Hair Restoration Blog

I met an internist friend today and he asked me whether or not I do hair cloning for my patients. Obviously my answer was no. He mentioned that Dr. X does offer cloning to his patients and in fact plans on doing it for one of his current patients. My comment is this: The field of hair transplant surgery is a buyer beware market; just like any other fields in cosmetic surgery.

I have heard many doctors calling themselves a pioneer on this and that technique. If your doctor told you that he or she is the inventor of some popular method, make sure to ask for a published article from him or her on the topic in a peer reviewed medical journal. In medicine, we don’t keep secrets. When any inventions are formulated they are presented in scientific meetings or published in peer reviewed journals.

Hair cloning (as it is being called by people) or hair multiplication has been studied extensively in America and Europe over the past few years. There are some reports on the success of culturing hair and making new hairs from one in animals and human. There are also claims that phase 3 of clinical trials has started, but we do not know much about the success of this procedure since we don’t have any published articles as of yet. We don’t know anything about the possibility of mass production of hair through hair multiplication nor its feasibility and safety on human.

It is very likely that hair multiplication will be available in the future, but as of now we can not make any comments on the timing and quality of it.

The Cost of hair transplant surgery was brought up many times on my last radio show on the professional hour of Radio KIRN. Yes, there exists a wide range of prices for hair transplants in different hair transplant clinics and for different hair transplant surgeons. The reason is simple: There are so many different techniques of hair transplantation and a wide range of services and standards in the way those techniques are being implemented.   Every body looks for affordable hair transplant surgery. Let us discuss some facts.

I recently had to interview some hair transplant technicians who had many years of experience with other hair transplant clinics for an opening at US Hair Restoration in Encino. The result of our interview with those technicians was an eye opening experience. Some of these technicians were stuck in the stone age of hair transplant techniques. You think in the era of evidence based medicine, all doctors follow the available guidelines and standards, published in scientific peer reviewed journals. I was terrified by hearing how archaic some hair transplant clinics procedures are.

Many hair transplant clinics still have not started using microscopes for harvesting grafts (hair follicles) or in some cases, the use of microscope is voluntary for hair transplant technicians. Some hair transplant clinics do not keep hair follicles moist while being prepared, which leaves hair follicles prone to denaturation and death. And some still use mini-grafts (big patchy transplants that usually leave the patient with a patchy spotted pattern) instead of follicular unit transplants, which consist of meticulously excising single hair units and artistically placing them one by one. In one clinic technicians harvest hair grafts using scissors instead of a knife or flat blades. You can imagine what kinds of grafts are being harvested using those techniques and what the rate of survivability is among hair follicles.

OK, how much does a hair transplant cost. How can I find an affordable follicular unit hair transplant.  The clinics that are offering follicular unit transplants exclusively are usually charging $3 to $10 per graft. Remember this is the rate for a follicular unit transplant, which is not the only technique used in hair transplant clinics, but is the most cutting edge and natural looking. Overall, the hair transplant field is buyers beware market and you need to educate yourself on the methods of procedures and the kind of hair transplant clinics you are thinking about having your procedure with. Make sure you are evaluated by a physician who can answer all your technical questions, and not a sales person. The Internet is full of informative websites that could be used to increase your level of knowledge before your procedure.

Question:

Hi, My boyfriend here wants to know what he should do to prevent more hair loss. He has hair now but it’s receding a bit on his front at right and left sides.  He’d be most grateful for some advice. (Or I could just listen on Saturday!!)

Answer:

The Saturday radio show is going to be a 55 min program on hair loss with a focus on male pattern hair loss. I am sure you will find it useful. Also we have an online consultation page on our website that allows patients from all over the world to ask questions about the characteristics of their own hair and hair loss.

As a general rule, most young men can use Propecia (generic: finasteride 1mg/day), if they do not have any contraindication (allergic reaction or other negative side effects) for its use to prevent further hair loss or slow down the hair loss process. I generally do miniaturization studyies on all my patients to map out their hair loss pattern before starting them on Propecia or any other hair loss prevention medication. This way we can measure their response to the effect of treatment and optimize the medical or surgical treatment if needed.

Question:

I am a 40 year old man. I had a hair transplant 15 days ago and have my sutured removed 5 days ago. I am generally very active, but my doctor said that I can not exercise intensively for first 3 months after surgery. When do you usually say is safe to resume heavy exercise.

Thanks A lot!!

Answer:

Dealing with daily activity and sports after hair transplant surgery is a concern for many patients who are physically active and want to get back to their normal routine as soon as possible. There are two areas of concern after a hair transplant surgery. First, you may lose newly implanted grafts when doing contact exercise like wrestling. This can only be problematic within the first 4 days after surgery. Research has shown that after this period the hair graft is completely healed and infused in surrounding skin. Usually even pulling the hair after this period of time doesn’t have an adverse effect. The follicle stays in place and is capable of making a new mature hair.

The second concern is with the donor area, which is primarily closed by sutures or staples. Using Laxometer can help up to close donor wound with not much tension on the wound edges. The healing of the donor incision follows the general wound healing rules. The process of healing starts from the moment the wound is closed. The wound heals primarily within a few days from the time of hair transplant and any vigorous activity should be avoided within the first two weeks. After two weeks, the wound is practically healed, but the strength of this newly healed wound is nowhere close to normal skin. The wound needs a few months to get back to its final strength. However, regular aerobic exercise is not contraindicated even the day after surgery.The activities that you should be avoiding are: Anything that increases the tension between the edges of the healingwound in the donor area, such as weight lifting and other exercises which involve intense bending of the neck. You should wait at least 6 months for this type of exercise in order to prevent opening of the wound or widening of the final scar.

Dear Dr. Mohebi,

How is everything Dr.? I actually came across something, which might seem a little silly to you. (haha) As the follicle deteriorates, the hair becomes thinner, correct? and this leads to the dying of the hair follicle and hair can’t be grown, right? I have noticed lately that when I shed, the hair is not really thin. Actually the quality of my hair according to my father has improved. Thick hair means that the follicle is still healthy and contains the vital nutrients. Now to sum everything up, even though I still experience hair loss with decent hair quality, does this still mean that my hair follicle is deteriorating or could an internal factor such as stress cause you to lose some hair regardless of its (hair) condition?

The reason I am asking this vaguely put question (sorry) is because earlier when I shed, my hair did get thinner which gave me the signal that it was in poor condition. DHT damages the follicle and causes the hair to become thinner. Sorry to bother you with these questions, it’s just that sometimes I pay attention to little things and I need to find out the answer. Thank you very much.

Answer:
The hair that shed is not necessarily miniaturized hair which is in process of balding. Normal hair goes through phases including telogen in which you see normal non-balding hair falls out. If a person is balding he or she may lose a normal looking hair in its telogen phase and grow a finer hair in its place and this process may repeat until your hair miniaturize completely or become non-existent. Loss of miniaturized hair (balding process) is not necessarily sensible, it means that due to the small diameter of hair shafts, you may not even notice your hair falling.