In the following hair loss video, Dr. Alfonso Barrera discusses what balding men and women can now realistically expect from today’s state of the art surgical hair restoration
Dr. Barrera is recommended on the Hair Transplant Network. He is very hands on and personally makes all graft incisions and places each and every follicular unit graft. Such personal involvement at every stage of the entire hair transplant is extremely rare. He and his experienced staff prepare all 1, 2, 3 and 4 hair follicular unit grafts. Dr. Barrera also specializes in restoring eyebrows, eyelashes, mustaches, beards and hair in burned areas.
To learn more about Dr. Barrera, his experience, skill, philosophy and to see examples of his hair restoration results, visit his Hair Transplant Network profile here.
Recently, recommended hair transplant surgeon Dr. Parsa Mohebi shared what patients can realistically expect after hair restoration surgery.
According to Dr. Mohebi:
It is true most individuals, both men and women, are completely satisfied with the results they experience from hair restoration surgery as it enhances their physical appearance and brings emotional benefits. Many describe the changes they received after a hair transplant as exceeding their expectations. Even though these experiences are unique from one hair loss patient to another, one must understand hair transplantation is limited to what it can accomplish. Again, each hair loss patient is unique in themselves and the results vary person by person.
Androgenetic alopecia, or male patterned baldness, is an ongoing, progressive disorder that first manifests as thinning hair, and then hair loss. This is when predisposed hair follicles become affected. It is critical to understand one should never assume they can maintain the same hair thickness and density they had in their youth, however complete elimination of the appearance of baldness is possible. Hairline recession and overall hair thinning may continue to progressively evolve with age and time.
Most individuals cannot realize their hair is thinning until they have lost nearly 70% of their hair density in any area. What hair transplant surgery does is effectively relocate healthy hairs to areas which have thinned or fully disappeared. Unfortunately it cannot create new hair. The hair transplantation does nothing in stopping existing balding hairs from thinning and future loss, but the transplanted hairs last a lifetime because they have a different genetic makeup than the hairs prone to balding.
Each year, the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) invites a member who lives outside of the United States to organize a seminar in order to share his/her own hair restoration clinic’s research. This year, that honor was bestowed upon Dr. Melike Kulahci of Istanbul, Turkey. Dr. Kulahci is an esteemed member of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians and ISHRS board member.
The Next Big Thing Conference, hosted by Dr. Kulahci, gathered together many of the most prominent names in the study and treatment of hair loss to share the latest developments in hair transplantation technology including; the latest improvements in follicular unit extraction (FUE) with live demonstrations; hair multiplication or cloning; platelet rich plasma (PRP) and the use of ACell and lasers in hair transplant surgery among other topics. You can view a video promo of the conference below.
With 98 surgeons from 32 countries in attendance, 5 live surgical demonstrations and 9 presentations performed, the TNBT Conference hosted by Dr. Kulahci created a strong platform with which to carry these advances in hair transplantation to the next level.
If you drink too much alcohol 3 weeks post-op will that affect your hair growth? After drinking too much tequila I threw up and had a hang over! Also, 1 month after my hair restoration I started taking diet pills for working out. It boosts your heart like caffeine so you get more sweat when doing cardio. Is that gonna affect my hair transplant growth?
Alcohol used in moderation should not have much of an effect on the growth of your hair transplant. However, I would be very careful with the use of diet pills. They commonly have side effects and are very difficult to monitor. I suggest you only use them under the guidance of a physician. Try to lose weight the correct way by eating more frequent and smaller meals high in protein to keep metabolism higher and exercise as much as possible. Also, drinking lots of water is beneficial.
Hair transplant surgeons have been dealing with scalp scars in “strip” hair transplantation since the introduction of the follicular unit transplantation procedure. There are also other ways patients may end up having a linear scar after other scalp procedures such as neurosurgical operations or trauma to the head. Although most scars are hidden in patient’s native hair, some may become exposed due to their proximity to the hairline or when a patient keeps his hair short.
Depending on the size, type and location of scars, hair restoration surgeons may have to use different techniques to minimize their appearance. We have created an algorithm that hair transplant or other cosmetic surgeons can use toward the most effective methods to address follicular unit transplantation scars and the proper surgical or medical approach to them.
Among the factors that are being taken into account for scalp scar revision are: the prior history of scar occurrence and the patient’s reaction to injuries in other parts of the body. A proper physical examination can reveal what proportion of the visibility of scar is due to stretching or hypertrophic reaction and what portion has to do with hair transection.
The scars that are wider than what is expected might have some components of stretching. To improve the visibility of stretched scars the surgeon needs to use a technique to minimize the contrast between the hairless scar and neighboring areas of the scalp by bringing hair inside the scar.
Is the skepticism regarding the efficacy of follicular unit extraction FUE into hair transplant donor scars simply due to the dearth of examples and case studies we have available to us? These aren’t the things that hair restoration physicians typically focus on in their before and after photos.
This fellow (see images below) has already tried that and I think it didn’t really work well due to the really low position of the strip. It’s way down on the neck and it stretches with even mild neck motion. Plus, from talking with the patient, I’m not sure deep layer sutures were placed during his scar repair but that may not have changed anything given the location of the scar as I mentioned above.
So I think this was really his only viable option and I make it clear that there is no guarantee with planting grafts in a scar but this was a nice soft scar with good vascularity. I think it will work and he’ll get 50% improvement if the grafts don’t get dislodged before “taking root” over the first week.
Recommended hair transplant surgeon Dr. Carlos Wesley is currently recruiting participants for a clinical study investigating follicular unit transplantation (FUT) scar reduction and follicular unit graft survival enhancement.
The “Hair Restoration Surgery Enhancement” study, which is approved by the Investigational Review Board, addresses both donor region scarring and graft survival rates, and hopes to significantly improve implanted growth yields and, according to Dr. Wesley, reduce donor scarring to levels below traditional Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE).
Interested parties must be available for travel to Dr. Wesley’s New York practice and will receive a number of follicular unit grafts free of charge.
Although the details of the investigation have not yet been disclosed, promising updates will be provided as the clinical results unfold.
Are you interested in participating in the Hair Restoration Surgery Enhancement Study? If so, feel free to visit the discussion topic and contact Dr. Wesley directly: Invitation to Participate in HRS Enhancement Investigation.
_______________ Blake – aka Future_HT_Doc
In the following video, Dr. Parsa Mohebi of US Hair Restoration in Los Angeles, CA presents the impressive results of a double-edged trichophytic closure he performed.
Dr. Mohebi prefers to use the double edged trichophytic closure on patients who may have a desire to keep their hair short or shave it in the future. Dr. Mohebi has stated that, in some cases, he has had difficulty finding the resulting scars after they heal when utilizing this technique.
In this hair transplant video interview, hair restoration physician Dr. Tom Rosanelli provides free advice to hair loss sufferers considering hair transplantation.
Dr. Rosanelli’s experienced staff dissects and carefully trims all follicular units under microscopes, placing them into tiny recipient sites as small as .8mm to maximize hair growth yield and minimize trauma to the scalp. Dr. Rosanelli creates parallel (sagital) incisions in order to mimic natural hair direction. He believes this allows him to slide in and out and between existing hairs much easier and eliminates the need for shaving the recipient area.
Dr. Rosanelli is recommended on the Hair Transplant Network. To learn more about Dr. Rosanelli, his experience, skill, philosophy and to see examples of his hair restoration results, visit his Hair Transplant Network profile.
I’m considering my options and two hair transplant surgeons are on my list with whom I would like to have follicular unit extraction (FUE). One major difference between the two is that one of them uses a manual punch for making incisions at the donor area. What punch tool (manual or motorized) is considered to be more successful? What are the benefits and drawbacks of each of them?
Dr. Alan Feller, with whom I’m associated, taught me to do FUE’s several years ago. He taught me with his Feller Punches and his fancy machine…actually several prototypes and the real final product. I have used several other machines at meetings and product advertising seminars but never on actual patients. I’ve used a few other hand punches both at seminars and on our own patients.
First of all FUE is more variable in its results than follicular unit transplantation (FUT). I really try to beat this into all potential FUE patients both at our initial consultation and at the pre-op consent process. I think FUE is fine for small areas, ok for medium areas, and potentially a lesser choice for large areas, but an informed patient can weigh these issues and decide the pros and cons of FUE’s possibly lower yield vs. a strip scar.
The publishers and editors of this web blog are
former hair loss sufferers and not medical
professionals. Medical questions should be directed to
qualified medical professionals.
No information provided on this site constitutes a
warranty of any kind; nor shall visitors to the site
rely solely on any such information or advice.
