Hair Loss News

Ask the Expert by Lori K. Baker

Scratching your head wondering where it all went? A local expert discusses remedies for thinning hair.

THE MANE TOPIC

first, the good news: Some hair loss is normal. The scalp typically sheds about 100 hairs a day and sprouts 100 new ones. And not the not-so-good news: Sometimes this natural process goes awry, leaving embarrassing bald spots or thinning hair.

So it’s no wonder that we spend about $1.5 billion a year trying to salvage our locks, with everything from Rogaine to hair transplants. But are there any natural alternatives? William Gaunitz, owner of Natural Hair Growth Centers of Arizona, believes there are. Here’s his advice on how to manage our manes:

Q: What’s normal hair loss, and what’s not?
Gaunitz: The hair on our head grows from follicles distributed evenly beneath the scalp. Each follicle repeatedly processes and sheds up to six hairs. If you have noticeable hair loss, you might have a problem, such as androgenetic alopecia, commonly called pattern baldness, which affect 30 to 40 percent of women and men. Not only is the hair growth cycle shortened, but the new hairs that replace the old ones are shorter and finer.

Q: What steps can you take if you suspect pattern baldness? 
Gaunitz: For men, avoid anything that increased testosterone. That includes read meat or sugar, which raises insulin, which in turn increases testosterone and DHT, or dihydrotestosterone. In men who carry a certain combination of genes, DHT speeds up hair loss on the scalp. Women should limit soy products, which increase estrogen.

Q: So you believe diet plays a role in hair loss? 
Gaunitz: Yes. Diet can be effective in stopping hair loss in many cases, but not necessarily in regrowing it. I’d recommend lots of salads, fruits and vegetables and lean meats, such as hormone-free chicken and fish high in fats, such as salmon. Your diet should have enough essential fatty acids. One important polynsaturated fat, gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), blocks DHT. GLA can be found in borage oil, evening primrose oil, and black currants. The human body also manufactures its own supply of GLA from linolenic acid, which is abundant in vegetable oil and meats.

Q: Are there any topical treatments that can help stop hair loss?
Gaunitz: I’d recommend using a dandruff shampoo with 1 percent zinc pyrithione, which reduces scalp inflammation. One study shows that people who used it for 26 weeks grew six times more hair then they had using normal shampoo. I also advise that people stay away from hair products containing propylene glycol, sodium laurel sulphates, and sodium laureth sulphates.

Q: What about Rogaine and Propecia?
Gaunitz: Rogaine (minoxidil) and Propecia (finasteride) are two products approved by the FDA to grow hair. Either can help, but neither produces miraculous results. The hair that does grow back tends to be thin and wispy. Before you consider these products, consult your physician.

Q: What else can be done to regrow hair?
Gaunitz: We use crown laster therapy, which, in conjunction with other therapies, can actually regrow up to seven years of lost hair.

Biz Health

May/June 2004

NO MORE COMB-OVER

Remember the Hair Club for Men, with the guy who famously said, I’m not just the president, I’m also a member? Well fast-forward to 2004 and there is a new kind of hair club in Arizona and once again, the guy in charge is also a customer. Bill Gaunitz, founder of Hair Growth Centers of Arizona, started loosing his hair at age 17 and tried everything, including A natural product from France that contained cloned sperm cells without much success, he says.

An experience with laser treatment brought Gaunitz encouraging results, but even more importantly, a new business idea. [The center I went to] put me between two IV patients, and I was staring at a three-month-old magazine, going I paid $3,500 for this? he recalls. I wanted to find better lasers, develop a batter program and offer a guarantee. After purchasing the exclusive U.S. Rights to Australian-based Innovative Hair Loss Solutions Crown Lasers, Gaunitz left a stable, six-figure job and set up shop in Phoenix in 2003.

Laser treatments at the Hair Growth Centers are customized according to each patient’s needs and are usually done over a six-month period. The centers use one of the only two lasers on the market in the United States. The cost to customers is steep—about $3,600 to $5,100—but Gaunitz’s money-back guarantee helps soften the blow. The centers tout the ability to regrow, on the average, about seven years’ worth of lost hair. He cites a 100% success rate as the backing to the guarantee.

Today, with two centers and approximately 160 patients, Gaunitz is focusing not just on hair growth, but on business growth, as well. He plans to have four locations in Arizona by the middle of next year, and is currently licensing the technology to selected partners throughout the United States.

For more information: hairgrowthcenters.com – Amy Roach Patridge

Business section

Hair Today…

If Bill Gaunitz has his way, growing your hair back will be as convenient as stopping by the corner sub shop for a 6-inch ham and turkey on wheat.

Gaunitz is president of Natural Hair Growth Centers, which has two valley locations. He has visions of expanding in to 70 markets within five years.

We want to be the Subway of hair growth, he said. Anybody would want to be like Subway if they have a good product because they’re everywhere.

Gaunitz knows something about hair loss. His locks started swirling down the shower drain when he was only 17.

He also knows something about hair growth, having undergone a variety of treatments before running across a laser system that he said restored his disappearing hair line. He was so please with the results that he opened a business using the system, developed by Innovative Hair Lost Solutions of Australia.

In 2002, Gaunitz became the sole American distributor of the system, which uses Crown Lasers to treat hair loss. The devices resemble helmet hair dryers used at salons.

Gaunitz said he knows that overcoming skepticism will be difficult. He said that about 20 percent of his potential customers think it’s too good to be true and leave before signing up for treatment.

But he said his company’s success rate and its 100 percent money-back guarantee should persuade the follicly challenged to try the lasers. It takes time to build credibility with the public, he said.

Hair growth company plans national 
franchise

February 13, 2004

Bill Gaunitz, president of Scottsdale based Natural Hair Growth Centers, lost his hair in his late teens.

Today, he is the sole distributor in the United States of Australian-based Innovative Hair Loss Solutions Crown Lasers.

He’s a Walking example that the treatment works.

five years, we believe this will be the premier hair-loss solution in the United States, Gaunitz said, our Plans include reaching 70 markets in five years with the placement of at least three lasers in each market. The quest is to find people who we trust to do business with. Franchisees will have exclusivity for metropolitan areas or they can purchase a whole state. We want to be the Subway of hair growth.

The therapy uses a noninvasive laster light procedure. With a series of weekly appointments, the client may feel a warm tingling sensation as the laser directs biostimulative light energy into the body’s cells, he said. The cells then convert into chemical energy to promote healthy rejuvenation of hair.

For more: hairgrowthcenters.com

Written by: Angela Gonzales

Healthy Living

Thursday Feb. 12, 2004

Laser reverses pate’s Fate: Hair loss treatment serves all ages

Amanda Myers

Picture inserts: 3 pictures. 1 Before and 1 after of a head. Before has a thinning hair, after has a thick head of hair. Picture number 3 is of bill Gaunitz at a desk.

Caption: Bill Gaunitz sits at his desk at Natural Hair Growth Centers of Arizona. Thanks to his laser treatments, Wahib Bennis, in the photos above, sports a full head of hair. (Photo by Amanda Myers.)

It sounds like something from another planet – lasers that regrow your hair.

But the Natural Hair Growth Centers of Arizona office in Scottsdale looks more like an upscale spa then a spaceship. The plush chairs, the flat-screen TVs to entertain you during your “laser treatments,” the feng shui design, the “scalp massages” room – all of this is the product of company President Bill Gaunitz’s frustration with his own hair loss.

You’d never know it by looking at him, but 24-year-old Gaunitz started going bald at 17.

It was traumatizing, said Gaunitz. I started trying everything.

After seeing a television special about a laser that can stop hair loss, Gaunitz searched out a place in Florida where he was living that had such a laser.

It was $3,500 with no guarantee. I didn’t care. said Gaunitz, who was willing to try anything.

The laser worked where other pills and creams had failed him. His hair loss stopped after six weeks and he estimates he grew back roughly 15 percent of his hair.

Gaunitz was so floored by the results, he quit his job a few months later in hopes of starting his own laser-hair center in Arizona. After researching different types of lasers, he bought one from a company in Australia. His first client was himself.

I started to use it and six months later I grew back most of my hair, said Gaunitz.

In January of last year, Gaunitz opened up the Natural Hair Growth Centers of Arizona and cloned the program that he had researched in Australia. He had no doubts about gaining a client base, confident that the results would speak for themselves.

When you see it work on yourself, you’re convinced. Gaunitz said.

The treatment is available for men and women of all ages. Gaunitz’s youngest client is a 13-year old girl, and his oldest is a 73-year-old woman from Sun City. She declined to discuss her experience, but Gaunitz said her treatment is going well.
Women typically don’t want to talk about it. Said Gaunitz.

According to Gaunitz, roughly 60 million people in the U.S. Are living with some degree of hair loss. That’s nearly 115 percent of the population. And approximately one-third of those people are women.

The first month in business, Gaunitz had just two clients. Now, more then a year later, the center boasts 22 clients and two offices with plans to open another office in Chandler in may, and two in California by the end of the year.

Wahib Bennis, 31, from Glendale is one of Gaunitz’s loyal clients.

I’ve tried tons of other things, nothing really worked, said Bennis who started to lose his hair at 21.

Bennis started at Natural Hair Growth in September of last year and says he has now regrown most of his hair. “Some friends who haven’t seen me in a long time are like, Wow. said Bennis.

The process of going from bald to beautiful is simple, Gaunitz said. First, clients are given a scalp analysis, which is basically a history of their hair loss, to see if they qualify as a candidate for the treatment.

Dis qualifiers for the laser treatment are few, but include those who have lost their hair from chemotherapy, as it can destroy the hair follicles. Also, anyone on medication that destroys hair can’t go under the laster, but once they’re off the medication, there’s a good chance they can grow back the vast majority of their hair. Gaunitz said.

The second step for new clients is an interview. The questions are simple and range from nutrition habits and hair care to hair product usage.

we analyze every thing and supplement accordingly, said Gaunitz, who, in addition to the laser treatment, provides his clients with nutritional supplements to help stimulate healthy hair growth.

Gaunitz takes no risks before starting treatment. New clients are sent to a physician for an exam to make sure no other health problems stand in the way of hair regrowth.

Once they’re given the go by the doctor, the client can begin his or her treatment. Twice a week for 30 minutes, the client will sit under a hood that emits the class A3, cool beam laser followed by 20 minutes of scalp therapy for follicle stimulation.

Gaunitz said the laser is the same type that is used for joint pain, arthritis, and fertility.

They’ll feel a warm, tingly sensation, Said Gaunitz, adding that there is no pain from the laser.

Client Bennis said he never felt any discomfort.

Dr. Gene Carsia, a family practitioner in Scottsdale who is familiar with the Natural Hair growth Centers, said he’s been impressed with the results he’s seen from clients. It’s a comprehensive approach. Carsla said. It’s far safer then surgery, he said, adding that it’s a noninvasive solution.

Carsia is so confident in the solution he’s decided to be come a client.

Gaunitz also assures his clients there’s not risk involved with the laser. The danger is equivalent to shining a laster pointer at yourself. Said Gaunitz.

The laser’s purpose can be explained in two ways. Medically it stimulates roughly 54 percent more blood to the area. Holistically, it realigns cellular energy, Gaunitz said.

And adverse side-effects are rare, said Gaunitz.

Treatment continues twice a week for six months. The procedure price varies per case, but can be up to $5,000 for six months of treatment.

However, Gaunitz promises results.

we guarantee to stop hair loss and regrow visible hair.

I’ve never had to give anybody’s money back. said Gaunitz.

Following the treatment clients are urged to take a dihydrogestosterone (DHT) inhibitor once a day to protect their regrown hair and prevent any future hair loss.

The DHT inhibitor is natural, and also includes antioxidants which Gaunitz says help other parts of the body as well as the hair.

Steve Blecher, 34, a store manager at a Walgreens in Sun City, has been losing hair for about four years now. He said he doesn’t think it’s a big deal.

It saves me $10 dollars a month said Belcher about the money he would usually spend on a haircut.

But Blecher said his friends who are losing their hair have tried Rogaine without much success. Blecher said he had never heard of the laser treatment before.

That’d be something I’d be interested in, said Belcher who said he didn’t want any treatment that had a lot of upkeep involved.

Meanwhile, Bennis is almost done with his six-month treatment and is glad to have hair again.you feel younger and get so much more confidence in yourself.

Center Picture: Bill Gaunitz in one of the laser treatment chairs. Caption: Bill Gaunitz demonstrates the laser system he use to treat hair loss on his clients. He is president of Natural Hair Growth Centers of Arizona. Photo by Amanda Myers.