Hair Restoration Blog

Hair Care Beverly Hills

Here is the content of the interview with US Hair Restoration’s Medical Director, Dr. Mohebi done by BuziMoms which is published in hair care Beverly Hills.  The interviewer asked several hair loss and hair restoration questions from Dr. Mohebi based on the requirements of the visitors and readers of the site.  Here are the questions and Dr. Mohebi’s answers:

An Interview With Dr. Prasa Mohebi, M.D. , A Qualified Hair Restoration Surgeon For Moms In Beverly Hills

BuzyMoms: If a hair loss patient has already had a transplant with another doctor and is disappointed with the results, can the procedure be redone or is repair possible?

Dr. Mohebi: Yes, hair restoration surgery repairs are a good portion of our operations performed in our Southern California offices (located in Beverly Hills, Encino and Orange County).  Many people may have unnatural results from previous hair transplants due to the older techniques, but some even have problems with recent hair restoration due to technical issues or lack of proper judgment on the part of the hair transplant surgeon. In most cases, the repair is easy and can be done in one or two sessions.

BuzyMoms: Is there a minimum age for hair loss surgery?

Dr. Mohebi: Hair transplant surgeons used to say that 24 was the minimum age to perform a hair restoration procedure.  However, nowadays microscopic techniques being used to evaluate the miniaturization of hair can assist surgeons in predicting the final pattern of hair loss. By being able to predict each patient’ s  final stages of hair loss, we are able to see where the pattern of baldness is heading and recommend hair transplant surgery at an earlier age.

BuzyMoms: Won’ t my bare scalp be showing in the back of my head once the donor hair is taken?

Dr. Mohebi: If you do not plan on shaving your hair, your donor wound will never be visible.  However, if you plan on shaving your head for any reason, you may need to have a FUE or Follicular Unit Extraction procedure done rather than the general FUT procedure.  This method eliminates the visibility of a linear scar on the back of your head and is the best option for patients who plan on shaving their head or keeping their hair very short in the future.

BuzyMoms: Do you provide free consultations?

Dr. Mohebi: Yes, the initial consultation with us is always free in any of our three hair transplant offices in Beverly Hills, Encino and Orange County.

BuzyMoms: What type of information should be brought to the consultation?

Dr. Mohebi: Anything related to your hair loss and hair restoration, including medical, surgical or even cosmetic changes that you like and may help you have a better result after a hair restoration procedure.

BuzyMoms: Are lab tests required prior to surgery?

Dr. Mohebi: We may need lab work for men or women who have hair loss without showing a typical pattern that we see in most male or female patterned hair loss or in people who have lost hair due to any other medical conditions such as thyroid problems, hormonal imbalances or lack of certain elements such as Iron.  We also need certain lab works from patients who have medical risk factors for surgery like diabetes to make sure those medical conditions are under control before we can pursue with the hair transplant surgery.

Eyebrow hair transplant at US Hair Restoration - Top picture: Ten days after eyebrow transplantation.

I saw a patient who had an eyebrow transplant 10 days ago.  I thought it would be useful for our readers to get an idea of how a transplanted hair ought to appear about 10 days after an eyebrow hair transplantation.

For transplanting to the brow areas, scalp hair is being used. In this particular case, we have used around 600 grafts for both eyebrows (300 for each eyebrow).

After the hair transplant, transplanted hair shafts generally stay in place or may even grow for two weeks, but they almost always fall after the second week. It may take about two to three weeks for the newly transplanted hair to start growing after an eyebrow hair transplant, which is the same length of time as a scalp hair restoration.

After full growth, patients need to keep trimming their transplanted eyebrows because they have the same growth pattern of the scalp hair where they are originally from.

Recently, the Senate proposed a health legislation which includes a 5% tax on cosmetic procedures. The cosmetic surgeries include hair restoration procedures and many other surgeries for men and women.

The potential 5% tax on cosmetic surgeries is a no-win situation for American citizens and potential hair transplant patients. By levying a tax on cosmetic procedures throughout the United States, it may further cripple our stumbling economy and reduce the much-needed funding states receive from cosmetic surgeons in order to build, for example, a high-speed train in California, create more innovative after-school programs for teenagers, poverty intervention programs for inner-city residents, more efficient forms of public transportation (e.g. metro rails).

But, at the heart of the issue, I believe, is the obstruction of an American citizen’s right to the pursuit of happiness. Through an orthodontist, people have the right to get their teeth straightened out; by undergoing a vasectomy, a married couple no longer has to deal with an unwanted pregnancy; through the purchase of an electric hybrid Honda Civic, a motorist can fight sky-rocketing gas prices.

The government doesn’t tax citizens for making these types of decisions. People do them because they believe these things will improve their lives. But why impose a tax only on cosmetic surgeries? Where do we draw the line? Who can be the judge of whether a hair transplant is a luxury for a 25-year-old man who started to lose hair and looked less attractive, which led him to struggle with social anxiety and feel depressed a lot of the time?

I believe this young person ought to be given the same opportunities as the other non-bald peers in his life, especially when we are talking about dating, relationships, and employment prospects in this increasingly-competitive time. Who knows, if this legislation passes, maybe in the near future, people who wear contacts will be taxed an additional 5%.

At US Hair Restoration, we perform hair transplants for lots of patients who travel from other countries, such as Canada, Europe, and the Middle East. Many of these patients visit the United States because they want, for their cosmetic surgeries, to be exposed to the most modern techniques; but many of them may consider the cost of cosmetic procedures, too. Increasing costs for these surgeries may deprive us from a potential source of income and deprive them of potential patients.

Currently, some states impose a tax on cosmetic procedures. According to doctors who work in these states, the results haven’t been pretty. The plan has fallen 59% short of its projected revenue; it’s proven to be an administrative pain-in-the-behind, and it was forcing many prospective clients to obtain cosmetic surgery services in surrounding states, resulting in reduced tax revenue collected from plastic surgeons from cosmetic-tax-imposing states.

For myself, as the medical director of US Hair Restoration, I’m against this legislation for the simple fact that people ought to have the freedom to do what they think will make them happy–without imposing additional costs on them. Our motto at US Hair Restoration has always been: “quality hair transplants for everyone.” Some of my patients have told me that they have lost a lot of life opportunities because of their baldness. Why not allow these wonderful people to get back what they deserve: their hair.

Let’s be fair to all people. After all, we live in the land of liberty.

-

Parsa Mohebi, MD
US Hair Restoration

Donor Scar left behind from a previous Hair Transplant Procedure

Q:

Hi,

I had an FUT procedure done a little more than 5 months ago which left a scar in the donor area at the lower left-rear of my scalp.  The FUT was meant to bring out and define my front hairline.  Can your FUE procedure cover this up as I always prefer to wear my hair short (almost military fade short)?

Also, I was wondering if it\’s possible to increase the density of my new hairline with FUE as the hairs appear to be positioned farther away than my natural hair which makes it look as if I\’m thinning at the front.  I live in San Diego, CA and am interested in your Orange County facility.
Please help.

Thanks,

A:

FUE (follicular unit extraction) can easily be used to bring more hair into the donor scar area to improve the visibility of the donor area.  However, there are other techniques that could be used to help with this condition.  First, you need to be seen by a hair transplant surgeon and be examined for the donor scar type that you have and the quality of your hair in front. In addition, you hair characteristics need to be determined as well.

Many people who need more hair in larger areas can have another strip surgery to respond to that need while removing the old scar and closing it with either one or two sided trichophytic closure. This option can minimize the appearance of the hair transplant donor scar while giving you an adequate number of hair to cover the front or balding areas.  It is also more affordable.  I have seen wonders with this technique.

People who have a stretched scar from their previous hair restoration surgeries can benefit from Botox injection around the scar of surgery after their repeat surgery.  There are reports of improvement in the size of the scar with the Botox in some patients.

If your scar is still visible after doing all those techniques, you can use an FUE transplant to fill the scar in with follicular unit grafts and improve it even further.  You have to understand that none of these techniques eliminate the scar, but they can improve its appearance significantly.

Best hair loss treatment and best hair transplants are two of the most common questions of people who suffer from hair loss and want to have hair restoration surgery. Since most people understand that hair restoration surgery is a permanent procedure, they look for the best possible way to restore their hair using the most advanced technology available and conducted by the best hair transplant surgeon around. For this to happen, the person must make sure they are making the right choice when choosing a hair transplant clinic or the consequences could be catastrophic.

For those of you reading this article, we can safely assume that you are already on the search for the best hair transplant doctor who offers the best hair transplant surgery results. Hair restoration doesn’t have to start only with surgical treatment. In the process of restoration, medical treatment of hair loss still plays a major role. Here are a few factors to consider while searching for the best hair transplant surgeon and facility:

Knowledge of the most recent hair transplant technique:

• Only because a hair transplant surgeon states that he’s been practicing hair transplantation for many years doesn’t mean it’s the most recent technique or technology. Hair restoration is a relatively new science that is constantly changing and advancing almost every year.  If you educate yourself and know the facts about modern hair restoration surgery, then you can recognize the most honest hair transplant surgeon when you see one.

Artistic Talent

• This, of course, is not something you can really just study and apply. Some patients end up having hair transplant repair due to a failed or unnatural looking hair transplant. To make matters worse, some have had this situation even through the newest hair transplant technique follicular unit transplantation. Hairline design plays a crucial role in hair restoration and requires a designer’s eye to achieve a great result.

Surgical Team

• A hair transplant surgeon is only as good as his hair transplant team of technicians. It takes experience and dedication from the hair transplant team to achieve great results. To have anything less is an outright shame and almost a crime to both the patient and the industry. On top of that, quality control is essential and it is up to the hair transplant surgeon to make sure that the procedure is done accordingly or best based on the best hair trnasplant techniques.

As always, we at US Hair Restoration ask all whom are considering hair transplant surgery to fully educate themselves before they call a hair transplant surgery office and hair transplant surgeon. Read about the newest advancements in hair transplant technology and make sure that you are only getting the best hair transplant procedure using the best hair transplant technique.

Yes, I am  back from Amsterdam.  I spent one week there and I was mostly involved with the meetings of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery.  The city of Amsterdam was beautiful and I still cannot believe in this day and age people still bike to work on a regular basis in a capital city in Europe.

As always of every year, we had a large number of hair transplant surgeons come from all over the world. My lecture this year was on a new application for the Laxometer and the title was Laxometer and Sequential Strip Removal for Increasing the Safety of Strip Removal in Mega-session Hair Transplants.  We will be placing a summary of the lecture in the hair loss library on our website US Hair Restoration soon.

The research results that was presented by the consultant of Intercytex for hair multiplication was disappointing and basically despite the fact that they announced they started Phase III of the study, this year they said they have not even finished the II yet.  They claimed financial problems to be the cause of that.  We will look closely as we were before to see what is going to be out in the horizon for hair multiplication or as it is often called “hair cloning”.

Several new automated techniques were also introduced for FUE harvesting but I was not impressed by any of those.  It seems like no one could come up with an ideal technique for the automated FUE that does not have significant problems.  We will continue with the manual methods for FUE hair transplant graft removal and placement at this time.

There were many nice discussions on new techniques in making sites, closing the donor wound and preparation of the hair transplant grafts.  The aesthetic aspects of hair restoration surgery was also discussed in many sessions and nice new concepts were introduced by several doctors.  Hairline design and temple points were again discussed and it seems that more doctors are realizing the importance of restoration on hair in the temple areas.  We at US Hair Restoration are very big in restoration of the temple points in the patients that need it and temple hairline is a necessary part of our hair restoration and hairline designs.

The comparison of the maintaining solutions is always part of the discussions.  This year there were a few nice comparative researches on densely packed hair and also the comparison of the grouping of the hair grafts in follicular unit form or isolate single hair groups.

Hair Restoration is one of the young fields of cosmetic surgery.  It has been revolutionized in the last 10 years with development of the idea of follicular unit transplantation and stereotactic microscopy that gave us the capability of producing such great results that are undetectable from the natural hair.  Presence of hair transplant doctors in scientific meetings of this kind help the hair transplant surgeon to be able to deliver the highest standard of hair transplant to his patient that can eventually guarantee both the doctor and the patient satisfaction.  I recommend the meeting of ISHRS to every doctor who performs hair transplant surgery as a big part of his practice.  In fact I do not understand how some doctors can afford not to be there while new findings are changing the face of hair restoration medicine on a regular basis.

We have answered many questions about hairline design on this blog in the past, however we continue to receive questions on hairlines from both men and women.  Since the hairline is one of the most important aspects of a hair restoration surgery, I thought I should still elaborate more on this subject.

We have to consider that hairline design is a dynamic task and has to do with several factors including the shape of a patient’s face, ethnic background, donor hair quality, skin tone and, of course, patient factor which should also be considered.  I think it is not right to judge a hairline only by seeing a patient’s picture from above the level of his or her eyebrows.  Of course, you may say whether a transplanted hairline is detectable or not, but to determining the location of a perfect hairline you need to consider the other factors as below:

Where should the location of a non balding hairline be?  There are several method to determine the location of a hairline in patients who have complete baldness in the frontal area.  I often encourage patients to bring their photos from before they became bald.  We generally spend plenty of time with every new patient to discuss the hairline so that it may be particularly suitable for every patient.  Let’s talk about the most important factors that should be taken into account when designing a hairline:

1. Donor hair quality is important in designing a hairline.  Only under certain circumstances can you place the hairline higher than its natural location.  I believe we can only give patients a significantly receded hairline when there is minimum contrast between the skin tone and hair color (blond, white and salt and pepper hair in fare skinned patients) or in patients with very fine donor hair shafts that could resemble a receded miniaturized hairline.  If the hair and skin quality does not match the above criteria, you should not bring the hairline higher than its normal position.  You may have seen patients with hair transplants with a detectable hairline that does not look natural only because of its location.  The reason is that we expect to see high lying hairlines with some degrees of miniaturization.  If the patient has thick hair, you can not put it higher than the normal non-balding position or it may look unnatural.
2. Hairline location also has to be proportionate in comparison to the other facial features.  You cannot design a hairline without considering its relationship to the other components of the face.  The rule of thirds is accurate in most patients except for the ones with a genetically very narrow forehead or the ones with a big lower face.
3. Availability of high quality donor hair is also important to decide whether or not you have the adequate number of grafts to be able to restore a large balding area without any need to bring a patient’s hairline any higher than where it belongs.
4. If a surgeon is planning for more than one surgery, hairline design should be done at the first hair transplant so it could be reinforced in the following surgery.
5. Another important factor that should not be ignored is the patient factor.  Many patients have done their homework prior to their hair restoration consultation and know exactly what they want.  Some patients have their own taste of hair style and, for example, don’t mind a thinner crown if they can have a perfect hairline.

How to choose a hair restoration surgeon has been addressed in our hair restoration blog before.  However we still get a number of questions on a regular basis from other parts of the world from hair loss patients who are shopping around for a hair restoration procedure.  For most of those patients, the quality of a hair transplant clinic is the best factor to decide which hair transplant clinic to choose.

Being in Southern California, I see hair transplantation results from other hair transplant doctors and I might be able to say who can be in a list of best hair transplant doctors in Los Angeles.  It would be hard for me to really say who is the best hair transplant doctor in America, let alone other countries that I have limited exposure to and have not had a chance to see their best hair transplantation results.

As we said before, searching for a good hair transplant doctor can be a difficult job. In large metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles and Orange County, referrals for cosmetic and hair transplant surgeons come far and wide. Compared to other cosmetic surgical procedures, hair transplant surgery and in particular follicular unit transplantation is one of the newer fields. You can find a variety of hair transplant surgeons with different levels of experience in your country. Overall, hair restoration and other cosmetic procedures should not be taken lightly. Just because you see a billboard stating “the most experienced Hair Transplant surgeon in …” does not make it a true statement.

Most hair transplant surgeons now in days offer a free hair transplant consultation. You should know that the end result of hair transplant surgery is permanent and it should be to your liking. Take advantage of the situation and shop around. It isn’t enough to just visit several hair transplant doctors.  You also need to educate yourself on the hair transplant process, the surgical techniques and the hair transplant surgeon’s background before visiting the doctor.

By doing so, you can appreciate a good technique and a knowledgeable doctor when you see one.  US Hair Restoration offers a free physician consultation for everyone and we specialize in state-of-the-art exclusive follicular unit transplants (FUT), mega sessions for people with extensive hair loss and follicular unit extraction (FUE), or minimally invasive hair transplant that does not leave a scar in the donor area.

In today’s world it is getting easier to look your best. Modern hair transplant surgeries with undetectable results have become a demanding field in many large metropolitan areas.  This is my one single advice on how to find the best hair transplant or the best hair transplant doctor: do as much research as you can and then meet your hair transplant doctor prepared with good questions and see if he is someone you can really trust.

Parsa Mohebi, MD
Hair Transplant Surgeon

Hair transplant cost is one of the first questions that come to mind when people start their search for a hair restoration procedure.  We too get questions on hair transplant prices and the cost of hair transplant a lot in our hair restoration clinics.

Asking “how much does a hair transplant cost” is a vague question in regards to hair transplant costs.  The better and more intelligible question would be what the best value for a hair transplant is.  When you do research for something that leaves a permanent change on your face you do not want a cheap hair transplant, but you want the most affordable cost for the highest quality of the work.  That is called value shopping and you will never regret it.

However you should do your homework for the average cost for hair transplants and then if you find a great hair transplant doctor with good credentials and background.  By choosing a good surgeon that offer a reasonable cost of hair transplants, your mission is accomplished and you can leave your hair restoration process to the doctor with no worry about the outcome.

Many people do not do their homework when it comes to making such an important selection and go to the first doctor who knows how to sell themselves through marketing tactics.  Worse than that are the patients who try to find cheap hair transplant or cost shopping instead of value shopping.  The result of that may be catastrophic and patients may end up with an unnatural appearance after their cheap hair transplant procedure is done.  I have seen a number of patients whom received less number of grafts than what they were promised due to technical errors or unethical behaviors from some hair transplant clinics.

We at US Hair Restoration are now offering a variety of payment plans for hair transplant procedures with no or minimal interest that can bring the final cost of hair transplants down to small monthly portions and we also managed to keep our hair transplant prices as low as possible while maintaining our high quality standards.  In addition, to bring hair transplant cost even lower, we have come up with a standby program in which patients can get significant discounts for quality hair restoration procedures.  To get more information on hair transplant costs at US Hair Restoration, you can contact one of our California hair transplant clinics and ask about your eligibility for the low hair transplant costs of our standby program.

US Hair Restoration
1-888-302-8747

Q:

Hello, I am having my third hair transplant in a few weeks by Dr. X in Las Vegas. My 2nd time I experienced a very wide scar. I researched about using Botox to lessen the width. My doctor and I ordered Botox but would like information regarding the area to which inject it. On the scar itself? Around it? How many cc’s? I would truly appreciate the info.

Thank you.

A:

The use of BOTOX injection into the donor area to prevent stretching of the scar is a relatively new concept that has been recently introduced to hair transplant surgery.  The research has not been done on a large number of patients yet.  It mainly compared the effect of injection of BOTOX on the width of the donor scar on one side to the other side in post hair transplant surgery follow up visits.  Because of the shortage of the number of experimented cases it is hard to conclude what is the best dose for BOTOX injection in and around the donor wound.

As we previously mentioned in this blog, Botox Can Reduce Widening of Hair Transplant Scars by reducing the pulling effect of the muscles on the edges of the healing wound.   Botox helps minimize tension on the edges of the healing wound until collagen matures and the scar forms completely.

The same goes for the timing and more studies need to be done to compare the optimum required units of BOTOX needed to provide the best result.  The BOTOX dose stays within the scope of practice of the individual surgeon and may change based on the length and size of the hair transplant donor scar.  The time for injection should not be within the first week when there is acute inflammatory reaction from the surgery and it should also be repeated in 4 months when the muscles tend to gain their strength back.