IAHRS accepted member Baubac Hayatdavoudi, M.D. discusses his own struggles with hair loss and the difficulties hair transplant consumers have making informed decisions in today's vast online snake oil environment.

Baubac Hayatdavoudi, MD: So, it's something that at that time I felt I was alone. Obviously, you feel youthful. You feel like you can do things, and hair loss for those that have gone through it and for those that really haven't gone through it, it's important for them to know that it's something that really eats at your core. Hair is sign of vitality, a sign of virility, youthfulness, prowess, and society has kind of embedded that in our head as has revolution.

With continuing of hair loss back at that time, I sort of set out on a mission to cure hair loss. At my young age, I spent endless hours in the library reading the pathophysiology, the anatomy of the follicles, and pharmacology and what can be done to really reverse the impact and the physiology of hair loss. I quickly realized that it is a lot to learn, a lot to know that there

Spencer Kobren:  Well, not only is there a lot to learn ... I mean, that's where I initially did my research and I was just like you. There really wasn't that much out there as far as finding legitimate information that wasn't either self-promoting or just the basic theory and the science at the time of hair loss, but no one really had any answers. The answers were what you saw on late night infomercials, what you saw on the back of magazines, what you saw in the sports pages, and sadly, those weren't answers.

That was just the typical snake oil stuff that at this stage it's even worse because the internet now brings it directly to everybody in a much broader fashion. There's so much more bullshit to choose from than there was even when we are ... I mean, you're younger than me. You're probably a decade-

Baubac Hayatdavoudi, MD: I'm 41 years old.

Spencer Kobren: Yeah. So, I have a decade on you. I have 11 years on you. Back when I was going through it, I mean, there was absolutely nothing. Finasteride wasn't even approved. Minoxidil had yet been approved as Rogaine. I had a physician who prescribed me Loniten tablets. It was compounded for me specifically at a compounding pharmacy, and I was putting that cap on my head every night, so I know what it's like. I've been there.

Baubac Hayatdavoudi, MD: I went through suggestions and concoctions in terms of natural cure. I remember one of the recipes was egg yolk mixed with mayo and some other olive oils and things of that nature, so imagine sleeping with that.

Spencer Kobren: I did the same thing. Yeah.

Baubac Hayatdavoudi, MD: Yeah. It was like I was baking something on my scalp, and back then, you're absolutely right that information was not as accessible. Now with the internet, there are ways to fact check. There's also a lot of ways to promote oneself

Spencer Kobren: Well, I think there's a way ... I don't mean to cut you off. There are ways to fact check, but I think that as confusing as it was back when I was doing my research and even you, it's more confusing than ever now because-

Baubac Hayatdavoudi, MD: Well, it's absolutely. Absolutely. It's almost like a pedestrian walking onto a freeway in that there are so much variety of information, so much different information, quite honestly so much ... there are falsehoods out there that they're really to prey on the despair of folks that are undergoing this ... undergoing hair loss. So, it's really much, much more difficult now to tease out the volumes of information that's obtained through the web and that's coming at you through various campaigns and remarketing.

And, so, I do agree that it's even though the technology and the armamentarium of tools we have at our disposal in battling hair loss have increased, also teasing out correct information and the right information and non-marketing information has become really much more difficult.