William Rassman

Dr. William Rassman: Hair Transplant Legend

23 Comments
William Rassman Book
Dr. William Rassman and Dr. Robert Bernstein’s book: “Hair Loss & Replacement for Dummies”.

Over the years, I have mentioned US hair transplant surgeon Dr. William Rassman a number of times.

Even though he is among the world’s true pioneers in hair transplant surgery, I primarily mention him due to other reasons such as:

  1. His comments on Reddit.
  2. His Balding Blog (Edit: stopped working in 2025).
  3. His association with Amplifica.

Dr. William Rassman: A Delayed Bio

I am really impressed at Dr. Rassman’s continued motivation and sharp mind. He must be over 75 years old by now, considering that he got board certified in 1976. And that too after first being involved in heart surgery, and then serving in the US army in Vietnam. Among other highlights:

  • In 1992, Dr. Rassman founded the New Hair Institute (NHI).
  • In 2003, Dr. Rassman received the prestigious Golden Follicle award from the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgeons (ISHRS).
  • In 2008, Dr. William (Bill) Rassman and Dr. Robert (Bob) Bernstein published “Hair Loss and Replacement For Dummies.”
  • In 2002, the same two doctors plus others co-authored a paper on Follicular Extraction (FUE) surgery for hair transplantation. I should note that the invention of FUE hair restoration surgery first occurred in Japan via Dr. Masumi Inaba in the 1980s. The procedure was later popularized and improved upon by Dr. Ray Woods of Australia in the 1990s.
  • Dr. Rassman also has numerous patents to his name, and has been a key factor in many US hair transplant industry trends over the years. Including FUT (strip) megasession surgery.
  • He had a crown hair transplant on himself in the past. See my post on hair transplant surgeons who also had hair transplants.

The reason I wrote this bio today is due to a great new interview of Dr. William Rassman by Dr. Gary Linkov. The video is embedded further below. Thanks to reader “YoYo” for posting the link in the comments to the Amplifica post yesterday.

In the video, Dr. Rassman is pessimistic about hair cloning and hair multiplication. I think he underestimates the potential of companies such as Stemson Therapeutics, OrganTech (Dr. Tsuji), Shiseido. And possibly several other newer South Korean entities.

He gives full credit to Dr. Maksim Plikus, who leads the Amplifica and SCUBE3 research. It is encouraging that Amplifica will keep testing and developing new molecules. In 2024, we will hear more from them about the results of the initial work.

This whole week was full of great YouTube content that had me busy doing updates. I keep hearing that blogging is going to become extinct in the age of video and all the subpar AI content proliferation.

If blogging does go entirely out of fashion, I hope it happens at the same time as a hair loss cure is realized.

Dutasteride, Finasteride

Finasteride and Dutasteride AMA

15 Comments
Finasteride and Dutasteride Dosage and DHT Reduction
A comparison of DHT reduction via Finasteride and Dutasteride.

I first heard about Dr. Kyle Gillett of Gillett Health (Kansas) when watching the Huberman Lab Podcast on hair loss that he helped create earlier in 2023.

At the time, I had forgotten that Dr. Gillett gave me a detailed and somewhat complicated response to one of my past questions on Twitter in 2022:

Finasteride and Dutasteride AMA

This week, Dr. Kyle Gillett and his clinic’s nurse practitioner James O’Hara conducted a very interesting ask me anything (AMA) session on YouTube. They answered numerous questions in relation to both dutasteride (Avodart) and finasteride (Propecia).

Among the numerous subjects they discuss include: side effects; post-finasteride syndrome (PFS); systemic absorption; dosage iterations; topical finasteride; and topical dutasteride. They did not cover the finasteride and low-dose dutasteride combination treatment (that has become popular on Reddit) in detail.

However, Mr. O’Hara does state that he takes both drugs, and might have gotten some OCD exacerbating mental issues when being on finasteride alone. I have my doubts about such connections, but I am no medical expert.

I was pleasantly surprised to hear that both of these guys take oral dutasteride for their own hair loss and seem to prefer it to finasteride. Both have seen significant benefits to their scalp hair growth while on the drug. Make sure to read my past very important post on dutasteride hair loss reviews and the numerous subsequent reader comments and testimonials.

The reason I was surprised is because enlarged prostate (BPH) drug dutasteride was never approved to treat hair loss in the US by the FDA. In fact it is still only approved for the latter purpose in Japan and South Korea. So most US medical professionals tend to stick with the usually weaker finasteride. Moreover, almost no male US celebrity has ever admitted to taking dutasteride for his androgenetic alopecia. With a notable exception being Ashton Kutcher.

In contrast, quite a few have admitted to taking finasteride to treat their hair loss, including Donald Trump. Do note that finasteride seems to work over the long-term in most patients. However, dutasteride is often an even better option if you get no side effects. In the below video, the doctor and nurse discuss starting patients out on a low dose of dutasteride so as to slowly reduce dihydrotestosterone (DHT).

Interestingly, Dr. Gillett recently stopped taking dutasteride for some kind of fertility related reason. Maybe he is trying to have children? Right away, he saw a reduction in his scalp hair and an increase in his body hair. It is refreshing to see such a video based dutasteride and hair growth related testimonial from a medical expert. Mr. O’Hara said that he saw a reduction in his acne and sebum after starting dutasteride.