Hair Restoration Blog

Q:

Hey Doctor Mohebi,

I was wondering, I’m thinking about getting a hair transplant, but I’m afraid of telling my future wife and female friends that I’ve had a hair restoration. I know men may not care that much, but if I’m dating someone and eventually I tell them I’ve gotten a hair transplant, I fear that they may get turned off.

I kind of look at it like plastic surgery. I know when I meet women who has undergone a nose job, I kind of feel strange about it and think maybe that person was not happy with their looks.
To be honest, it  turns me off.

So, my question is: from your experience with patients, do they keep it a secret from others or do they not mind telling people?

A:

Today, we have capabilities we did not have 50 years ago. As a young soccer lover, I used to have the disadvantage of wearing glasses.  It was very difficult for me to stay competitive in succer team without wearing my glasses.  Every now and then, I use contact lenses to be able to put aside my glasses. I am planning to get a LASIK procedure for that as well.

If I undergo a LASIK procedure, does it make me an insecure person. Not at all. I call it using all your resources to look your best.

We do have technology that we did not have 10 years ago. I say: why not use it? A lot of people are doing it, and nobody cares if these peoples’ hair is native hair or transplanted. The point: they are not bald any more and they can be as competitive as their non bald rivals in life.

One time, I met a very beautiful woman at a party and I ended up having a conversation with her.  When I told her I do hair transplants, she told me a story about someone who proposed to her and she rejected him. She said the man was bald. But I’m not saying because he was bald that he got rejected, but because he did not do anything about it. I know the argument can be made that what the woman did is sad and superficial but, hey, looks do play a part in initial courtship, whether we would like to admit it or not. And it was her prerogative to make that decision.

My point is: Be yourself and do whatever makes your heart happy. No matter what you do with your life, there are going to be people who may not like it. It should not influence your decisions.

Hair transplant surgery is a meticulous procedure. Even after a hair transplant the need for continuous care won’t stop. At US Hair Restoration, we schedule all patients to come back after the first day for a hair wash, which may take about 30 minutes. We use the most inert shampoos to wash the newly transplanted hair grafts.  On the transplanted areas, we only spread the shampoo foam and dab it. We leave the shampoo for two minutes and then rinse it with water.

The donor area is also washed in the first visit after a hair transplant procedure. We supply the patient with a special sponge and soft brush. The sponge is used for the transplanted area and the brush is used for the donor wound. Washing the donor wound, which is closed with either staples or sutures, can be done a bit more aggressively. The brush can be rubbed on the back of the head with gentle up and down movements, which also help remove all debris and dried blood that is left from the day of the hair transplant surgery. Washing hair should be done twice a day for the first four days, then, patients can reduce it to once a day.

We teach patients how to take care of their transplanted donor area after a hair transplant. This wash is especially important for the first four days after a hair transplant when the grafts could be dislodged if not handled with a special care. After the first four days from the day of the hair transplant, the patient can go back to his old routine and wash his hair more aggressively. At this point, the grafts are considered sealed and part of the scalp even if one tries to move the hair. The follicles remaining are capable of generating new hairs.

The reason we recommend washing after a hair transplant with our meticulous technique is to prevent scabbing. There are several studies that show scabbing may decrease growth of transplanted hair grafts. We should not see any scabbing after day seven from the day of the hair transplant. If scabs are present at that time, it means that the washing was not done properly and the patient needs to get on it and become more aggressive with his or her hair wash. After day four, patients can continue to wash hair twice a day and, also, they need to leave the foam alone for as long as 10 minutes to soften the scabs. Then, they have to use the soft brush that is provided to comb their hair in the direction of the other hairs so scabs can be combed off gently.

We instruct patients to not submerge his or her head into water for the first week after surgery and avoid bending the head too much for the first month. We also ask patients to avoid sun exposure on the transplanted area for about six months after the hair transplant. Later on, when the transplanted hair will grow and will be able to protect itself from the sun.

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.