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Last August of 2004 at the annual International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) meeting in Vancouver Canada I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Ricardo Mejia. He impressed me as an up and coming hair transplant surgeon. Like a few other now well known surgeons, he had gotten his basic training as a “fellow” at Medical Hair Restoration and had moved on so that he could perform quality follicular unit hair transplantation as an independent physician.

His background as dermatologic surgeon combined with his extensive hair transplant experience was impressive. So when visiting other clinics in south Florida during late July I also visited him and his staff in Jupiter Florida.Although the day I happened to be in his area he was not performing surgery, I did view many of his patient photos, while discussing his technique and philosophy. I found his patient results to be extremely natural, with well designed and subtle hairlines. I was also impressed by his philosophy of managing patient expectations so that they are not oversold on his procedure.

To view his photos visit his website at Skin & Hair Doc.com.

View more visits to leading hair transplant clinics.

Pat Hennessey,

Publisher of the Hair Transplant Network and the Hair Loss Learning Center.

View my Hair Loss Weblog

Technorati Tags: Hair Restoration, hair transplant, hairline

 Dr. Alan Bauman in Boca Raton Florida is one of the most energetic and enthusiastic hair restoration physicians I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. He is passionate about hair restoration and his clinic is dedicated exclusively to surgical and non surgical hair restoration, including low level laser therapy for stimulating hair regrowth.While in his office I saw two or three patients sitting under a device that looks much like a hair dryer. They were relaxing and reading, while painless low level laser light was being absorbed by the cells in their scalp and follicles. According to Dr. Bauman, exactly how light therapy works is not completely understood at this time. However, one theory is that it enhances the production of energy at the cellular level thus improving cell function. And similar to Rogaine (minoxidil) it is believed that the treatments may increase blood flow to the treated areas.According to Dr. Bauman, European studies have show that low level light therapy stops hair loss in 85% of cases and stimulates new hair growth in 55% of cases. Based on his clinical experience, Dr. Bauman finds that many patients believe that their hair looks and feels thicker, fuller and healthier. This light therapy does require a long term commitment. Dr. Bauman offers low level laser therapy sessions in his office and also provides laser combs for use in the patient’s home.

Dr. Bauman and his staff have been performing follicular unit hair transplantation with excellent results for several years. He was also one of the early adopters of the microscopes for graft dissection back in 1997.

Technorati Tags: hair restoration, laser therapy, Rogaine, minoxidil, light therapy, hair loss, hair growth, laser comb

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Dr. Glenn Charles for several years both in Minneapolis, where he worked and trained with Dr. Ron Shapiro for years, and in Boca Raton Florida where he now runs a top notch hair restoration clinic.

Dr. Charles learned early in his medical career how to do follicular unit hair transplantation from one of the true masters – my surgeon Dr. Ron Shapiro in Minneapolis. Dr. Charles worked closely with Dr. Shapiro for years while follicular unit transplantation was coming of age.

Dr. Charles has been on the cutting edge of hair transplant surgery techniques for several years and now exclusively performs ultra refined follicular unit hair transplantation with outstanding results. I have seen him perform surgery on many occasions over the years and his skill and artistry are truly exceptional. He now performs all his surgery in his state of the art clinic in Boca Raton, Florida. More recently Dr. Charles has adopted the very tiny custom cut blades which enable him to make tiny dense packed incisions. His highly experienced staff then produces thousands of extremely refined grafts that are trimmed under microscopes to fit in these tiny incisions.

Technorati Tags: hair restoration, follicular unit transplantation

 Dr. Jeffrey Epstein impressed me as a perfectionist who takes great pride in his work, his staff and his ability to make his patients happy from A to Z. This tendency shows in his ultra refined hair transplant results.

He also has a talent for putting his patients at ease and communicates very well with them in both Spanish and English. I watched him perform a consultation and I was impressed by how he presented the long term benefits and limitations of hair restoration surgery in order to keep the patient’s expectations realistic. One of his patients also commented on how much he appreciated that Dr. Epstein called him on the night of his surgery to check up on him. Apparently Dr. Epstein makes this a regular practice of this.

Dr. Jeffrey Epstein and his staff have kept on the cutting edge of recent hair transplant techniques and now use very tiny custom cut blades that enable them to make extremely tiny dense packed incisions as small as 0.6mm. His highly experienced staff is capable of producing thousands of extremely refined grafts that are trimmed to fit in these tiny incisions. His staff prepares all grafts under microscopic dissection.

This ultra refined technique enables Dr. Epstein and his staff to dense pack large numbers of grafts in a given area when appropriate for a particular patient. This enables patients to achieve good cosmetic density in one surgical session, while the small incisions minimize the trauma and disruption to the scalp and enable rapid healing and regrowth.

Technorati Tags: hair transplant

 Dr. Bernie Nusbaum is a real gem in every respect. He is one of the most gracious, compassionate and humble men I’ve ever met, especially given his stature in the hair restoration profession.

As a hair transplant patient himself, Dr. Nusbaum has a keen sensitivity for patients that permeates his entire clinic and his surgical results. Dr. Nusbaum under went hair transplant surgery in the early 1980’s to treat his own hair loss. As a trained dermatologist he then decided in the mid eighties to apply his talents to helping other hair loss sufferers restore their hair.Since that time Dr. Nusbaum has not only kept pace with improvements in hair transplant techniques but contributed his considerable skills and ideas in numerous international meetings and medical journals.

More recently Dr. Nusbaum and his staff have incorporated the use of very tiny custom cut blades that enable them to make tiny dense packed incisions that are as small as .7 mm. His highly experienced staff is capable of producing thousands of extremely refined grafts that are trimmed to fit in these tiny incisions.Dr. Nusbaum carefully orientates all the graft incisions in a manner to assure that the transplanted hair will grow out in at the proper angles and directions to maximize naturalness.

Follicular unit grafts that are carefully trimmed under microscopes are then placed into these tiny incisions.

Technorati Tags: hair restoration, hair transplant, hair loss, dermatologist

There has been an abundance of questions on the Hair Restoration Research Forums about Propecia lately, so I decided to dig up the facts.

From the Merck website, Propecia.com:

“PROPECIA works on a key cause of hair loss by significantly reducing the amount of DHT. Specifically, PROPECIA inhibits the formation of DHT in your scalp. Lowering DHT appears to inhibit the further shrinking of affected hair follicles. PROPECIA helps regrow visible hair and reduces further hair loss.

It is, in fact, the first and only FDA-approved pill proven to treat male pattern hair loss on the vertex (top of head) and anterior mid-scalp area (middle front of head) in men.”

Excerpts from Merck’s clinical studies taken from the Merck website, Propecia.com:

“Vertex (top of the head) Study

PROPECIA was demonstrated to be effective in the longest controlled study of male pattern hair loss ever conducted. In this 5-year study of men with mild to moderate hair loss:

* 9 out of 10 men on PROPECIA had visible results (either regrowth of hair, 48% [134 out of 279], or no further hair loss, 42% [117 out of 279]) vs 25% (4 out of 16) on placebo (sugar pill), according to an assessment of photographs by an independent panel of dermatologists. View results.
* 2 out of 3 men on PROPECIA regrew hair, as measured by hair count. All the men in the study who were not taking PROPECIA lost hair.
* A majority of men on PROPECIA were rated as improved by doctors: 77% (210 out of 271) vs 15% (2 out of 13) with placebo.
* A majority of men on PROPECIA reported their bald spot getting smaller, their hair loss slowing down, and the appearance of their hair improving.

Technorati Tags: Merck, hair loss, DHT, FDA, male pattern hair loss, Propecia