Hair Restoration Blog

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 had a burn on my upper lip with blistering 10 years ago. I lost half of my moustache that it never grows back. I want to grow moustache but it won’t be symmetrical. Is there a method that I can restore my mustache with hair transplant surgery. I don’t know anything about it so I’m unsure of where to go to for a mustache hair restoration.

Thanks,

A:

Hair transplant surgery can restore mustache hair and can be used for restoration of hair in scars such as scars of beard and mustache. You are right about mustache hair restoration that is not as popular as scalp hair transplant. We get to do mustache hair transplant every now and then. Here are the pictures of one of my patients who had a similar problem and lost his mustache hair on one side due to some skin condition.

We restored his mustache with about 200 follicular unit grafts. We generally use scalp hair for mustache and beard hair restoration, but this patient had a very fine scalp hair on the donor area that was not a perfect match with the size of his mustache so we had to harvest some hair follicles from his beard and transplant them on the upper areas of his upper lip so they could create a similar appearance and cover the other hairs while scalp hair gave the needed hair bulk below that level to his mustache.

mustache hair loss before hair transplant

Picture of mustache before hair transplant

Immediately after mustache hair transplant

Picture of mustache after hair transplant into the mustache

FUE hair follicle harvesting from beard for mustache hair transplant

FUE donor area from beard for mustache hair transplant

We used FUE or follicular unit extraction techniques for removing hair follicles from beard area from under the jaw area.

I have announced on some TV talk shows that I will be in Dubai this summer along with my all surgical staff to present our high quality hair restoration surgeries to people who prefer having their surgeries closer to their country of residence or have difficulty traveling to the United States. As I said before, I prefer to have a full photo consultation through email and then phone conversation and then book the patients who are interested to have hair transplant surgery with us in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

We will be in Dubai from August 14, 2008 to August 21, 2008. We have already done some consultations with patients from Dubai, UAE, Iran and. If you are interested in having a hair transplant surgery with US Hair Restoration, please don’t purchase a ticket or arrange for your travel before completing your hair transplant consultation and booked your hair restoration surgery with us. We do not accept walk in patients while we are in Dubai.

The process of online consultation is very simple. You need to visit US hair Restoration online hair transplant consultation page in US Hair Restoration web site and fill the questionnaire. In the comment section, mention that you are interested in having your hair transplant surgery in Dubai, UAE. When we receive your email, we will send you another email asking some more questions and pictures that could be sent through email. At the end, we will have a phone conversation with you to answer all your questions and if you are a good candidate for hair transplantation book you for your hair restoration surgery in our Dubai office.

I hope this service can provide US Hair Restoration quality hair transplant surgery including follicular unit transplant (FUT) and follicular unit extraction (FUE) for people of Middle East, such as UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and Kuwait and other countries of the region. Our Dubai hair transplant clinic may also be easily accessible from India, Pakistan, and European countries. If you have more questions on your hair loss treatment with US Hair Restoration, please email us at info@ushairrestoration.com or call our Los Angeles Hair Transplant center at 1-818-788-8363.

Dr. Parsa Mohebi

Medical Director

US Hair Restoration

Los Angeles, California

US Hair Restoration is proud to announce the opening of its new Beverly Hills hair transplant center. We have posted another title in this blog titled “Beverly Hills Hair Transplant” before and mentioned that our patients constantly ask us why we are not present in Beverly Hills cosmetic surgery world. I think continuation of the same trend of demand from the patients asking for a Beverly Hills hair transplant surgeon was the reason behind considering the option of having a hair transplant clinic in Beverly Hills. In our Beverly Hills Hair Restoration center, we perform free hair loss consultation for men and women. We offer a comprehensive hair loss evaluation including the microscopic evaluation of the scalp and hair.

Beverly Hills hair transplant office of the US Hair Restoration collaborates with a team of cosmetic doctors including a cosmetic dermatologist, a plastic surgeon and a facial cosmetic surgeon. Dr. Parsa Mohebi personally evaluates patients for hair transplant in the Beverly Hills office.  We hope that Beverly Hills office of US Hair Restoration can increase our accessibility for the patients in Beverly Hills, Century City, Holly Wood, downtown LA, Santa Monica, Pasadena, Pacific Palisade and many other locations in Southern California who would need quality hair loss treatments from a good hair transplant surgeon.

US Hair Restoration offers the most recent techniques of hair restoration including Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE), Body hair transplant and Mega Session Hair Transplant Surgery.

Different types of body hair and the indication for the procedure is a question that I have been asked many times in last week. So that is why I thought I should write a post to answer it for everyone. Body hair transplant has been discussed in Hair Restoration Blog in the past in several posts. Patients ask which one is a better source for body hair transplant to the scalp: chest hair, abdominal hair, pubic hair or armpit hair.

Hairs of the body have different characteristics, than hair from the scalp Pubic hair is generally thicker and curlier than other areas of the body. Chest hair may be thick in some patients, but may be finer than scalp hair. Armpit (Axillary) hair is also generally curlier than scalp hair, but may not be as thick as the other types of body hair.

Before deciding to use body hair, a hair transplant surgeon has to examine the scalp donor hair carefully and then only consider body hair if the scalp hair is severely depleted. Depending on the area that you want to use body hair, you may choose different types of body hair. If you want to choose body hair only to fill in the crown area in patients who already have good coverage on top and front, pubic hair could be a good option.

Research has shown that body hair characteristics may change and become longer when transplanted to the scalp. It also shows the anagen phase of body hair may become longer after transplanting it to the scalp. Which is why this is one more advantage for body hair transplant, but still body hair transplantation needs to be done selectively.

Q:

In a FUE case that you decide a larger session hair transplant, would you consider a smaller session initially (perhaps 500 - 1000 grafts) to continue with a larger session or you prefer to do it all in one day?

A:

We always evaluate patients for the required number of grafts to fill the balding area. The number of grafts required for a hair transplant has to do with hair characteristics such as hair color, shaft thickness, waviness, and contrast between the hair color and skin tone and eventually with the number of grafts that we can safely and easily remove. For FUE hair transplants, number of grafts that should be transplanted in one day is up to the patients. The best is to get as many graft as possible during the first session to minimize the risk of repeated surgery such as increased local anesthetics and other medications. Of course, I give the patients my recommendations based on the available grafts, quality of hair and hair demand (degree of baldness), but at the end patient is the one who should decide.

Q:

I understand you charge $8 per fue graft, with 30% discount over the next 2 months. Are these for surgeries carried out in May/June or does this rate apply for any surgeries booked in those months but can be carried out in say July or August?

A:

Discounted rates is only valid for the patients who have their surgeries done by the end of stated dates. The only exception is for patients who are ready to do their surgery and we have to postpone their hair transplant for any reason (medical clearance needed or the ones that we recommend a few weeks of scalp exercise for strip technique patients who want to get a mega sessions (2500 to 5000 grafts per session).

For more on hair transplant costs you can visit the website of US Hair Restoration.

Continue from the question “FUE - Body Hair Transplant“

Question 7: What size punch do you use to extract grafts for FUE (follicular unit extraction)?

Answer: 0.8 to 1 mm.

Question 8: How many Assistants make up the team that works on a client?

Answer: That depends on the number of grafts and the method, but it is usually between 2 to 5.

Question 9: Do you use any special equipment to enhance your vision during the procedure?

Answer: Everything is being done with magnifying loops when we remove grafts and when we insert them into recipient incisions.  For more information on hair transplant techniques, you can visit US Hair Restoration web site.

Continue from the question “FUE - Body Hair Transplant“

Question 4: What is your view on “out of body” time for grafts?

Answer: There are articles on out if body time for grafts, what we do is to keep grafts in chilled physiologic solution (0-4 C). If grafts are kept in this condition the survival rate is over 90% in up to 12 hours. That number starts to drop gradually after 12 hours.

Question 5: Do your charges apply for every graft extracted, even if transected, or only charge for each intact graft?

Answer: Only the grafts that are intact and transplanted are counted.

Question 6: How much of the work do you do and how much of the work do your Assistants do? What specific tasks are allocated to Assistants and what do you undertake? To what degree are you present in the room where surgery is being carried out? Do you use needle or blade to make incisions?

Answer: In FUE procedures either body hair transplant, or scalp transplant I am present in the OR the whole time because the majority of the work is done by me. I score the grafts and remove them. Techs generally help me in retracting the grafts from scalp. Trimming under microscope is done by technicians. I constantly observe them for the quality and integrity of the grafts. Every now and then, we may have to change our methods for removing FUE grafts in different areas so the surgical team should be constantly communicating with me in the OR. For incisions I usually use solid core needles to minimize the trauma to tissue and preexisting hair.

Here are a series of very good questions on hair transplant with FUE (follicular unit extraction) and body hair transplant from a patient who did his homework and educated himself on his upcoming surgery.

Question 1: Do you have a pre op protocol for chest to scalp?

Answer: For FUE from chest I want to have a clean wet shave from the whole chest one week before the surgery day so in a week when we do harvest the grafts we only remove growing hairs (the ones that are in anagen phase). Scalp hair on the other hand, I don’t want it shaved at all and I will do my own clipping right before the procedure. We do FOX test for all new patients to determine their candidacy for FUE with a small number FUE harvesting under local anesthesia.

Question 2: How many grafts can you transplant per day and how many hours is a typical working day?

Answer: Just for you to get the idea of how long does a FUE hair transplant may take, the last two FUE that we did in US hair restoration office were 1500 grafts per day each. One of them took 9 and the other one 11 hours. In both surgeries we used scalp hair only.

Question 3: Are grafts that are extracted placed straight into the recipient incisions or are they checked under the microscope first?

Answer: All grafts need to be visualized under microscope to make sure they are intact (not transected). Most of them need to be trimmed too. We usually have to remove some of the upper layers of skin and a little of extra fat around the grafts for them to be in the ideal size for transplant.

I will post the rest of this Q and A series in next few days.