Hair Restoration Blog

FUE Transplant Discount

Previously, we announced that US Hair Restoration, as a leader in hair restoration, is launching a new research to compare different methods of hair restoration with FUE method (between May and July of 2010).  The study is conducted on certain days by Dr. Mohebi and the volunteers who are qualified for participation in the research can receive a discount off the cost of their FUE transplant procedure.

Are You a Candidate?

This discounted rate of the FUE cost does not apply to any of our other hair transplant procedures.  Applicants can call  1 (800) 302-8747  to schedule a consultation with Dr. Mohebi in order to determine their eligibility for a FUE procedure.  If you are unsure whether or not FUE is the right procedure for you, then before your consultation, please read about FUE surgery in our website.  You can also read several posts on Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) including FUE transplant vs. strip surgery in The Hair Restoration Blog.

Methods of FUE

In this study, all FUE procedures will be performed by Dr. Mohebi himself. All stages of FUE transplantation follow our standard procedures and the only difference is going to be the technique of harvesting hair follicular units.  We will use two main techniques for extracting the follicular unit grafts including manual and automated methods.  For the automated method, we will use either the NeoGraft machine or Harris’ Safe System.  The patient cannot choose the system that we will use. The volunteers will be randomly selected for one of the above FUE methods.

The above described techniques are among the well-known effective methods of performing FUE transplant surgeries.  We hope that by performing this study, we will be able to elucidate the pros and cons of each currently used method and be able to introduce a preferred method of Follicular Unit Extraction to the field of surgical hair restoration today.  The results of this study will be released on our website and in future medical literature.

Not long ago, I was invited to attend the Orlando Hair Transplant Workshop as a faculty member.  This workshop is sponsored by the International Society of Hair Restoration, held once a year, and is geared toward not only bringing together many prominent hair transplant doctors from all over the world, but also to teach the new techniques of hair restoration surgery to the new comers in the field.  My lecture and workshop sessions were focused on Donor closure techniques.

FUE procedure comparison

Among the different panels, one of the better lecures was on Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) in which different techniques of FUE transplants where compared to eachother. In the last few years, we have had more advanced automated devices for performing FUE procedures surface, causing the cost of FUE procedures to decline as the new methods are exposed. Because the advance of devices used to perform the procedures has allowed FUE procedures to become more efficient, physicians are thus now able to lower the FUE pricing to patients, making it a win-win situation for patients and doctors alike.

In one panel, the comparison of different FUE procedures including manual FUE transplant and automated FUE procedure with at least two different devices was explained.  Both Dr. Harris and Dr. Bauman have done FUE procedures in live surgery workshops with automated Follicular Unit Extraction methods (Safe system vs. NeoGraft) .

It is interesting and riviting to see that any new small invention in the field of hair transplantation can improve an entire aspect of the procedure.  The most eagerly asked or wondered about question though, is which invention will become the perfect solution for hair loss patients who search the world for a better solution.

US Hair Restoration FUE Procedures

US Hair Restoration is known for offering quality FUE transplants in its Los Angeles and Beverly Hills hair transplant offices along with its other offices in Southern California.  These FUE procedures are being offered to patients for treatment of different patterned baldness or FUE scar repair procedures. The hope is that the use of new Follicular Unit Extraction methods could help to improve overall FUE results.  By the same token, and to even further optimize the FUE methods, we have designed a study to compare the best FUE procedures done by prominent FUE doctors throughout the world.  We will be comparing the best FUE methods in a clinical setting side by side (All procedures performed by Dr. Mohebi himself) to minimize the selection bias.  The results will be presented in scientific meetings, published in medical journals and will also be posted in our website to review.

FUE Transplant Research

In order to proceed with this study, US Hair Restoration is offering a few exclusive spots with significant discounts. This discount will only be available to the participants of the study, who may have one or a variety of FUE techniques used for the purpose of the research.  This FUE study will not affect any of the stages of FUE surgery. The only variable that will be affected by the use of different FUE techniques is the method of extraction of the follicular units, all techniques of which are known as superior in the hair transplantation field.

Q:

Hi Dr. Mohebi,
I was at your hair restoration clinic a few months ago asking about hair loss. I was curious, have you heard of anything regarding Avodart (Dutasteride) causing significant thinning just in the front of the hairline? I got on it a month ago and I’m shedding a whole hell of a lot. Any idea how long the sheds last? I heard that the hair from the hairline actually does not grow back. Have you heard anything about that?

A:

Dutasteride (Avodart) although not FDA approved for hair loss treatment is prescribed by some physicians for treatment of male patterned baldness.  The effect of Dutasteride on slowing down the process of hair loss is documented through several studies.  Dutasteride blocks both isoenzymes (Type I and II) of 5 alpha reductase inhibitor and for that reason can help hair loss even more effectively than finasteride (Propecia).

Hair loss patients who start taking any dihydrotestosterone blockers may initially experience more hair shedding that is assumed to have to do with an increase in the turn over of miniaturized hair follicles.  The shedding and hair loss is usually temporary and new and stronger hair shafts will grow from the same follicles in a few months after the initial shedding.

Q:

Hello Doctor Mohebi,

I hope all is well and that Orlando was a success.

I am now creeping on 3 weeks post operation and just as you expected the en masse shedding commenced at right around the 2 week mark.  The good news is that I still have a sizable number left, which goes to show a large number of grafts are the way to go, but I did have a couple of more questions I thought were valuable and perhaps worthy of your blog.

1)  Even though I am at my 3rd week post op and many hairs have already been shed, many more seem to be sticking around — at least for now.  I am wondering if there’s any kind of benchmark to assess when I can expect the shedding to stop.  I would like to be able to clip all of my hair short so as to not have to keep “covering up” with hats and the alike, but I am not sure how much more shedding will take place.  Should I just wait til new hairs start to grow (1-3 months post operation, as I’ve been told) or is it relatively safe to assume that most of the hair which has not been shed after approximately a month will stick around (hang in there)?

2) For a more long-term question, what happens to the new transplants that have fallen out?  Given that telogen effluvium has taken place, I am assuming that the new hair will sprout once anagen takes place.  But here’s the dilemma:  If the front of my head contains transplants that ALL FALL OUT (for the sake of the argument, as you have stated that 90% or so of patients experience this) then that would suggest that all of this hair would be hitting CTR+ALT+DEL (or restart!) at about the same time.  If that is true, then all this hair should be hitting catagen and then telogen again at relatively about the same time, say between 2-3 years for most people.  Am I then to assume that my forehead will become synchronously thin at about 3 years only to become very full again a few months later????

Thanks Doctor.

Anonymously Yours,

A:

These are very clever questions and I will happily post them on our Hair Restoration Blog for others to see.  I will try to answer your questions in the order you asked them.

Hair Shedding After Hair Transplant

Losing hair shafts of newly transplanted hair generally occurs in most transplant cases and only a small percentage of them will continue growing the transplanted hair from the day of surgery.  Even if you are one of those lucky people who never loses their hair after surgery, you still may lose a significant number of hair shafts and only some of them will continue growing without going through shock loss.  It is not always easy to predict the timing of hair shedding in transplanted grafts, but if you have kept them for the first month after hair restoration surgery, it is likely that they will not shed.

As far as clipping your hair, you could have done it at any time after the first week following your hair transplantation.  Just be careful about the length of hair on the donor area.  You don’t want to expose your wound on the back and clipping your hair short tends to do this.  The transplanted hairs are part of your scalp at this stage and you cannot dislodge them even if you try.

Are all transplanted hairs entering the resting phase at the same time?

When hair shafts fall out due to telogen, the follicles enter their resting (or telogen) phase.  In this phase the grafts lose their shafts, the follicles shrink and become dormant for a short period of time (usually 4-6 weeks).  Following telogen comes another anagen phase in which new hairs sprout from the same transplanted hair follicles.  The initial hair grown is short and fine almost similar to vellus hair, but unlike vellus hair, it becomes longer and thicker over time.

For some reason, the biologic timer of your hair follicles are not quite synchronized.  The shedding of the transplanted hair won’t happen at the same time and therefore you won’t have to experience baldness again in the transplanted area a few years from now.  You should have some of your hair growing while a small portion of them remain in resting phase the whole time.

I have not been answering any questions in our hair restoration blog for a few days because I am in Florida as one of the invited faculties members in the hair restoration surgery workshop of International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS).  The meeting is held annually each year in the beautiful city of Orlando and prominent hair transplant surgeons from all over the world get together to share ideas and teach the future generation of hair transplant surgeons the science and art of hair transplantation.

I had one lecture yesterday on my invention of the Laxometer and the method in which we measure the laxity of donor area in large hair transplant surgeries.  We also discussed our new method of sequential strip removal that guarantees removal of the maximum number of grafts while still assuring the safety and quality of the hair transplant.  As a hair transplant surgeon that performs a majority of hair transplant procedures with large number of grafts, we have developed this method geared for hair loss patients with advanced classes of baldness.

Workshop Faculties: Dr. Parsa Mohebi, Dr. David Perez and Dr. Mark Mckenzie

These verbal lectures are usually followed by surgical workshops in the afternoon.  I will be demonstrating use of the Laxometer in the surgical workshop again tomorrow.  Dr. Mark Leavitt and Dr. David Perez, the main organizers of the hair transplant workshop, did a great job arranging the event which is a big step forward in education of hair transplant surgeons.

I will be back in Los Angeles next week and will continue answering your hair loss/hair transplant questions in the hair restoration blog upon my return.  I will also make sure to put a note on what was new in our Orlando Hair Transplant Work Shop this year. Be sure to stay tuned to the blog for this and all future updates.