Over the years I’ve seen a few cases where a patient comes in for an evaluation after having a procedure at a different clinic. While this is not unusual in and of itself what is unusual is that I’ve seen a couple of these guys come in that use heavy amounts of concealer like Dermatch. Almost everyone knows that you should wash this stuff out of your scalp at the end of the day, and most people do. I’ve seen a couple of guys though that leave it in for days. Not good.

I am becoming more and more convinced that concealers are the devil. There are two reasons for this. First, is the mental additction that most men develop toward this stuff regardless of what type of coneale they use. After guys get used to using concealers and get their routine down to a fine science they no longer feel comfortable leaving the house without it. Even guys that have a lot of hair and just use it for a slight “boost” for their hair can feel naked without it in their hair, even to run down to the store and back. This does not even begin to touch on the mental addiction for those with aggressive diffused loss. For those with aggressive loss going out of the house without concealer is the same thing as hair system wearers leaving the house without their hair system.

I’ve been down this road myself. When I was in my mid-20′s I was turned on to a product called GLH or “Good Looking Hair”.  It was sold during late night informercials by the master himself, Ron Popeil. It was a can, and hair concealer would spray out of it, like a spray paint can and for all it was worth it might has well been spray paint but spray paint that never truly dried because God help the man that gets sweaty or caught in a rain drizzle with this in his hair. It will run faster than CBS trying to distance themselves from Charlie Sheen. The problem was that I could not get the color correct as I always looked like a skunk was on my head.

Here is an example. Note how much lighter the top of my scalp is compared to the sides.

I’m sure I’ve got a better picture that is more detailed somewhere but at the moment I’m not sure where it would be.

Here is a video of an old 90′s infomercial with Ron Popeil himself. This is similar to the ad that sold me on the product back around 1994/95.

I struggled with this stuff for months and eventually I bit the bullet and dropped it 100%. It was tough but eventually I moved on, obviously.

So, what is the second problem with this stuff? Referring back to the make-up style concealers, I’ve seen more evidence over the past several years that make-up style concealers can actually inhibit hair growth. The theory is that when these products are applied they clog the pores and follicular canals and eventually kickstart a low grade infection. The following video is of a patient we saw in Rome that experienced this very issue. He said tha he washed the concealer out of his hair daily but it still found a way to build up and cause problems.

I think it is more likely that this patient had a problem because the incisions made for his hair grafts were relatively large compared to the more refined work being performed by better clinics however I think anyone using this type of product should do so with caution and SCRUB it out of your hair at the end of the day.

Ultimately, not using anything in your hair would be the best option to avoid both issues I’ve outlined however I know that this isn’t an option for many of you but at the very least you should consider the potential issues with continued and especially heavy usage of make-up based concealers.  Sprinkle concealers do not, in my opinion, present nearly as many issues or potential for complications as they are not applied directly to the scalp but those with aggressive hair loss and miniaturization all over the scalp can increase their chances of complications with sprinkle style concealers with aggressively heavy use and not washing it out daily.

Good luck!

The rest of the story from Nowpublic.com

Dr. Jörg Gerlach’s Skin Gun: Healing Burn Victims Within Days

Dr. Jörg Gerlach at teh McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine (University of Pittsburgh) has developed a “skin gun”, which sprays stem cells harvested from a burn victim which are redeployed to speed up the healing process. The effect is dramatic: serious burns are healed in days instead of months.

The skin gun looks sort of like an airbrush, or maybe something that the medical droid in Empire Strikes Back would use. The patient’s skin stem cells are held in a water solution. The turnaround time from biopsy to cell prep to spray-on: an hour and a half.

Many victims of severe burns die not from the burns themselves, but from infections that take hold during the healing process. Reducing the healing time in turn reduces the risk and rate of infection.

Ancient Man Not Immune to Hair Loss