A Look at The Psychology Of Hair Loss And Hair Transplants

One of the things men and women learn while growing up is a full head of hair is a symbol of power and strength.  The loss of that symbol of youth can have a devastating psychological impact on the identity and self-worth of a person.  Hair loss has and its consequences have been studied extensively and some of the reported psychological effects on male patients include:

  • Detrimental impact on their sex life
  • Affected career choices in men
  • Inability to stay competitive in the work place
  • Increased anxiety levels among younger men
  • A higher rate of depression in men with male patterned baldness (1)

While there have been published reports on the psychological impact of hair loss in both men and women, the corrective effect of hair restoration has not been studied until the last few years.  We have conducted a study to evaluate this.  Our motivation for this study came from our observations of the changes in patient’s behavior as well as their overall satisfaction after their hair transplant.

A Unique Study on the Psychological Effects of Hair Loss

In 2008, Drs. Parsa Mohebi and William Rassman conducted a study (2) to quantify the psycho-social impact of hair loss in men with typical male-patterned baldness.  The study criteria were based on a combination of prior studies as well as clinical observations that could be modified by a hair restoration procedure.

Psychology of Hair TransplantA group of patients were picked who have had a hair transplant in the past and they were surveyed the changes they experienced through a questionnaire.  The questionnaires featured queries about these eight criteria:

  • Level of happiness
  • Energy level
  • Youthful feeling
  • Feelings of anxiety
  • Self-Confidence
  • Feelings about the future
  • Impact of the procedure on their career
  • Impact of the procedure on their sex life.

The patients chosen for the study (200 men with male patterned baldness) had their first hair transplant between 1-3 years prior to the study.   Their participation was voluntary and their responses were permitted to be anonymous.

The Results of the Study

We discovered the patients had significant improvements in each of the criteria regardless of their age or their stage of baldness.  In fact, most patients showed a greater sense of well-being in their youthfulness, career, energy level, sex life and overall happiness.  They also felt improvement in their anxiety levels, self-confidence and outlook on their future. These studies confirm the significance of hair to people’s self-esteem

Hair Transplant = A Better Self Image

Natural looking results from today’s advanced hair transplant procedures can help prevent, and in some cases even reverse, many psychological problems associated with hair loss.  The more a person suffers from the effects of hair loss, the greater the positive effect of a transplant on their psychological well-being.

According to the study, patients with an active social life who experienced hair loss at an early age were more likely to suffer from anxiety and other negative effects.  Therefore we can easily assume that hair loss can lead to a negative impact of the future outlook and positive attitude of a person.  These negative feelings seem to reverse after a hair restoration procedure.

Although the response rate was not 100%, the results support the observations of hair restoration physicians and anecdotal evidence from patients. 

Final Thoughts on the Psychology of Hair Restoration

Those experiencing hair loss, but not feeling any negative effects from the loss, are less likely to have a hair transplant procedure.  However, most men and women suffering from hair loss find hair restoration to make a significant improvement in many aspects of their lives.  Whether they’re looking to improve their chances in the job market, seeking a more youthful appearance or simply searching for some greater measure of self-worth, hair restoration is an option that helps broaden both personal and professional horizons.

Since you’re looking at our website, you might already be inclined to have a procedure.  We would be happy to meet with you for a professional consultation appointment.

(1)    Alfonso, Mariola., et al. The psychosocial impact of hair loss among men: A multinational European study. Curr. Med. Res. Opin. 2005; 21:1829-36.

(2)    Mohebi, Parsa and Rassman, William R., Psychology of Hair Transplants, Hair Transplant Forum International, March/April 2008 (Vol. 18, Number 2, Pages 41 and 47), Los Angeles, California.

Lessening Social Anxiety about Your Transplant

Q:

hair transplant anxietyThere’s one area of my life that is more pronounced than my hair loss. It’s the amount of anxiety I suffer from on a daily basis. My anxiety levels increase greatly when I find myself in social situations surrounded by people chatting constantly. It’s very overwhelming to me trying to keep up with the various conversations.  I’m working towards getting a transplant but my anxiety about answering questions about the procedure is already growing.  Do you have any advice for my situation?

A:

We conducted a study whose results were published as Psychology of Hair Transplant in Hair Transplant Forum Journal in 2008.  In this study, we noted that younger men with hair loss had a significant improvement in their anxiety after restoring their hair.  This improvement could be explained by the social anxiety these men endured on a regular basis due to their hair loss.

So you might in fact improve your anxiety by doing a hair transplant procedure and by taking care of your male patterned baldness.

One important fact to remember is the transplanted hair grows very slowly.  This means that people who see you on a regular basis won’t be able to detect the new hair growth.  It will not be difficult to hide the new hair except for the first few days/weeks.  During that time period, you might see some redness or scabbing from the newly transplanted hair in the recipient area.

Can OCD and Other Personality Disorders Lead to Hair Loss?

The first step in determining if OCD can lead to a person experiencing hair loss is to understand exactly what OCD is and the impact it can have on daily life.

OCDOCD is short for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and it is an anxiety disorder known to cause fear, worry and unease due to intrusive thoughts.  A person that is suffering from OCD performs repetitive behaviors in the hope of relieving the cause of the anxiety. The repetition of the actions happens regardless of the effect it has on their personal and/or professional lives.

Some common examples of OCD behavior include:

  • Opening and closing a door a certain number of times each time a person enters or leaves a room
  • Checking the locks on a door multiple times even though they have already been locked
  • Only following certain paths while walking through a building or on a street.

A hair loss problem can come about due to the OCD behavior of a person suffering from the disorder. For example, patients can perform compulsive pulling of their hair on a daily basis. This action can lead to the hair being pulled out and this condition is known as trichotillomania. While the hair loss that results from pulling the hair can be treated with a hair transplant, the psychological condition must first be treated to ensure the hair pulling action will not continue after the hair transplant.

The OCD behavior of twirling the hair while thinking about something else, or while performing everyday tasks, can also lead to the hair being pulled out of the scalp.

Are There Other Forms of OCD?

Another form of OCD that is damaging to the hair is dermatillomania which is a condition that is also commonly known as skin-picking disorder.  People who suffer from this disease commonly pick at the skin on their face, scalp, arms and neck. While picking at the hairs on the scalp doesn’t specifically target the hair follicles in that area, they can become permanently damaged thanks to the action of repetitive scalp picking.  The constant picking can make the skin sensitive and also cause it to lose its ability to heal properly.  The hair can sometimes be pulled out of the scalp by the act of scalp picking causing open sores on the scalp.  Picking at the scabs caused by the sores can lead to further permanent damage.

The act of repeatedly picking at the scalp can cause a great amount of damage to the hair follicles.  Since the damage to the follicles occurs below the skin, the damage is seen on the outside as thinning or patchy hair.  The greater damage that occurs below the surface of the skin is not visible to the naked eye.  People who suffer from this condition continue to perform the damaging behavior regardless of the issues it causes to the hair as well as the physical pain caused on a regular basis due to the act of picking at the hair and the skin on the scalp. The permanent damage caused to the hair, as well as to the follicles below the skin, can lead to baldness on the scalp.

Skin picking is part of a group of disorders that fall under the heading of Body-Focused Repetitive Behavior (BFRB).  It can often be confused with the hair-pulling disorder described above that is known as trichotillomania.  The main difference between the two is this:

  • Hair pulling disorders are characterized by an urge to pull the hair out of the scalp
  • Scalp picking is when a person wants to constantly pick at the skin on the scalp

It is also important to remember that skin picking might be caused by a dermatological disorder or an autoimmune condition, In other words, skin picking might not simply be the result of a psychological condition. A clear diagnosis is vital to determining a proper treatment plan of the condition.

A Difficult Situation Made Even Harder

The loss of the hair on the scalp is a difficult situation for any person regardless of their age or gender. The addition of a psychological condition tied to the hair loss increases the difficulty of the situation.  The person suffering from the psychological condition might not even realize that the condition is present so he, or she, may not recognize the reason that the hair loss is occurring.

The first step in properly treating the condition that is causing the hair loss is determining if the psychological disorder is being caused by OCD, Body Dysmorphic Disorder (a mental health disorder where a person continually thinks about flaws that they perceive to be present in their appearance) or depression.  A patient will need to consult with a psychologist before proceeding with any long-term treatment plan. The treatment of any underlying psychological condition is an important step in determining if a hair transplant is a viable option for a patient.

Hair Restoration and Improved Quality of Life

hair and quality of lifeToday, technological advances in medicine have opened up new options in all areas of medicine. We have watched the evolution of glasses to hard contacts to disposable contact lenses to Lasik surgery. The benefits of these new procedures empowered many to change their destiny. People do not have to live with conditions like eye problems, obesity or baldness that strongly effects and influences their self-esteem and quality of life.

In my experience as a hair transplant surgeon many women will reject men only because they are bald; many others associate baldness as being less masculine. Now this is not true for all women, but certainly there is still a palpable negative social stigma associated with baldness.

I had the opportunity to study, research and publish on the psychology of hair loss and hair restoration. Today, we know that hair loss is a real concern affecting many men and women’s well-being  This is a social reality. More importantly it is fact that medically we now have amazing solutions for many types of hair loss conditions.

Before and after hair transplant: Picture was created by App: Hair Now
Before and after hair transplant: Picture was created by App: Hair Now

The advance in hair transplantation technology over the past decades makes available procedures like FUT, FUE for hair restoration procedures that provide natural and proven results. I say: why not use it? A lot of people are doing it, and nobody knows if their hair is native hair or transplanted hair. The key point here is: they are not bald anymore and they feel good about themselves. People with today’s natural and permanent hair transplants face the world happier and more confident people.

Here is what I recommend: Be yourself and do whatever makes your heart happy. No matter what you do with your life, there are going to be people who may not like it. It should not influence your decisions. If you think an elective surgery such as hair transplant can drastically improve your life don’t hesitate. Seek a professional consult from a hair transplant doctor. Let baldness be only a thing that our ancestors had to experience.

Negative Consequences of Hair loss

Today, hair restoration doctors have more insight as to the negative consequences of hair loss. We recognize the importance of detrimental emotional impact on individuals. Many experience severe adverse effects to their self esteem and self image. We know for certain that these two factors directly impact an individual’s quality of life professionally and personally. We have seen patients who have been under psychiatric care for years from associated depression from hair loss.  Addressing hair loss is a serious medical condition for many individuals.

In our “Psychology of hair transplant” study  (Parsa Mohebi, MD, William Rassman, MD Los Angeles, USA) we sent questionnaires to 200 men who had hair transplant in past and we asked them about the psycho-social aspects of their lives changed following their procedures.  We have compared the responses from the patients with higher classes of hair loss with early stages.

Psychology of Hair TransplantWe also compared the changes that younger patients experienced in comparison to the older ones.  We have found a significant improvement in future outlook in younger patients who received a hair restoration as opposed to the older ones. The graph from our study back in 2007 compares the impacts of hair restoration on younger patients vs. older ones.

Advances in performing a miniaturization study with microscopic evaluation on hair loss patients allows the best hair transplant surgeons to better predict the future pattern of baldness.  This more reliable way to predict the activity of hair loss directly effects how early an age a person can benefit from hair restoration through elective hair transplant surgery. Utilizing the patient’s miniaturization study and a thorough evaluation of his family hair loss history even patients in late adolescent can benefit if the hair loss is having a detrimental impact on their psychological well being.

Hair Line Presidential Effects

*Post Updated 9/23/2022

Will the hairline of a candidate impact who will win the 2012 election in the United States of America?

It can be said that both President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney have great heads of hair on their scalps. We are pointing this out because it is not true for all men in their relative age brackets. It also leads us to the question…Is their healthy hairlines the reason the polls are so close in this election cycle?

Back in 2008, we published an article on the psycho-social impact of hair loss and hair restoration on the lives of the public. When you take the time to observe the most recent leaders in the White House (such as Obama and Clinton) or candidates for the office (such as Gore and Kerry), an appearance of bushy, thick hair has seemed to be the order of the day. There is even true in the case of John McCain – a much older man who made sure to take the necessary steps to style his hair in order to reduce the appearance of thinning hair and even some areas of baldness.

It might be a series of superficial questions, but they do need to be asked:

  • Does the amount of hair on the head of a person really make a large impact on the social status and public approval of a politician?
  • When it comes to the presidential election, who is the person that gains a greater amount of trust with the public? A person with a full head of hair or a person with thinning hair and/or bald spots on the scalp?

One of the reasons we started thinking about this topic was the publication of a very interesting article in Time Magazine that explored the role of hair in presidential elections in the United States. It is important to note that no bald man has ever been voted into the White House in over twelve elections (Rushin, 2007). The last man to live in the White House that was bald was President Dwight D. Eisenhower (the 34th man to hold the office and he first took office in 1953).

It is interesting to realize how long it has been since a balding man won the honor of leading our nation despite the fact that over 60% of men experience some degree of male-patterned hair loss. One of the reasons given for this phenomenon is the advent of television and the first televised presidential debate between Kennedy and Nixon back in 1960. Many historians feel that John F. Kennedy got the edge over Richard Nixon, in part, because of his appearance on television. At the same time, visual media such as television ads, newspaper advertising, billboards, and Internet ads all play a major part in shaping the perception of political candidates in the eyes of the public.

There is even the example of Harold Stassen. For those who have never heard of him, Stassen is known for being the most failed presidential candidate in the history of the United States. Stassen ran for the top office in the country nine times, and he failed to be elected nine times. Stassen is also known for wearing a hairpiece in most of those elections. He made the choice to not let the public see him with a bald head in his presidential races. It seems that he was of the opinion that wearing a toupee, no matter how unnatural the appearance of the hairpiece on his head, was safer than presenting himself with a naked scalp to those choosing a presidential candidate.

It is sometimes hard to remember that America has had more than five bald Presidents in the past. However, these men held the office before TV and visual public media became widespread in this country. Think about it…Americans have not voted one bald president into office since the 1950s.

Steve Rushin, who is the author of the article from Time Magazine that we mentioned earlier, says: “As a realist, I know I can never be President, will never be part of the American HAIRISTOCRACY.

Rushin went on to add that the presidency is not a high-profile job in which a person can sneak by with a cool headpiece to cover their balding scalp. As an example, he told the public to think of an awesome paisley head scarf (such as Steven Van Zandt wears with the E Street Band) or a pompadour wig (which is what Steven Van Zandt wears on The Sopranos).

The age of visual stimulation does not appear to be ending in the near future which means that bald men might still be at a disadvantage when it comes to their political dreams. This does not mean that a bald person will not win the highest office in the land in the future but it likely will not happen with the next batch of presidential candidates.

Hair Restoration Is Nothing To Be Embarrassed About

Often times we at Parsa Mohebi Hair Restoration we receive calls and emails from individuals who are ashamed that they need a hair restoration for their balding situation and want to hide the fact they contacted us for advice. Although we are very sensitive to the needs of each individual who seeks our help, we also want to speak encouragement over their situation as well as give them new hope, confidence, and a fresh perception of what they are getting themselves into.

Microscopic Evaluation

Modern technology has allowed us capabilities we did not have 50 years ago. Just as with vision problems, many have the disadvantage of wearing glasses. Although there are contact lenses as well, there is still a dependence upon outside tools for sight, which can be inconvenient. After many years, LASIK was developed which has solved this stubborn problem of fading eyesight which many, to this day continue to suffer from.

If someone chooses to undergo a LASIK procedure, does it make them an insecure person? Not in the least! Rather, they are using their resources to look their best and be as functionally independent as possible.

We always use the latest technology in hair restoration at Parsa Mohebi Hair Restoration, which was not available as recent as 10 years ago. The question to ask is, why not use it? Thousands are doing it every year with excellent results, and nobody is concerned if their hair is native or transplanted.  Hair loss is a disease, yes a common one and like any other diseases there are treatments for it.  The proper conclusion is that these individuals are no longer bald and don’t have the competitive disadvantage like those who decided to do nothing for their baldness.

In the end we all must be ourselves and do whatever makes us feel our best. No matter what we do with our lives, there will always be someone who will be critical of whatever we do.  Regardless of what others may say, do whatever makes you feel good about yourself.  There are options available to you today that was not available to your ancestors.

Hair Restoration Patient Uses Social Media To Declare His Great Results

 

hair restoration story shared on facebook

Parsa Mohebi Hair Restoration sees hundreds of Hair loss patients each year. Many people find seeking treatments for hairloss to be embarrasing and prefer to keep them confidential. Every now and again there are individuals who are confident in overcoming any social taboo’s about hair replacement, and let others know about their new found joy and are excited to share how their lives changed because of new hair growth.

before and after hair restoration

Recently, one such patient shared his new more youthful look with the world and was happy to let us know of his actions. We are pleased whenever we get to share our art and science of hair transplantation, but when an individual goes out of their way to do something we never asked or imagined, we take pride in knowing we changed someone’s life. We want to say “Thank You” to this individual for:

Allowing us the opportunity to make a difference in his life
AND
Letting others know there is a solution for balding!

 

Parsa Mohebi Hair Restoration always appreciates when individuals spend time on their own to let others know about their satisfied results, and we are happy to share them with others. We encourage our patients not to feel ashamed about recieving a hair transplant, but rather accept the fact of baldness being a reality for many which today has natural, lifelong alternatives. People always feel better when having a solution to any common problem, and we are happy to be available as one of those solutions!