me because I rarely ever get pimples and never had acne. I ended up getting off it and my skin returned to normal. That was my experience with it.

There was a study done titled “Finasteride treatment of Female Pattern Hair Loss” here is the link to the abstract:

Matilde Iorizzo, MD; Colombina Vincenzi, MD; Stylianos Voudouris, MD; Bianca Maria Piraccini, MD, PhD; Antonella Tosti, MD

Arch Dermatol. 2006;142:298-302.

Objective To evaluate the efficacy of oral finasteride therapy associated with an oral contraceptive containing drospirenone and ethinyl estradiol in premenopausal women with female pattern hair loss.

Setting Outpatient consultation for hair disorders at the Department of Dermatology, University of Bologna.

Patients and Intervention Thirty-seven women with female pattern hair loss were treated with oral finasteride, 2.5 mg/d, while taking an oral contraceptive containing drospirenone and ethinyl estradiol. Treatment efficacy was evaluated using global photography and the hair density score from videodermoscopy. A self-administered questionnaire was used to assess patient evaluation of treatment effectiveness.

Results At 12-month follow-up, 23 of the 37 patients were rated as improved using global photography (12 were slightly improved, 8 were moderately improved, and 3 were greatly improved). No improvement was recorded in 13 patients. One patient experienced worsening of the condition. There was a statistically significant (P = .002) increase in the hair density score in 12 patients. No adverse reactions to the drug were reported.

Conclusions Sixty-two percent of the patients demonstrated some improvement of their hair loss with the use of finasteride, 2.5 mg/d, while taking the oral contraceptive. It is unclear whether the success was due to a higher dosage of finasteride (2.5 mg instead of 1 mg) or to its association with the oral contraceptive containing drospirenone, which has an antiandrogenic effect. Further studies are necessary to understand which patterns of female pattern hair loss respond better to this treatment.

Author Affiliations: Department of Dermatology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
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By: GYPSY

GYPSY — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 16:46:06 +0000

hello admin

i went to see DR BARR in ontario canada,he hasnt said yes to the transplant yet! he wnats to run more test before he can conferm that i might be a canidate..
i have alot of hair on the t=back of my head, but not so much on sides and top..
as any one tried propecia yet?????its suppose to reverse the minaturization and help with the dht! im on spiradalcton but that doesnt seem to be working..! anyway im jsut looking into my options i might try propecia first before i take the dive to hair transplant!!! anyone have any info??????
gypsy

By: Diane

Diane — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 05:45:45 +0000

I also went for a transplant consultation, but was told (and I appreciate the candor) that I would not be eligible for a transplant, as my remaining hair was too thin. I have the female pattern baldnes. I’m the one who thought up getting the my white scalp partially covered with tattooing….it really does help.

By: admin

admin — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 17:23:07 +0000

Gypsy - What hair transplant doctor did you have a consultation with yesterday?

By: Gypsy

Gypsy — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 17:20:53 +0000

hi
thanks for your advice… i went for my appointemet yesterday.. all he said was i had alopicia, the hair on side and top are thinning but back looks stable….he wants to run more test but wiating for copies of blood work test to come back from my other doc..i still havent commited to this surgery, i think i will go in agian and ask more question..any question anyone wnat me to ask?????

By: admin

admin — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 15:41:58 +0000

Hi Jeni - If your hair loss is only on the top and all of your other hair remains untouched by hair loss, then perhaps you would be a candidate for a hair transplant. I don’t know, you’d have to talk to a ethical, reputable, knowledgeable hair restoration surgeon about that. My hair loss has always been diffuse, I lose it from ALL over my head, its thin everywhere not just not top. That is usually what I see in women on the street as well who are suffering with hair loss and usually consistent with what is considered female pattern hair loss.

Whatever you do, do not go to Bosley, infomercials are very deceptive. I have read so many horrible patient stories from people who got hair transplant there. Look at this site: http://www.bosleymedicalviolations.com/

By: jeni

jeni — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 11:20:09 +0000

I have thought a lot about hair transplants (because my ex-boyfriend wanted to get them, so we would talk about them all the time). It has never dawned on me that they wouldn’t be a reasonable solution for a lot of women. I see a lot of women with Androgenetic Alopecia, where their hair is just noticeably thinning on the top, so I have always assumed transplants would be a good option, especially since less hair would need to be used than a man that is considerably more bald on the top part of his head.

If my hair gets a lot worse, I have always thought I would get hair transplants, since it’s only the top of my head where the hair is see-through. But if my hair got extremely thin all over, then I guess I would realize I didn’t have enough donor hair.

I’m not sure what form of hair loss the women in the Bosley and Hair Club commercials have.

Depending on what they say tomorrow (and what type of hair loss you have), I would seek out a few different hair transplant places to get a range of opinions.