Hair Restoration Blog

Q:

Hello,

Do you map hair for miniaturization, and are you able to tell which, if any, hairs are currently being attacked by dht, testosterone, or something else entirely such as a disease? Or should I be looking into a dermatologist?

Thinking about getting on Propecia, but I am not sure if my receding hairline is caused by dht (androgenic alopecia), or just naturally receding from testosterone. If it’s the latter then Propecia might affect my hairline negatively due to an increase in testosterone. Or perhaps something else entirely, deficiancy, or disease. Just a bit precautious and want to stay ahead of whatever is causing it.

Please advise,
thanks!

A:

Yes, as part of our hair loss evaluation, we do perform a miniaturization study on all of our hair loss patients before planning any medical or surgical hair restoration.  This helps to determine the candidacy of each individual before starting them on medical treatment.  A miniaturization study needs to be done before starting hair loss medical treatment so you have the mapping of the scalp before the treatment that could be used in the future to assess the effectiveness of the medication.  Miniaturization study also can predict your destination when hair loss is concerned.

You can call our main office at 1 (888) 302-8747 and arrange a hair restoration consultation at one of the California offices of US Hair Restoration - Beverly Hills, Encino or Orange County.  We look forward to assist you to come up with a master plan for the prevention or treatment of your hair loss condition.

1.    When can my son start handling his hair after his hair transplant without any caution whatsoever regarding physically touching or handling his hair, for example, with a full shower head, and rubbing his hair dry with a towel.
2.    He uses his comb just a little right now.  For example, he will comb his hair forward in anticipation for going to school.  Once in a while the comb hits his scalp, albeit pretty gently.  Is that O.K., or is it bad?
Thank you greatly.  All my best,

A:
Any time after the first four days from the day of a hair transplant surgery, patient can go back to his or her regular routine for washing and handling of their hair.

At this point (5 days after hair transplant), there is no limitation in daily hair care except in regards to sun exposure.  I don’t recommend excess sun exposure for 6 months after hair transplant to the newly transplanted area.  It should not be a problem for your son since he is combing his hair forward and covering the transplanted area.

My patients and readers of this blog often ask me about celebrities’ hair loss and hair restoration.  Living in Los Angeles and being engaged with Hollywood people, celebrity hair transplantation is not an unusual question.  Of course, I won’t be able to reveal the name of the people who had a hair transplant with us or anywhere else, unless they allow us to do so in advance.  However gossip never sleeps in the world of Hollywood and whether people have had hair transplantation or not is one of them.

If you search the internet you may find the name of a few celebrities rumored to of had a hair transplant or hair restoration.  You can find several male celebrities whom their hair systems could be recognized.  Although wigs and hair systems have become very realistic these days, high resolution photography can reveal them at times.  Many known celebrities had old technique hair transplants that used to be detectable and easy to distinguish. That is why they are bound to a certain hair style to cover their unnatural hairline.  Many others have the problem fixed by doing a repair hair transplant using the follicular unit transplant.  The good news is that many patients with unnatural hair line from old hair transplants could improve their appearance if their donor hair was not violated with old techniques of hair restoration or plug surgeries.

When it comes to hair transplant, California and, in particular, Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and Hollywood seem to be the most concentrated areas in terms of the number of hair transplant surgeons.  Maintaining a good look in Hollywood is not only important, but it could be life changing for anyone especially if you are one who is constantly followed by reporters and Paparazzi.

Happy New Year! Last year was a year of great accomplishments for our group, and I have a lot to share with you in this blog. We are proud to be able to continue our research in hair loss and hair restoration and be active at the medical meetings at an international level.  I am also proud that our articles were published on Hair Transplant Forum, the most prestigious journal of hair restoration surgery.

Two of our articles, Psychology of Hair Transplants and How to assess scalp laxity, were published on this journal as their cover article within the last year.  I have to appreciate Dr. William Rassman, Medical Director of the New Hair Institute, who coauthored me on those articles and also Dr. Jae Pack who helped us with the technical aspect of our invention: Laxometer.

I presented a lecture on Psycho-social impacts of hair restoration surgery on men at an annual meeting of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS), which is the most important event in the hair restoration society.  One of the medical equipment companies is working on producing the Laxometer, which was invented a year ago and was perfected within the last year.  Laxometer is a device that can help hair transplant surgeons to increase their precision in harvesting hair and making hair transplant a safer procedure for patients.

Beside our achievements in hair restoration, we have expanded our Encino Medical Spa to be able to provide many more cosmetic needs of our patients under one roof.  Our hair restoration offices in Encino, Beverly Hills and Orange County facilitated the access of the patients to our services for residents or Southern California.  We also provided great travel packages for the patients who traveled from other states or other Countries to take advantage of our quality services.  I have to thank Niki and Rey and other medical assistants for coordinating this process and making our procedures as smooth and pleasant as possible.

Last year has been a financially challenging year for America and many other countries.  We at US Hair Restoration succeeded at reducing rates of our procedures while maintaining our high standards.  We also offered a variety of low rates and 0% interest financing for hair transplants for qualified patients to make our hair transplant procedures more affordable.

I am glad that I found many new friends last year, people who I personally admire for their willingness to become a better person inside and out.  I appreciate my colleagues for referring their patients and friends to us and our previous patients who could not stop bragging about their new look after the procedures that they had with us.

Have a great Holiday,
Parsa Mohebi, MD
Medical Director
US Hair Restoration and USHR Medical Spa

Q:

Dear Dr. Mohebi,

Hello, I am really interested in doing hair transplant by you, as my friends in California highly recommended you. I wonder if you can please help me with this questions:

1. Which method would you recommend, FUT or FIT?
2. I have had Alopecia areata in the past in back part of my head. It happened several times, last time 3 years ago. I wonder how it will affect my chance for doing hair transplant. I really appreciate if you can please answer me in details.

Thank you so much for your attention and time.

Sincerely,
S T

A:

Thanks for you interest in our hair restoration services.  I will answer your questions in the order they were received:

1. Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) is the gold standard method in doing hair restoration. FUT is done in two methods 1. strip technique and 2. Follicular unit extraction (FUE, also called FIT).  It has to do with your goals in hair restoration and you can read more about advantages and disadvantages of FUE in my hair restoration blog.  Planning on doing one vs. the other needs to be discussed with the patient during the initial consultation.
2. Alopecia areata (AA) is an autoimmune disorder and usually a reversible condition in which a patient loses hair in a patchy fashion.  It affects transplanted hair the same as normal hair.  I generally make sure that patients don’t have active AA before proceeding with hair transplant.  A physical examination is extremely important in differentiating between male patterned baldness and diffuse alopecia areata (a rare type of alopecia areata).  In undiagnosed cases of alopecia areata, if a patient gets a transplant in the balding area that hair is lost due to AA, there is a risk that patient will lose the transplanted hair with the same mechanism.

Looking at the trend of search on our website, I noticed hair transplant cost, hair transplant costs, cost of hair transplant are among the most popular phrases that are used by the visitors who are trying to educate themselves on hair restoration and what is involved including the cost of hair transplant or hair restoration cost or costs in a hair restoration procedure.  There are many people who try to get the best value their money can buy and some people are cheap shopping.  I don’t mind finding a chip product when I am shopping for the same brand that I usually buy at a discounted rate.  However, when it comes to the cost of hair restoration, I don’t recommend finding a hair transplant surgeon merely based on the price of hair restorations.

Affordable hair transplant surgeries or other promotional phrases such as discounted hair transplants, $1 per hair, low cost hair transplants could be found everywhere, however when it comes to hair transplant with its permanent effect on your face, it should be more of a value shopping rather than price shopping.  Remember that you are buying something that is going to stay with you for the rest of your life.

I perform quite a few hair transplant repair procedures every months.  Some of the patients who go through repaire surgery are the ones who had their hair transplantation years ago, before the era of follicular unit transplants, but unfortunately a large number of those patients had their hair restoration surgeries in the last few years.  They either never received the number of grafts that they were promised and end up with less than optimal coverage due to technical problems or got problem with the artistic design of the hairline or issues with distribution of the hair on the balding area.

Among hair transplant surgeons some charge more due the name, brand and the location.  You have probably seen the signs like: “Beverly Hills Hair Transplant Surgeon.  Some of the older hair transplant doctors have been unable to keep up with the new techniques of hair restoration, I don’t see then participating in hair restoration scientific meetings thus are simply are not aware of what is the gold standard in hair transplantation.  Having said that, I do now some of the the pioneers in hair restoration that are always ahead of their time and are involved in hair transplant research and development.  One good example is Dr. William Rassman whom I had privilege of working with closely in the past.  He is one of the few hair transplant surgeons capable of providing quality hair restorations utilizing the new techniques while using his years of experience in the field of hair restoration.

In conclusion, it all comes bacn to the patient who need to realize what he is getting is a procedure that produces permanent changes and they better off doing it right the first time and don’t risk getting a less than optimal hair restoration that might need a repair hair transplant in the future.  Whether you are in Los angeles or elsewhere, you need to do your homework to find a good hair transplant surgeon and even after that know what kind of questions to ask from your hair transplant doctor.

Hair transplant cost is important and is a determining factor for some people, but you should not make your decision solely based on the cost and affordability in your hair transplant surgeon search.  That is why I deliberately avoided explaining about hair transplant cost in Southern California hair transplant centers of US Hair Restoration in this article, which is titled “hair transplant cost in Los Angeles”.

Please call Los Angeles Offices of US Hair Restoraiton for our current rates and promotions on hair transplants:  Telephone: 888-302-8747
Or visit: Hair Transplant Cost

Los Angeles is known as the Mecca of cosmetic surgery.  Hair restoration is not an exception to this rule and the demand for high quality hair transplant surgeries attracted the best hair transplant surgeons to Los Angeles and Beverly Hills in particular.

We launched the first branch of the US Hair Restoration in Encino, Los Angeles, California. Its central location makes it accessible from many different areas including Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, downtown LA, Glendale, and all of San Fernando Valley. I did not believe that you should be in Beverly Hills to be able to provide high quality cosmetic surgeries and hair transplants until a few months after starting the first branch of US Hair Restoration. The volume of inquiries from Beverly Hills patients proved my theory wrong and we had to start our Hair Restoration Beverly Hills hair transplant office in the heart of Beverly Hills just a few months after establishing our Encino Hair restoration clinic in the San Fernando Valley.

Are all Beverly Hills hair transplant surgeons capable of providing high quality hair restoration procedures? I guess we all know the answer to this question. In fact, Beverly Hills, like any other high end cities, attracts a mixed crowd of both “good and bad” specialists. Truth is some mediocre hair transplant surgeons only established their hair restoration clinics in Beverly Hills for financial gain from the patients who don’t have time to do their homework before choosing their hair transplant surgeon.

Hair transplant is considered a permanent procedure and, good or bad, the results stay with you for the rest of your life. As much as a good hair transplant can remove years from your face and restore the beauty of it, a bad hair transplant looks unnatural and stands out as unreal. I do a few hair transplant repairs every month for hair transplants that are done with the old techniques that were once considered the standard of care. What’s more disappointing is some of those hair transplants are done only recently and by hair transplant surgeons that could not adapt to the new techniques of hair transplant surgery. I have seen micro-graft hair transplants done only one or two years ago which means there are some doctors out there that resist or are unable to learn the new techniques of hair restoration. Those procedures leave patients with unnatural looking hair and forces them to get another surgery to correct the pluggy appearance.

The good news is that having a bad hair transplant is not the end of the world and if your donor area was not violated badly, your transplanted hair can almost always be repaired with a follicular unit transplant that is artistically done by a good hair transplant surgeon whether in Beverly Hills or elsewhere.

The article “Surgeon Restores Patients’ Hair, Self-Confidence” was recently published in the popular newspaper of “The Beverly Hills Courier” based on the interview with Dr. Parsa Mohebi, medical director of US Hair Restoration.

Here is a summary of the article, which mostly focuses on the psychological impacts of hair restoration on men. Dr. Mohebi also discussed some of the new methods of hair restoration that is offered by the Beverly Hills Office of US Hair Restoration. Here is how he goes:

Nothing looks better than a full head of hair, and one of the best people to provide it is Dr. Parsa Mohebi, medical director of US Hair Restoration.

Mohebi specializes in several hair-transplant procedures:

• Follicular Unit Transplant (FUT) is the gold standard of hair-transplant surgery, Mohebi said, giving very natural results. A strip of donor scalp is removed and the follicles are prepared under microscopes and distributed in the bald area in the natural direction and orientation.
• Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE), also called non-invasive hair-restoration surgery, uses special biopsy devices to extract individual follicular units without having to remove a strip of skin; so there is no linear scar.

“Not everyone needs non-invasive surgery,” Mohebi says. “But people who want to shave their head in the future for any reason may consider FUE because there is no visible evidence of surgery on the back of their head. There’s nothing to suture, and the small dot wounds are not detectable a few days after surgery”.

• Mohebi also specializes in eyebrow transplants for both men and women.
• As testament to his skills, he also repairs bad or “pluggy” transplants, performed by other doctors. “We do several repair hair transplant surgeries a month,” he says.

Mohebi spends an hour with each new patient and does a microscopic evaluation of the scalp and a miniaturization study of the hair to predict future hair loss. “That way we’re not limited to the obviously bald areas, but we can transplant hair to where the patient may lose hair in the future. With the technology we have now, there’s no reason for anyone to experience hair loss.”

As a fellowship-trained hair-transplant surgeon, Dr. Mohebi continues research the latest high-transplant techniques and his writings have been presented and published in both national and international medical-society publications.

The article continues with discussing the published research on the psychology of hair transplant in men, which was finished last year: Dr. Mohebi’s latest article was the cover story for Hair Transplant Forum International, considered the most important journal in the field of hair restoration, on The Psychology of Hair Transplants. From research in Europe, we know that people with hair loss are prone to anxiety, depression and other psychological problems; we tried to see if we can reverse that with hair restoration surgery.

He evaluated 200 patients after surgery in eight criteria, and saw improvements with FUT in terms of happiness, youthfulness, energy levels, self-esteem and self confidence, future outlook and impact on their career and sex life. The results were amazing and improvements in all eight criteria were statistically significant. The authors, Dr. Mohebi and Dr. Rassman concluded that using the new techniques of hair restoration patient can drastically improve all of the psycho-social impacts of hair loss.

The reporter then set aside US Hair restoration from many other hair transplant clinics by several factors by referring to Dr. Mohebi’s comments on following the latest standards of hair restoration surgery and the fact that things have changed significantly recently in the field of hair restoration. What was done five years ago is not acceptable today. We have the most experienced technicians; and everything is done under a microscope to get the highest yield of hair.

Then there’s the customer service. “The day of the hair transplant procedure is a big day for patients,” Mohebi said, “often six to eight hours. Patients are usually amazed at how smooth and pleasant the day is.

Patients are given mild to moderate sedation and numbing medication for the donor and recipient area. Once the scalp is numb the strip of skin is removed and the wound is closed. The next step is to prepare hair grafts under microscope. While grafts are being made by experienced technicians of US Hair Restoration, Dr. Mohebi is designing the hair line and makes the sites according to the natural direction and distribution of hairs.

Since the newly placed follicles are so fragile, patients return the next day to get their hair washed professionally, given special shampoo and taught how to take care of their hair at home. “After five days, no special care is needed,” Mohebi said.

Ten days after the surgery, patients return to have the donor site checked and staples removed for those who had them. Hair starts growing after three months, and is long enough to style and comb after ten to twelve months. The third follow up is at 10 months after the procedure.

Severe baldness may require more than one surgery, usually spaced at least six months apart. “With megasession hair transplants we can do 4,000 grafts in one day. That significant number is a help to patients with a high class of baldness. We can get a higher stage of restoration with fewer sessions of transplants.”

Continuing to pioneer in the field, Dr. Mohebi is the inventor of the Laxometer, a device to measure the laxity or mobility of the scalp. Laxity of the scalp is key in determining the size of the donor strip so that enough can be removed for bigger cases, and the wound can be closed without too much tension and the scaring will be minimal.

To help people stay abreast of all that’s happening the field of hair restoration, and to answer questions (he’s heard from Europe and China) Dr. Mohebi maintains a hair restoration blog, ushairrestoration.com/blog.

Q:

I am 27 and have a very high laying hairline.  My hair line is the same as my mother and aunts.   High hair line resembles a male hair line with mild recession on the corners.  I know I am not balding because a few other female members of the family have an exact similar hairline patter.  Can you help me with a hair transplant procedure?

A:

There are several methods to lower a hairline both in men and women.  Hair line can be lowered by hairline lowering hairline surgery, in which a strip of skin is removed from just below the frontal hairline to bring the hairline lower.  In this method a trichophytic incision can help to blend frontal hair into the forming scar.  The result of lowering hairline surgery is instant and the surgery is less time and labor consuming in comparison with a hair transplant procedure. 

At US Hair Restoration, we recommend hair transplant using follicular unit transplant methods for lowering hairlime in men and women for the best cosmetic results.  Hair transplant cannot make such a drastic change in such a short time, but the result is completely normal with no visible scar on the frontal area.  The presence of linear scar at frontline is a major disadvantage of hairline lowering procedure.  The scar of hairline lowering surgery could be camouflaged with a hair transplant surgery with placement of minimal number of grafts on the frontal area and in front of the hairline scar.

Many hair transplant patients are concerned with the scar of cosmetic surgeries including hair transplants. Several techniques have been suggested to minimize the scar such as corticosteroid injections, irradiation, ultrasound, silicone applications into and around the forming scar. However, the effects of most these methods were far from satisfactory. Botox is a new method that could be used to minimize the size of both facial and scalp scars. The use of Botox for reduction of facial scars from surgeries was first suggested by plastic surgeons who were trying to reduce postoperative effect of facial muscles on stretching and widening of scars.

In many patients with ugly scars of the face, Botox or botulinum toxin was used successfully to induce temporary paralysis of the muscles during revision surgery. Botox with the same mechanism can help minimizing tension on the healing wound edges until collagen could mature and scar if completely and firmly formed.

The use of Botox has been suggested for the treatment of stretched scars on the face by many plastic surgeons now. Hair transplant surgeons also use Botox for treatment of the hair transplant widened scars of the donor area that do not show improvement with a simple scar revision procedure. There are reports of successful decrease in the final size of the scars with injection of Botox into the muscles surrounding the maturing scar. We at the Los Angeles hair transplant offices of US Hair Restoration don’t offer Botox to every patient who is having a hair transplant surgery through strip technique, but it certainly could be used for the patients who suffered from widened scars of prior surgeries and did not respond to the other methods of scar revision.