Hair Restoration Blog

Q:

I have read some good things about your practice and I am willing to travel. I am in need of 1500 to 2000 graphs placed using FUE. Please let me know the price/graft you have available. I have been quoted 4/graph but was not comfortable with the doctor.

PS. A representative at Bosley is saying FUE is not possible at 1500 to 2000 graphs. Is this true? I am not trusting this notion. Thank you

A:

Thank you for your interest in our quality hair restoration services and for taking the necessary time to contact our office regarding your inquiries. Although I cannot personally evaluate your options or offer you recommended graft numbers without reviewing your past and current medical history, I have taken the time to address your questions below.

- You stated that you are in need of 1500-2000 FUE grafts.
Here at US Hair Restoration, the regular cost for FUE hair transplant services is $8.00 per graft.

*If you have a flexible schedule and willingness to book for your procedure within 7-10 days of the hair transplant then you are eligible to take advantage of our standby option which offers a discount on the total cost of your procedure. The current discount percentage fluctuates, so please call our office for more information on the current seasonal rate.

- You stated that you were not comfortable with the previous clinic you consulted. If you are feeling uncomfortable with the last clinic you consulted for a hair transplant, we urge you to continue consulting doctors until you find the perfect fit. Finding the perfect physician for you will likely not happen over night, but the research to achieve your best possible results is well worth the wait.

- As for a Bosley representative saying that 1500-2000 FUE grafts is not possible, I would not necessarily agree. To be sure, you would need to be evaluated in a consultation for other restricting conditions. Because FUE procedures are so meticulous and time consuming, many doctors do not want to plan for over 1500 FUE grafts to be transplanted in one day. This is not to say that it is impossible to transplant more than 1500 FUE grafts in one day, but 1500 transplanted grafts of FUE will typically take about 8 -12 hours of work for the doctor and technicians. We do not like to push our patients, or surgical team to the limit, so if any patient is wanting more than 1500 FUE grafts we elect to break up the surgery between two or more days of work (up to 1500 FUE grafts per surgery day).

If you would like to schedule a free consultation so that we can discuss your options and graft number recommendations, submit an online consultation form through the main US Hair Restoration website and one of our patient coordinators will respond when they have a free moment. Thank you for your inquiries.

A new interesting article on hair multiplication, published article on Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, was just released last week.  As part of my personal mission to educate my patients and other hair loss sufferers who visit our website, I post the newest information available on hair loss and hair restoration here.

This article is the result of a recent study done by Aor et al in the Department of Plastic Surgery based at the University of Tokyo School of Medicine in Japan.  The authors evaluated the interaction between the Dermal Papilla Cells (DPCs) and other cells found in skin such as epithelial cells (the outer cellular layer of the skin) on animal models.

The investigators reviewed prior unsuccessful experiments with DPCs in humans and focused on two main challenges:

1.       Functional limitations of expanded DPCs obtained from adult hair follicles

2.       Lack of a clinically applicable method for transplanting DPCs to the skin

The investigators used five clinically applicable transplantation procedures on rat model.  They named the procedures Pinhole, Laser, Slit, Non-vascularized sandwich (NVS) and Hemi-vascularized sandwich (HVS) methods.  They used biomarkers to label rat dermal papilla tissue before transplanting it into rat skin.  They evaluated the regeneration hair follicles microscopically.  The noted growth through different methods, however, has presented numerous problems (i.e.- cystic or inverted appearance following transplantation). They found the HVS method to be more successful due to its higher presented numbers of regenerated hair as well as its increased numbers of mature and regular hair than those observed employing the other methods.

They found that hair growth was detected after expanded adult-derived DPC transplantation using the HVS method. The authors concluded that direct contact of epithelial and dermal components, as well as better vascularization and blood supply of the recipient skin are important factors in producing more successful results from transplanted multiplied hair into the skin.

This study is not the first experience in which hair multiplication research has revealed difficulty in sole transplantation of hair stem cells. This study only confirmed the phenomenon of hair growth and complexity of hair cycling which is complex and involves many different cell lineage interactions.  I am positive that these efforts of the scientists involved in hair multiplication will eventually pay off and that at some point we will be able to restore hair for hair loss sufferers without the current limitations of available donor hair.

Q:

I had a hair transplant back on October 31, 2009. I started getting red boils along my transplanted area (suspected to be folliculitis) in January and I have been taking Accutane for the last complete month.

My question to you is, why did it happen? Was it due to infected surgical equipment used in the surgery? I was advised to get such a heavy drug which has effected the overall tone of my face somewhat like getting severe dryness. Lastly, sir what do u think there are few patches in the infected area who are now like bald patches. Do you have any suggestions or medicine for the future?

A:

Pimple-like scalp lesions that develop after hair transplant surgery are typically folliculitis.

Folliculitis can typically be seen after hair transplant surgery in both the implanted and donor wound areas in the few weeks to month after hair transplant.

The development mechanism of folliculitis is similar to acnea.  It is usually due to blockage in the exit pores of the sebaceous gland (skin oil glands).  Following obstruction of those pores that can occur after hair transplant surgery, sebum (skin oil) cannot be emptied to the skin surface and instead begins accumulating underneath the skin surface.  The result is red or white head-like pimples.

Recovery is generally spontaneous. Although, if too many of these lesions develop, or if there was any sign of secondary infection (i.e.- redness or swelling around the area), the lesions may need to be drained by your physician and the patient may occasionally be recommended to use antibiotics.

Thanks to the generous vascular supply of scalp skin, the infection of scalp skin after hair transplant surgery is extremely rare.

Q:

I recently had a hair transplant consultation with Dr. Mohebi but just had a few quick questions to clarify the information told to me in my consultation.

Dr. Mohebi recommended 3000++ grafts grafts to me. With an FUT hair transplant procedure involving 3000++ follicular unit grafts, what is the typical range of units that are actually harvested? And what proportion of the units harvested typically transplant successfully?

A:

With Dr. Mohebi’s recommendation of 3000++ grafts, he hopes to achieve somewhere between 3000-4000 successfully transplanted grafts.

While we cannot offer an exact number during your consultation, these are his recommendations based on your hair loss pattern, your personal expectations, density of hair on donor area and for strip surgery, scalp laxity.

If doctor Mohebi had recommended scalp exercises to you, that means you can help to improve the laxity of the scalp and increase the number of grafts that could be safely removed by performing the recommended exercises.  This helps the number of transplanted grafts to go more toward 4000, if you successfully perform scalp exercises.