Jump to content
  • Welcome to the TransPulse Forums!

    We offer a safe, inclusive community for transgender and gender non-conforming folks, as well as their loved ones, to find support and information.  Join today!

New Hair Restoration Therapy


Guest LizMarie

Recommended Posts

Guest LizMarie

Dr. Robert Niedbalski (and certain other doctors I am less familiar with) have begun using a new hair restoration therapy. No, it won't completely fix everything but every little bit helps. I'll quote Dr. Niedbalski here:

ACell MatriStem (ACell for short) is an advanced treatment for the genetic hair loss. When injected into the scalp, ACell activates stem cells present in the scalp tissues, which in turn, direct the duplication of hair follicles and other scalp tissues while decreasing scar formation.

It can be used in conjunction with Follicular Unit Hair Transplant surgery or as a stand-alone procedure.

Now as I understand it, this is still no miracle cure. However, individuals who have some hair on the head may be able to use ACell treatments to increase existing hair density so as to make a hair transplant look even better in the long run.

My current plan, which called for allowing Propecia, Minoxidil, and HRT to work together for at least two years is going to get changed. Once my divorce is finalized sometime next year (after the sale of the house), I will go see Dr. Niedbalski as soon as possible after that. His website quotes prices up to $3300 for a full scalp treatment which is what I will pursue. I personally have very thin hair in the top center of the head, very deep widow's peaks in front, and a "friar tuck" large bald spot in back so my male pattern baldness is extensive.

Under Propecia and Minoxidil I have seen remarkable regrowth in the center of the scalp over just 6+ months of treatment. However the back and frontal bald areas have no hair follicles left at all apparently so there's been no regrowth there. What I hope to achieve is to get some growth in those bald areas and hopefully close to normal density in the center area. If I can do that, then a hair transplant would return me to almost normal hairlines and I could give up wearing wigs.

From Doctor Niedbalski's web site: ACell + PRP Injection Therapy: What our patients want to know.

Personally, I am excited by these prospects as this is also very early results. As time goes on, they may be able to make even more headway with this therapy.

Link to comment
Guest Robin Winter

Yeah, I actually posted something about this back when it was still experimental. It looks like they're right on schedule, they said it would likely be available to the public around this time. I have to admit though, it sounded far more effective in the article I read than they're saying it is now :( That's unfortunate. Still sounds pretty good though.

Link to comment
Guest LizMarie

Normal hair density on top is between 100-400 hairs per square centimeter. If, using ACell, I can get an already growing area into the lower end of that range, that's fantastic. If, using ACell, I can get a bald area from zero to 50 hairs per square centimeter, that's good too. All of these options to increase density mean that a hair transplant suddenly becomes more realistic and also looks better when done. And that's my goal, ACell first, to "seed" the scalp, then follow it about 2 years later with transplants to fill in the remainder and hopefully give me a decent head of hair. Or even a second ACell treatment if there are further advances. :)

Link to comment
Guest MsPerseveres

Wow! Thanks for this post LizMarie - hair is probably my biggest concern right now. It seems to be the only part of the physical transition that needs something pre-existing to be effective... and I basically have a wedge shaped divot from temple to temple, back to the the crown of my head, with a circular bald spot on the crown just to add insult to injury. Not sure how well the Minoxidil is working so far - only been doing it once a day for about two months, with the non-script strength. Apparently it only works on the crown anyway...

I'll definitely be looking into this along with anything else that I can afford to get - I want my own hair (probably at least as much as any other surgical/physical transition, oddly enough - I just realized that myself!).

Love and hugs, Tami

Link to comment
Guest LizMarie

Yes, unfortunately Dr. Arocha, one of the top hair restoration surgeons in the US who has offices in both Dallas and Houston, is not yet doing ACell based treatments. He's written about them but not applying them yet. And I honestly need all the help I can get before I try hair transplants hence my interest in ACell. I note also that Dr. Niedbalski uses ACell on the donor area when doing transplants and it results in much less scarring and in some cases no scarring at all.

Link to comment
Guest LizMarie

Estrogen, propecia, & minoxidil have been helping me for the last few months. It can make a difference.

They've been helping me in areas where I still had hair, even if the hair was very miniaturized due to DHT exposure. What it is not helping is the bald spot at the back that has no hair at all, or parts of the widow's peak recesses that are also completely bald. I do not plan to stop estrogen, propecia, and minoxidil. Rather I hope that a supplemental treatment of ACell can stimulate some new follicles in the truly bald areas and that the other three agents can encourage growth thereafter. For $3000 versus $15K-$25K for a full hair transplant, it seems well worth the risk even if the results are less than ideal as it could reduce the total hair transplant cost down to $10K-$15K. And there is the outside chance that it could stimulate sufficient new growth that no transplants would be needed at all.

Link to comment

yeh.. but ya feel bad for the men who take propecia and found they had side affects they didnt want.. (hormone levels affected alot)

but for MTFs thats not a bad side affect of course.

I kinda wonder what it would do with me..? probably mess things up, huh?

mom was in the hospital a while sick, and they put hwer on tons of steroids to help her fight this bronchitis.. then a few montsh later her hairdresser noticed she wasnt growing hair, and hair she did have was falling out in clumps..was getting thin.

so she went to the doctor, then a dermatiologist who recommended rogaine and something.. I think it was Hair, Hands, and Nails...its some kind of natural vitamins mixed, in pills. she didnt bother with the rogaine.. but after she took the Hair Hands and Nails, her hair grew back, and its nicer and thicker than it was too.. and her hands and nails looks better too. very nice sort of thing to have. i dont know if it would help someone else, like an MTF, but it maybe couldnt hurt to try it.. Id probably ask the endo first to see what they think.

just 2 cents.

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Who's Online   4 Members, 0 Anonymous, 83 Guests (See full list)

    • AllieJ
    • April Marie
    • Petra Jane
    • Breanne_O
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      80.5k
    • Total Posts
      767.2k
  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      11,942
    • Most Online
      8,356

    taxicab
    Newest Member
    taxicab
    Joined
  • Today's Birthdays

    1. Amyjay
      Amyjay
      (58 years old)
    2. bettyjean
      bettyjean
    3. Breanna
      Breanna
      (52 years old)
    4. Emily Ayla
      Emily Ayla
    5. JET182
      JET182
  • Posts

    • April Marie
      Good morning, everyone!!! Two cups of coffee in the books and I am just feeling so wonderful this morning. Not sure why, but I'm happy and smiling.   Enjoy this beautiful day!!!
    • Heather Shay
      A U.S. dollar bill can be folded approximately 4,000 times in the same place before it will tear. -You cannot snore and dream at the same time. -The average person walks the equivalent of three times around the world in a lifetime. -A hippo’s wide open mouth is big enough to fit a 4-foot-tall child in. -Chewing gum while you cut an onion will help keep you from crying.
    • Susan R
      Love it! This is great news. We need more of this to combat the excessive hate-filled rhetoric and misinformation. 👍
    • Susan R
      The experience was the same for me @April Marie. I slept much deeper and I woke up each morning feeling so much more restful sleeping with forms solidly in place. For me, wearing breast forms at night started when before I was a teenager. I had no access up to modern breast forms and certainly no way to buy mastectomy bras back then. I wore a basic bra my mom had put in a donation box and two pairs of soft cotton socks. I have some crazy memories of things I did in my youth to combat my GD but regardless, these makeshift concoctions helped me work through it all.   All My Best, Susan R🌷
    • awkward-yet-sweet
      Colorado isn't exactly a Republican place, and won't become one anytime soon.  I think those folks might be better off not spending their time playing Don Quixote.    We certainly have our share of California "refugees" moving into where I live, so I wouldn't be surprised to start seeing Coloradans too.  I suspect the trend over the next few years will see the blue areas getting more blue and the red areas getting more red as anybody who can relocate tries to find a place where they fit better.   
    • awkward-yet-sweet
      Well, at least it'll be a place some folks could choose.  Options are a good thing.
    • awkward-yet-sweet
      My family would have gobbled that jar up in a minute or two.  When we do have pickled herring, its usually for Christmas.  I didn't grow up with that particular dish, but I grew up in a Greek family so I like just about any kind of fish if I can get it.  However, ocean fish and freshwater fish taste so different.  We usually have more catfish and tilapia to eat than anything else.    What I can't quite get used to is the tons of cabbage my GF insists on eating.  When you live with a Russian, there is always cabbage soup.  Always.  When I first moved in with her, breakfast was "shchi" for soup and either bread or "kasha" which is a bowl of boiled buckwheat with butter and salt.  Those dishes can be made in any number of ways, some are better than others.  In the winter, it can even be salty and sour like kraut.  Not exactly sauerkraut, but packed in tubs with vinegar and salt so it keeps partially for the winter.  But I drew the line when the cabbage soup included pieces of fried snake one day.  😆
    • Ashley0616
      Good evening to you as well @Mmindy   That is awesome that you have support from her side. My dad has communicated with me once and that was because he was forced to. His new wife wanted to spend time with my kids. He hated me so much he was in the process of taking my rights away as a parent to my two boys. He was talking to a lawyer and I called him out on it. I don't love him at all. I'll respect him because I wouldn't be here without him but I wished I had another father. My uncles don't talk to me and unfriended me on Facebook. Almost all cousins except for two are still Facebook friends but they don't give me any support. My mom said she won't support me with that but she has said that she loves me. I have nieces and nephews that are still Facebook friends but they have yet to talk to me. I have one sister that supports me out of three. The other's disrespect me by deadnaming me. They have never called me their sister. I think for them they think it's still a phase. They don't ask questions about me being trans. I have to bring it up and on the look of their faces they don't look comfortable about it. 
    • Mmindy
      Good evening @Ashley0616,   I just got offline with HP tech support trying to get my printer tool box icon locked to my tool bar. This is one of the most important features of my printer that I like because it keeps track of ink, paper, and scanned documents. I'm diffidently not a computer geek.   I'll catch up with the other bookmarks next week. We leave to go home for the Easter Holiday with our families. Saturday with her side, and Sunday with my side. What's odd about that is I'm out to more of her side and they're reluctantly supportive. My side on the other hand are less supportive, and my sister just under me in age will not acknowledge my being there. She will be constantly moving to keep from dealing with me. I'm dead to her.   Hugs,   Mindy🌈🐛🏳️‍⚧️🦋  
    • Ashley0616
      I used to follow baseball and the team I would cheer for is Boston Red Sox. My favorite player was Papi. He was an awesome guy and even held a child during the National Anthem. I haven't watched baseball for a long time. It just died off to me. 
    • Ashley0616
      That stinks that nothing transferred, and no bookmarks were saved! 
    • Ashley0616
      I'm doing patches for now but I think soon I'll go to shots because it's hard to alternate when you are doing two xx patches at once. Unless she gives me Estradiol and progesterone
    • Sally Stone
      Go Cleveland Guardians!  I love baseball and I loved playing it when I was younger.  
    • Sally Stone
      My view is we are "dependent" on government, because as a society, we are too lazy to stay actively involved. So, we let politicians do our bidding for us.  I think we'd be in a better place government wise if we policed the actions of our politicians.  We elected them; they work for us.  Sadly, we are allowing them to run amok.  We are where we are because we have chosen to let politicians make all decisions without us.  Remember "by the people, for the people?" That was the intent of our democracy.  Today, however, it is "by the politicians, for the politicians," the people be damned. 
    • Mmindy
      "Play Ball! Batter Up!" is the closing line of the National Anthem as far as I'm concerned. It's the call of the Home Plate Umpire and signals the start of the game. I grew up in the TV and Radio broadcast of the St. Louis Cardinals. Harry Caray, Jack Buck, Tim McCarver, and Mike Shannon, were the voices on my transistor radio. KMOX 1120 AM pushing 50,000 watts of Class A clear-channel non-directional signal. It could be picked up all across MO, IL, IN to the East. KS, OK, CO to the West. IA, MN to the North, and KY, TN, AR to the South. There has always been a rivalry against the Chicago Cubs, in the National League. As for the American League, I have to pull for the Kansas City Royals. I've also been a Little League Umpire, and fan of everything the Little League stands for. Going to Williamsport, PA and seeing the Little League World Series is in my top 10 things to do on my bucket list.   Mindy🌈🐛🏳️‍⚧️🦋
  • Upcoming Events

Contact TransPulse

TransPulse can be contacted in the following ways:

Email: Click Here.

To report an error on this page.

Legal

Your use of this site is subject to the following rules and policies, whether you have read them or not.

Terms of Use
Privacy Policy
DMCA Policy
Community Rules

Hosting

Upstream hosting for TransPulse provided by QnEZ.

Sponsorship

Special consideration for TransPulse is kindly provided by The Breast Form Store.
×
×
  • Create New...