Category: Hair Transplantation

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Hair Loss InformationHigh Side Hairline (Above Ears) – Can It Be Lowered? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

hi there,
i’ve been reading some of these articles about high hairlines, and most of them talk about the hairline at the forehead. however, with me, my hairline at my forehead is fine, its the hairline at the side of my head (near my ears) thats high. its been a real issue with me ever since i was a kid and i’d always need long hair to cover it up so that it wouldn’t seem as if i’m balding (which i’m not). my doctor says that i am not vulnerable to balding when i get older. i am an 18 yr old filipino male. and i was wondering if there are any treatments to this surgically/nonsurgically. i’d prefer nonsurgical more than surgical. but if there is anything at all, pls tell me. thx

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Some people have a genetic high temple hairline (above ears) which can be treated with hair transplants very effectively. There are no other treatments for this that I know of.

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Trigrowthic Suturing Technique – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Dear Dr. Rassman,

I’ve asked you this question before but had not received an answer. I recently read about a so-called new “trigrowthic” suturing technique that promises to leave no visible scarring post strip op. Have you looked into this procedure before and is it to be believed? Thanks.

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet.”

-From Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)

The use of trichophytic closures have been around for years — in fact, that closure has been used in plastic surgery for more than two decades. The hair industry adopted it recently as a standard of wound closure. You could change its name and correctly say that you invented that name, but it would be improper to say that you invented the procedure. The doctors you have referenced here are recycling techniques under a new, original name and as such, if they are claiming inventiveness, then they might be deemed dishonest.

There is NO such technique that can provide results with no visible scarring. ALL cuts on the skin will leave a scar and the scarring is unique to individual patients. Some patients have minimal scarring, while others have more scarring — it is dependent on their genetic makeup, which no one can tell with just a physical examination. Some of our patients heal well and have very minimal scarring that is hard to detect with a regular hair style, but even these patients will have a visible scar if they shave their head bald.

We routinely use a trichophytic closure which I assume is similar to what you have read. For more information about the trichophytic closure, please see:

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Hair Loss InformationLarge 5000+ Graft Transplants – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I read about megasessions of 5000 or more grafts. Particularly from a Canadian group. Yet unless the average Canadian hat size is larger, that is near impossible unless they are doing it on the graft dissection end of things. How can one doc get so much more hair then others??Larger heads, larger incisions??

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Large sessions, really large ones, were defined by me in 1993-4 timeframe when I reported first breaking 2000 grafts/session, then 3000, and finally in early 1994 I reported my first of many 4000+ graft sessions. These are not typical. First, the surgical team must be trained in doing large sessions with fast, efficient cutting and placing. The following points must be available for the surgery to be successful:

  1. The sessions should not take more than 8 hours, for beyond that time, the grafts out of the body that are awaiting placement produces reduced graft growth.
  2. The surgeon must know the nuances of prolonged anesthesia without increasing the risks to the patient.
  3. The patient’s scalp laxity must be very loose so that a wide strip can be taken safely (often these strips measure greater than 2cm in width and 10 inches in length).
  4. The patient’s density must be high (50% higher than normal densities).
  5. And as you said, the head should be a larger size to yield wider and longer strips.

Large sessions are no more risky than smaller sessions, but the above criteria must be met or the yield would not be there. My record number of grafts in any one session to date is 5800 grafts. I remember that patient well, because had his balding pattern been more advanced, I would have gotten 10,000 grafts from him with ease. His density was twice average densities, his head was larger than normal, his scalp was loose (actually, very loose), he was young and healthy and we completed the surgery in 7 hours.

Good question and thanks for asking it.

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Hair Loss InformationAre Pimples on Scalp After Transplant a Good Sign? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

3.5 Weeks after a Hair Transplant, Is it normal to see pimples in the head so early on? I have maybe 3 or 4, one at the hairline and the rest in between my grafted area… I hear pimples on the head is a good sign that hair is trying to break through the surface, at almost 1 month post-op, is it possible to start hair regrowth? I do have fairly thick hair and my hair does grow fast elsewhere, just thinned in the front. I would be a 3 on the scale… Thanks!

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Pimples are never a good sign. They do happen for a number of reasons after a hair transplant:

  1. Small cysts form from sebum build-up in the sebaceous gland that remains after the hair has shed.
  2. Small bits of remaining hair shaft are below the skin and are shed. Hair is a foreign body and as such is rejected through small cysts that come to the surface. These remnants of hair follicles or sebaceous glands may get infected and require antibiotics. Generally, they can be successfully treated with warm soaks. Be sure that these do not turn into folliculitis by visiting your doctor and establishing a good dialogue with him/her.
  3. In less than a good surgeon’s hands, cysts may reflect ‘piggybacking’ of one graft placed on top of another.

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I Had 3 Procedures – Did I Receive Optimal Care? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Thank you for sharing your time and expertise with the hair loss community. I’ve had three successful transplants with a prominent hair transplant surgeon between the years of 2003-2005. The graph count of all three sessions was approximately 5,200. Lately I’ve noticed hair transplant sites lauding the success of a few doctors who are able to surpass 5,000 graphs in one session. Surely I would have preferred to receive my 5,000 graphs in one session as compared to three. Did I receive optimal care by my physican or did he lack the skill, resources, and know-how to produce the results (5,000 graphs)in one session? Or, are there factors that make it necessary for a person to have three smaller sessions as compared to one larger one? I’m a 48 year old male. Thanks again!

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Sometimes large sessions (5000+) may not be possible on some patients when the size of the bald area is small. If the size of the bald area is large, to get a large session you need three things:

  1. good laxity (looseness) of the donor scalp
  2. very good densities in the donor area
  3. a specialized surgical team capable of doing this work in less than 8 hours

You should always have a good, trusting relationship with your doctor. I cannot comment on optimal care and would not suggest that you received less than optimal care. Maybe your surgeon’s team is not capable of performing these large sessions in the ascribed time period. Maybe your scalp is too tight or your balding area is too small. If you describe your surgery to be a success and are pleased with the results, then that is the determinant for the quality you recieved and I would go by the results you obtained when compared to the expectations you had prior to starting the process.

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Pinpoint Procedure for Hair Transplants? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

hello, i just had approx 1500 grafts strip procedure 8/25/06. the doctor used what they call the pinpoint procedure using a surrenge needle to make the inscions. what is your take on this procedure and will i need to have FUE in the future to create a natural looking hairline or does the pinpoint procedure have good enough results for a natural lookng hairline?? your advine would be greatly appreciated.
thanks

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Some doctors seem to make up terms that do nothing but confuse the public with marketing mumbo jumbo. With your confusion, this sounds like such a case. I did search for the term using Google and found the description for the “Pinpoint” technique appears to be follicular unit transplantation, of which I wrote a published classic article on the subject over a decade ago. Based on the limited text available on the doctor’s site, I don’t see anything different, new, or innovative about this technique.

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Had a Hair Transplant a Year Ago – Could I Just Be a Slow Grower? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I had a transplant a year ago. My question is that for 10 months I noticed almost no growth. Now though I’m starting to see fine baby hairs sprouting up. Is this growth? Am I just a slow grower? Or is it the propecia that I’ve started taking? The hairs are just beyond the hair line. Thank you for your time

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After a hair transplant surgery, it may take 8 months of so to see 80% of the benefits of a hair transplant and up to a year or slightly more to see the full benefit of the surgery. This is absolutely something you should discuss with your hair transplant surgeon. A failure to grow would be evident if the growth to this point is most of what you had transplanted.

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Any Adolescent Hairline Transplant Photos? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Can you post a before & after photo of someone who you’ve lowered their hairline to an “adolescent hairline”. I know you’ve said in the past you usually only do this procedure on someone who makes their living by their looks & I wanted to see how much of a difference it would make. Thanks, great blog!

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These three patients had their central hairline brought down to the childhood hairline position:

Also, please take a look at the hundreds of patient before and after photos on my website in the Patient Photo Galleries.

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My Transplanted Areas Have Gotten Very Thin – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

i am a 32 year old male who has had 2 transplant surgeries that have been very successful. i have recently noticed the tranplanted areas have thinned quite a bit all within about a weeks time. could this be due to stress? i thought transplanted hair always remained. is it possible for the new growth to be affected by dht?
thank you

Something is wrong here. Transplanted hair does not usually fall out, even with stress. If you still have native hair in the area where you are reporting the loss and the hair was taken from the true donor rim (not above or below it), you most probably are losing the hair around the transplants. If that is the case, see a good doctor, get your hair mapped out for miniaturization and then you will know for sure what is happening to you. Propecia may stop the loss. The only reasonable explanation if you are really losing your transplanted hair is that the donor hair will be reacting the same way and this diagnosis will be very evident from mapping out your hair for miniaturization in the donor area (from where the hair was originally taken). If you’d like to see me in my Los Angeles office, please call 800-NEW-HAIR to setup a free consultation (and please reference this post when calling).

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Hair Loss InformationHow Can I Convince My Transplant Doctor to Refund My Money? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hi

I had a hair transpland done in May of this year and i am very unhappy and dissapinted in it, since i had it done all i do is suffer becase the docotor that did it made it to high and is very rude when i tryed to tell him the problem
Im 22 years olds and came into the clinic with NW 2 hairloss, my hair stated to fall out and stoped when it became a ugly widows peek. I had over 800 grafts done and paid over $7.000 with little or no change in my hairline, the only difference is my hair is a little thicker behind my hairline. I tried to call the docter and tell him about it but he would not listen he was very rude and told me he is a doctor and he knows whats better for me. thats all got from him. I dont know what to do, this has made my life very bad, all i do is think about my hair and look at people with normals hairlines that did not have a hairtransplant and compare it to mine and it hurts to see that i spent over $7.000 with bad results.

Please tell me what i can do to convince the doctor to repaid the hair line. r to refund my money s i can find another doctor. If your intrested to help me i can send you the pictures if my hairline when you email me back.

thanks

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If your surgery was done in May, your results will just be appearing at this point, so you really do not know what you have achieved in terms of yield. From what you are describing, I am appalled at this doctor’s attitude and behavior. Disrespect and rudeness is intolerable, especially from your doctor. Understanding and compassion is what you should expect from him and his staff — nothing less.

First, please send me pictures, preferably at the 7-8th month (and please reference this post when sending). Then, armed with a candid opinion from me, you can decide what you should do. A doctor is not legally required to respect his patients, nor to treat them with dignity, but that does not excuse bad manners. Having hair transplants at 22 years old is a bit young and if the balding was very, very early, he may not have met the ‘Standard of Care’ in making the decision to offer you surgery. Did you try to treat your ‘hair loss’ with Propecia before you elected to have a transplant? Are you on Propecia now (as you should be)? You need to work out and fully document just what is going on here. Yes, you can ask for your money back, but there is no obligation for the doctor to refund it. You can write a letter to the medical board of your state and file a complaint with them, but it is better to get that message to the doctor first. If you are not comfortable to speaking with him, then you can set up an appointment and be accompanied by someone older and wiser who can speak with this doctor with an authoritative personality. If you get an opinion from me, and I agree with you that you were not treated with the ‘Standard of Care’, then I might even place a simple phone call to him on your behalf, but for that, I would need to be your doctor and we would need to meet somehow. Let’s start off with a picture at the 8th month post surgery and then go from there.

You will never see me run from being a patient advocate and my heart goes out to you. Doctors have the legal responsibility to produce a full ‘informed’ consent for your surgery. That means that it is his obligation to be sure that you understood what you were agreeing to and what he was going to do for you. If you did not communicate with him adequately, it is his responsibility (legally) to close the information gap. Assuming that his behavior is as you described, I would think that you have every right to confront him, but you might need some help. I am hoping that you will be surprised and find that your doctor is not the ‘bad’ person you believe and he will surprise you with compasion and caring. Let me hear from you.