Hair Restoration Blog

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

Q:

I am a 21 year old boy and I started losing my hairs an year ago .I was preparing for my exams and i had some sort of food poisoning thing which affected my health adversely and I couldn’t had a proper diet for two months which resulted in a dull patch of baldness over my scalp.. I consulted with my local doctor and he suggested me minoxidil with some diet supplements(BIOVET-biotin and EMVIT-amino acids ,follic acid and some other vitamins).Now the hair fall is minimal but then too I suffer intense hair fall sometimes . I also took propecia after consulting with a doctor but it aggravated my situation and it catalyzed the hair fall instead. I was suggested that the hair fall will be temporary. I was scared so i discontinued the medicine.I took the medicine for 10 days specifically. Baldness is inherent in my family. What should Ii do?  Please guide me regarding the various hair treatments.  I dont wish to use propecia as I am scared about after mariage issues involved the medicine Hoping for your response as soon as possible.

Thanking You

A:

If you have a strong family history of hair loss, you may be heading in that direction already.  Vitamins for hair loss could be needed in case you are diagnosed with having vitamin deficiency.  However, a person with a balanced diet should not lose hair because of lack of vitamins.

Propecia, or finasteride, is by far the most effective medication for treatment of baldness or prevention of further hair loss.  You may experience some increase in hair shedding in the first few weeks to months, but that should not discourage you.  Hair growth with Propecia won’t be seen before six months from the time you start the medications.

You need to establish a good relationship with a good hair transplant doctor to properly diagnose your hair loss condition.  If you are diagnosed to have male pattern baldness or typical men hair loss you need to start taking hair loss medications and eventually get a hair transplant if need be.

As for “after marriage issues,” I believe you might be referring to the report of side effects associated to the use of finasteride. It has been reported that only 1 out of 100 patients (or less than 2%) have experienced some form of sexual side effect (erectile dysfunction, less desire to have sex, problems with ejaculation such as a decrease in the amount of semen released). The side effects have usually been temporary with continued treatment or disappeared when treatment is stopped.  It is a safe and proven product and should not be disregarded as a way to treat hair loss.

Q:

My question is based on a hair transplant that wasn’t successful.  I received a hair transplant at [blocked hair transplant clinic name] and my hair never grew in the area and I followed all the directions carefully. Is there any other solutions to bring back my hair?
A:

The survival of transplanted hair is usually a concern among the patients who undergo hair restoration.  Transplanted hair might never grow or have suboptimal growth in several conditions.  We can categories those into two major groups:  1. Technical problem and 2. Patient factor.

• Hair Transplant Technical Problems:

  • Hair graft preparation and handling problems:  inexperienced technicians may manipulate hair grafts more than what they can tolerate.  That may damage the proliferated follicle cells during slivering, graft harvesting or implanting so the transplanted hair can never grow.
  • Graft maintenance problems:  Hair follicles should be kept in suitable physiologic solutions from the moment they are removed from body till the time that they are placed in their destination.  The temperature of the solution should always be kept between 0 - 4 degree Centigrade to lower the cell metabolism and prolong the longevity of follicular cells.
  • Problems during implantation phase:  If the sites are too tight, technicians may manipulate hair grafts too much that may affect the final potential of hair cells to grow.

• Patient Factors:

  • Many skin conditions may restrict or stop the growth of transplanted hair.  Some of those conditions are Alopecia Areata, Alopecia Cicatricial and many other medical conditions that may have caused hair loss in the first place.  Preoperative microscopic and macroscopic evaluation of hair and scalp is crucial to rule out any condition that may limit the growth of transplanted hair.  Hair transplant surgeons should raise questions for these in atypical hair loss conditions especially in patients who do not have a family history of similar hair loss condition.  The diagnosis should be confirmed by scalp biopsy.
  • Care after hair transplant play a major role in the final results of a hair transplant procedure.  Physical trauma to the transplanted hair may cause losing newly transplanted hair, including pulling hair, scratching head or psychological conditions such as trichotillomania in which patient pull hair due to an obsessive compulsive disorder.

If you experienced less than desirable results from your hair transplant surgery after one year from your hair transplant surgery, you need to see a good hair transplant surgeon to reevaluate your condition and potentially treat the disorder that has caused your less than desirable growth.