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This insightful information was posted on our hair restoration forum by Dr. Alan Feller of Great Neck, NY who is a member of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians.

I would like to announce the unveiling of a new tool designed specifically for the performance of Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) surgery. It is my hope that every hair transplant doctor already performing FUE surgery, or those who would simply like to start offering this wonderful procedure to their patients, will explore this new tool and perhaps add it to their own clinical practice.

Incorporated into its design are practical solutions to problems that have plagued the follicular unit extraction industry since it’s introduction to the Western Hemisphere in 2001. Deleterious forces resulting in graft damage during FUE procedures such as: Torsion, Traction, Compression, Overheating, and Desiccation are addressed and minimized using this new instrument like none other.

This tool also offers the unique combination of lowering operator skill level requirements while actually raising the quality of each and every extraction. This translates to faster “ramp-up” times for new hair restoration doctors interested in adding FUE Hair Transplant surgery to their practices; as well as making for easy and near seamless integration into clinics that already offer FUE to their patients.

This device allows not only for greater quality of extraction, but greater speed as well. Much greater. And all without any extra risk to the grafts themselves. The same cannot be said of other FUE tools on the market.

Members and guests who regularly visit our hair loss community strongly benefit from the wisdom of knowledgeable members of our discussion forum and websites, many of which have successfully restored their hair with today’s revolutionary hair transplant procedures. In addition, many leading hair restoration surgeons contribute their expertise and share regular examples of their work on the “Results Posted by Leading Hair Restoration Clinics” forum and Q&A blog.

Dr. Robert Bernstein, a high esteemed member of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians and co-author of the “Hair Loss & Replacement for Dummies” will be hosting an informational webinar on the latest advancements in non-surgical and surgical hair restoration on February 10th, 2009 from 2:00pm - 3:00pm EST. We encourage all members and guests interested in learning more about hair restoration to attend this educational meeting.

Registration is free and easy and can be accomplished by visiting https://www2.gotomeeting.com/island/webinar/registration.tmpl?id=767844639.

This webinar is open to the public, but space is limited. Therefore, we encourage you to register now to reserve your spot.

View the official Press Release.

Bill - aka Falceros
Associate Publisher/Editor

Technorati Tags: hair loss, hair restoration

This insightful hair loss information was posted on our hair restoration forum by Dr. Jerry Cooley of Charlotte, NC who is a member of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians.

Graft survival and the use of platelet rich plasma in hair transplantation

Over the last year (2008), we have been testing the use of platelet - rich plasma (PRP) in hair transplant surgery. Our interest was stimulated by two previous hair restoration physicians, Carlos Uebel from Brazil and Joseph Greco from Florida, who reported improved healing and graft survival with use of PRP. Before discussing PRP, it is useful to take a look at the hair transplantation process in general.

Although we may sometimes take it for granted, it is quite amazing that hair follicles can be cut out of one area of the scalp and placed into an incision in another part of the scalp, and survive. Graft survival has been an interest of mine for many years, and I have written textbook chapters and given numerous lectures on this topic. We can divide these factors into three main categories: 1) follicle trauma 2) biochemical factors and 3) vascular factors (oxygenation / revascularization).

Follicle trauma refers to the transection, dehydration, and crushing that follicles can be subjected to during the surgery. Use of microscopes and follicular unit techniques minimizes transection. Keeping grafts moist throughout the process, especially graft placement, helps eliminate dehydration. Careful graft placement by an experienced placer will reduce crushing and damage to the graft. Most surgeons agree that reducing follicle trauma is the most important factor in determining graft survival.

Transplanting hair from the body to the balding scalp, typically referred to as Body Hair Transplantation or BHT for short, has become a subject of intense interest to many hair transplant patients (especially those who are endowed with the body hair of hairy back gorilla).

Some hair transplant physicians have been experimenting with and studying the viability of such body to scalp hair transplants, including Coalition member Dr. Bob True in New York City.

Dr. True made an excellent presentation on this subject at the recent annual ISHRS (International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery) meeting in San Diego this October. He was kind enough to provide me with his presentation so that I could share highlights of his findings on our community.

View the photos from this body hair transplant presentation.

According to Dr. True, there are up to 5 million hair follicles on the body. The follicles vary widely in hair character and behavior with the hairs on the torso generally most similar to scalp hair. Some races have very little torso hair. It is rare for a woman of any race to have much torso hair.

He finds that there is a wide variance among men who do have torso hair and that for men torso hair increases to the sixth decade of life.

This insightful information was posted on our hair restoration forum by Dr. Alan Feller of Great Neck, NY who is a member of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians.

The number one limitation of Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) / Follicular Isolation Technique (FIT) are the doctors themselves. Since its introduction to the world circa 2001, FUE has been shunned, ignored, or outright maligned by every strip hair transplant doctor who saw it as a threat. Very few embraced the challenge and did the hard work necessary to achieve any level of proficiency. When I was one of several FUE hair restoration physicians who gave a lecture at an ISHRS meeting in 2003 I could see the absolute hatred being beamed at us from most of the hair transplant doctors in the audience. They thought FUE would wreck their livelihood, but what they didn’t realize is that it could be an adjunct that would give them and their patients yet another option.

Even to this day most hair transplant doctors shun the procedure. Make no mistake about it, it’s not because of the procedure itself, but rather their aversion to learning how to do it. There are even hair transplant doctors who claim to perform FUE. It will say it right on their websites, but you will never see any before/after photos. This should be policed and stopped in my opinion because these doctors are engaging in a “bait and switch” scheme and it just confuses the general population and potential hair transplant patient.

Having attended the annual International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) meetings over the past ten years, while publishing the Hair Transplant Network, I now seem to know or be known by almost all of the prominent hair transplant physicians.

Those who have become famous online for doing outstanding work typically greet me warmly, while others who I have chosen not to recommend often stiffen up and scowl when they encounter me.  One hair restoration physician last week even took me aside in the hallway and threatened to sue me for having his recommendation discontinued.

But, like it or not, most physicians have come to realize that our patient based community and our open forum are here to stay and that we will continue to say when the “emperor has no clothing” even if it may be awkward or embarrassing. As the publisher of this community, I will continue to critique various techniques, treatments and those who perform them, while keeping an eye out for top-notch hair transplant physicians and clinics. I know the active members of this community will also continue to do the same.

In this report I’d like to share highlights from the 15th annual ISHRS scientific meeting that was held in Las Vegas from September 26th to the 30th.

I will focus on what may be of most interest to hair loss sufferers and patients such as presentations on the potential dangers of Dutasteride (Avodart), new advances such as hair multiplication (follicular cell implantation), the effectiveness of low light laser therapy (LLLT) in treating hair loss, the pros and cons of FUE (follicular unit extraction) and other topics.

This article was written by Dr. William Rassman, one of our well respected Coalition Hair Restoration Physicians.  Dr. Rassman has given me permission to post this article on our Hair Loss Q&A Blog in order to help educate fellow hair loss sufferers.  The original article can be found here.

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Lasers in Surgery and Medicine, Volume 19, Number 2, 1996, Pages 233-235

There has been a recent surge of interest in “laser hair transplantation” that has paralleled the increased use of lasers for a wide variety of cosmetic surgical procedures. Lasers generate great enthusiasm on the part of both physician and patient, but this has sometimes exceeded the actual value of the laser as a surgical tool. An obvious example has been the use of the CO2 laser as a nonselective, destructive modality to remove tattoos which left scarring and a cosmetic deformity worse than the tattoo itself. This has been subsequently replaced by pulsed lasers with specific pigment absorption (such as the Nd:YAG, Ruby, and Alexandrite lasers) operating on the principle of selective photothermolysis that truly offers benefit in the treatment of these lesions. Super- and ultra-pulsed CO2 lasers are now being used to replace “cold steel” in generating hair transplant sites. However, before we rush to use lasers in hair restoration surgery, we should first apply logic and reason to this application, and then proceed cautiously with carefully controlled studies so our patients will only benefit from its use. The following discussion will address various aspects of current laser technology in the specific context of the most recent advances in hair transplantation techniques. The intent will be to challenge the theoretical basis for the use of existing lasers, to question some dubious claims regarding their benefits, and to suggest future areas of laser research.

Recently I’ve been getting a number of emails from patients who are asking just what is the difference between standard follicular unit hair transplantation and the more recent “Ultra Refined Follicular Unit Hair Transplantation”. While the differences are subtle they can be important to patients.

Since I first became a hair transplant patient (see my blog) and began learning and sharing hair transplant information online over ten years ago, I’ve seen hair transplantation evolve from small sessions of large grafts and incisions (”mini/micro grafts” containing up to 7 or 8 hairs) to much larger sessions of ultra refined follicular unit grafts that are placed into tiny minimally invasive incisions.

This evolution - while improving the naturalness, fullness and healing time for patients - made the procedure more challenging and even less profitable for many clinics. Some clinics embraced these patient friendly evolutions while many resisted them and argued against having to implement these changes.

Those physicians who rose to the challenge of successfully providing their patients with true follicular unit hair transplantation came to be recommended on the Hair Transplant Network (View list of recommended hair transplant physicians).

Patients have been getting positive life changing follicular hair transplantation from these physicians for several years. When patient results and care have proven to not be top notch these physician/clinics have been promptly removed.

Follicular Unit Hair Transplantation 2.0

I had the honor to visit the world renowned Limmer clinic in San Antonio, Texas on Tuesday, March 20th of 2007. In many respects the Limmer clinic is the birth place of “follicular unit grafting” since it was Dr. Bobby Limmer and his staff who first began using microscopes to visualize and trim naturally occurring follicular units into follicular unit grafts.

Dr. Bobby Limmer’s significant contributions to the refinement and advancement of follicular unit hair transplantation are well documented, including in the “History of Hair Transplantation” section of the Coalition Hair Loss Learning Center.

Dr. Bobby Limmer shared his techniques and findings with his peers and was a persuasive advocate for the follicular unit procedure. For his part in pioneering this excellent surgical procedure Dr. Bobby Limmer was awarded the “Platinum Follicle Award” by the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery in 1996.

Over 14 years ago Dr. Bobby Limmer was joined by his son Dr. Brad Limmer who also has a strong background in dermatology. By joining his father’s hair transplant practice Brad was able to study under his renowned father and learn what would later become accepted as the “Gold Standard” in hair transplantation. He also learned his father’s emphasis upon honest and upfront education with all patients.

The Limmer clinic has continued to refine their follicular unit technique and today create minimally invasive incisions that are as small as 0.7 mm for the one hair grafts. These tiny incisions enable them to place more grafts closer together when appropriate for the patient. Patients now experience more rapid healing.

Meeting Report by Pat Hennessey – Publisher of the Hair Transplant Network and the Coalition Hair Loss Learning Center

Each year the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) hosts a four day meeting that is attended by ISHRS members from around the world. I have attended several of these international meeting as both a guest and as a member of the press. The highlights that I thought would be of interest to hair loss sufferers are presented in this report.

This years annual ISHRS meeting was held in San Diego, California from October 18th to the 22nd. Over four hundred hair restoration physicians from around the world attended this international meeting along with over 100 medical technicians and staff members. It was impressive to see so many hair transplant physicians sharing and debating the fine points of hair restoration. I found it interesting that many of the issues that have been discussed on our forum over the past couple of years were the hot topics at the meeting. These topics included - optimal session and graft sizes, ultra dense “super” mega sessions vs traditional density mega sessions, sub follicular unit grafting vs follicular unit grafting, growth rates, hair multiplication, FUE, and trichophytic closure techniques.