Category: Hair Transplantation

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Hair Loss InformationThe Woods Technique – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Is the Woods technique a viable option to consider for hair transplantation?

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This technique is undocumented and has never been explained. This doctor has kept his process secret, including the yield and growth rate of the transplants. Woods has chosen to do his technique without any peer review and not publish it in recognized journals. By making his technique secret, he has succeeded in creating a mystique (a cult) that he has promoted on the internet to create hype.

I have had the opportunity to see a couple of his patients and the recipient sites are not as clean or as natural as ours (I believe he creates larger recipient site wounds). In addition, the scarring in the donor area is evident on his videos and on his patients. Doctors in Australia tell me of significant failures in his hands based upon patients that have come to them. Although bashing doctors is at times fashionable for competing doctors to try to gain a competitive edge, Woods has failed to fulfill his basic responsibilities with the Oath that doctors take when they are given their diploma to practice medicine and surgery. That failed responsibility (to share knowledge and educate patients and colleagues to improve the quality of medical care) increases my skepticism about his work. Creating secrecy does little more than to make a sect that confuses the public and people who may get sucked into marketing hype and then ask obvious questions, wanting to know facts. I have tried to find out what he does, if only for curiosity. For now, however, Woods chooses to do his thing under the cover of secrecy.

For more info on the New Hair Institute’s published FUE technique:

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Transplanting Hair to Face – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hello,
Can hair be transplanted to the the chin and sideburn areas of the face to fill in where facial hair does not currently grow? Have you done any of these types of procedures? I’m 30 year old white male with very little facial hair.
Best regards

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We do transplant scalp hair to the face. Often with face lifts, repairs are made to the pulled back hairline and to lost sideburns. We also repair beard and mustache defects (the mustache defect is common in cleft lips). I have also had some Asians patients who had sparse facial hair and wanted it filled out more.

I often tell my patients that the good news about hair transplants from scalp hair is that if you put a hair graft on the end of your nose, it will grow to pony tail length. That is often used as an illustration of the reality that hair transplants do grow, almost anywhere you put them.

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Transplants in the Baldest Men – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I am very, very bald and 60 years old. I am having a hard time believing that you can really help me. Please let me know why I should believe that this enormous bald area on my head can really be covered with hair.

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Some people with advanced balding, low hair densities and high contrast (black hair and white skin), can not get great coverage with a hair transplant. On the other hand, if you have lower contrast between your hair and skin color, higher densities, good character hair, and a loose scalp, you might be surprised at what you could achieve by the artful distribution of hair in the hands of a good hair transplant surgeon (see below for an example). There is real art in making less hair look like more hair and that is just one of the reasons why you need to shop around. Come to one of our open house events and you will be able to examine these patients yourself and make your own judgments. If you have a wife, female relative or friend whose judgment you trust, bring them too, as women have more discriminating views on what they see than men.

This patient is in his mid 60’s and had multiple procedures, totalling 6,036 follicular unit grafts transplanted. “Before” is on the left, “after” is on the right.



More photos of the above patient on the NHI site: Patient ZU

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Hair Loss InformationHair Transplant Growth Success Rate – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

What is the growth success in 100 grafts that are transplanted?

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This is a good question. We really do not know exactly. I suspect that the growth rate success in our hands is over 90%, but it is almost impossible to count the transplanted hairs and compare their numbers to what was moved.

I have had opportunities to transplant a limited number of hairs in a scar, or an area of the head that was easy to separate from the rest of the areas and when I counted them, they all grew. I do test grafting in people with Alopecia Areata when I believe that the disease is inactive. In those patients who have inactive disease, I put in about 20 grafts into various areas of a bald patch of scalp. If the disease is really inactive, all 20 grafts are counted after some 6 months. I do the same for some burn patients where the scars may not support the grafts. When the scars can support the grafts, all grafts are then counted and if one grows, they all grow. This experience does show what is probably the case in our typical hair transplant sessions.

What we stress is a quality control process to minimize those factors that can cause hair loss in the transplant process. For the natural hair that is still present, we use drugs like Propecia before surgery. Various technical systems are enforced which guarantee that the grafts do not dry out (the leading cause of graft death), gentle handling (the second most common cause of graft death) and very experienced technicians (we have no turnover of clinical staff). A good transplant with a high success rate depends upon good team work with employees that know how to work together. Just like a good football team, every player in every position must work at peak efficiency to win the game. Winning the game in hair transplantation is a combination of 100% growth and good esthetics. This is why we show off our patients after their procedures at our open house events and also have a live surgery so that you can see, first hand, what will happen to you both in surgery and then 8 months later.

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Hair Loss InformationToday’s Man – How Much is Enough Hair? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Part 1 of “How Much is Enough Hair?” showcased a patient in his mid-20s. The patient below in part 2 is in his mid-50s and achieved wonderful results.

The change in my appearance in just 8 months has been remarkable. From a balding man that I hated to look at in the mirror, to a younger man who looks like he has a full head of hair has changed my life. My friends can’t get over it and even though everyone knows that I have had a hair transplant, no one believes it when they look at me. The back of my head is still bald. Can I expect to fill that in as well?

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I loved seeing you the other day. Every time I see one of our patients with the right hair and skin color and the right hair texture, I feel that the work we do in restoring hair is almost like God’s work. Another session will probably suffice to fill in the back and when done in combination with some styling effort, you will look like a man with a full head of hair. I recommend another 3000 or so grafts be placed into your crown. Thanks for allowing me to use you questions and picture for my blog.

When looking at these pictures, please note that the hair line is not a line but an irregular zone of hair. It does not have a start point and you can not connect the dots. Note that behind this zone, the hair is thick and you can not see through it, while in the zone, the hair is subtle in its appearance and does not hit you like a wall when you look at it. There is a smooth transition from the forehead (without hair) to the thick lush hair sitting back about 1/2 inch behind the transition zone. That means that you can not tell that it is a transplanted hair line, just like mine or other normal people that do not bald.

This first set below are his before photos (Norwood Class 5), taken in December, 2004.



The following are his after photos (one procedure of 2,773 grafts), taken in August, 2005.




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Fair Skin, 2 Weeks After Hair Transplant Photos – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I am planning to have a hair transplant, but I must return to work 2 weeks after. I am fair skinned, so I am very concerned about the appearance of my transplanted area. I do not want people coming up to me asking me what I did to my head, or in the alternative, looking intensely at my head like I was a freak.

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Pictures are worth 1000+ words. These pictures were taken today at my office, of a fair-haired patient two weeks after surgery. You can see a blush of pink, or is it just a beard that accentuates a pink that normally one would not notice? He said that the only person who commented on this was a close friend, and the patient told him it was a sunburn. He said that no one looks at it and he is not self conscience about it at all. Click on the photos to enlarge.



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Hair Loss InformationHow Much is Enough Hair? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

This 26 year old man received 2200 grafts into the frontal hairline. He came into my office today asking me if he should do any more transplants. He trusts me and felt that I would give him the correct advice.

His results are remarkably good and he is very pleased with the results. Like most young men, he feels he might be happier with more hair, but he is not at all dissatisfied with the fullness he sees when looking in the mirror. I told him that considering his age and his overall satisfaction with the results, that additional hair transplants should be postponed, and we should watch for more hair loss over the next 5-10 years. If his balding does not progress and his present stage of fullness is maintained by continuing Propecia (he has been taking it for the last three years), then he can increase the fullness with more grafts into the frontal triangle. If, however, his balding pattern should progress to a more advanced pattern, the additional donor hair may be best placed elsewhere on his head, for the best results.

This is a call that could go either way. If he felt that a fuller forelock area was his focus, then I would have no hesitation to fill in the rest of this frontal triangle. Clearly, I am in no rush to take his money and he is in no rush to get more hair, so for the moment, we have decided to wait out the unfolding nature of his future.

Photo on the left is the “before”, from a few years ago. The photo on the right is the “after”, taken today.



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Shock Hair Loss from Transplantation – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

I want to get a hair transplant during the summer while I am off from school but if I am going to lose hair, I won’t do it. Is there a guarantee that I will not lose hair?

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I will assume that you are a student of college age (under 30) in answering this quesstion. If you are older, then shock hair loss is less of a risk. If you take Propecia, I have found that the likelihood of having reactive hair loss is significantly less likely. In the days before Propecia I used to see it all of the time in young men. For those who are on the drug before surgery, there appears to be a protective effect that stops the hair transplant shock loss that plagued the men prior to the introduction of the drug. There are few guarantees in medicine, but I do not remember any person in recent times that was on Propecia that had significant reactive hair loss.

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Transplant Hairline, Drugs for Crown? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

sorry to bother you again just one more question. the front of my hair is going quite fast so i was thinking if it was possible to put hair transplants just for the front because that would look so much better. and then i would just use the minoxidil for the back?
best regards

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You need medical treatment first, before surgical treatment. Propecia should be tested for a period of 8 months. It may regrow your crown hair. Hold off on the transplant option, as you will have a lot of time to consider having surgery. A try with Avodart may be appropriate if Propecia does not control the balding within 8 months.

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Hair Loss InformationDateline NBC on Hair Loss – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

There was a great story on NBC last night, where Dateline followed five men on different hair treatments for 12 months. It compared Propecia, the laser comb, Minoxidil, a European fish oil claimed to grow hair, and hair transplants.