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Traveling to Thailand for Hair Cloning

Hi, just curious what your thoughts are on traveling to foreign countries for hair cloning? I understand radical developments have been made in places like Thailand and I’m interested if you have any experience with this. Much thanks in advance.

With all due respect for Thailand and other foreign countries, do you really think that if hair cloning has been successful it would have escaped the research and popular media of the United States?

What I’m getting at is this — just because you see it advertised in Thailand, it doesn’t mean it’s real. Hair cloning doesn’t yet exist in the way that you’re likely hoping.

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Travel to California Is Too Expensive to See You!

Dear Dr Rassman,

I have read with huge interest your blog/articles and links. I have a hair-loss problem and live in the UK. I am convinced that your clinic and FUE techniques are the best solution to my problem. I believe I would score as a type 6 pattern and accordingly may need more than one session. Being based in UK and having to travel to California several times would make it cost-prohibitive for me, I believe even with your 5% travel discounts.

Most of the UK surgeons in this field seem to me to be much less experienced and professional with only a few of them offering FUE.

Do you have colleagues on the East Coast of the US and/or clinics you could recommend in eg. Florida where inexpensive flights from UK are frequent these days.

Kind regards

You may want to consult with Dr. Robert Bernstein in New York.


2006-06-02 07:06:55Travel to California Is Too Expensive to See You!

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Travel for Hair Transplant Surgery?

Hello Dr. Rassman,

As you seem to be the leader in your industry (in my opinion, at least), I assume many patients travel from afar to see you. Do you treat Canadian residents? I am in the eastern part of Canada, and while there seem to be some good surgeons in my area, I feel a visit to you is my best option. Any thoughts about this? Thank you.

Yes, I can treat any patient that sees me from any part of the world. We also offer a travel discount for surgical patients. Before we arrange that we should have a telephone consultation and that works best if you send me photos so I can see what your problem areas are. If you’d like to setup a phone consult, you can fill out this form so that someone on my staff can get back to you to schedule it and get those photos.

Here’s the info about the travel discount from our website:

    “If you live more than 150 miles from the office where your surgery is performed, you are eligible to participate in our travel program. NHI will reimburse you for up to 5% of your net procedure cost for reasonable transportation expenses incurred while traveling to one of our facilities for a seminar, consultation or procedure. If you drive to one of our facilities, you can choose to be reimbursed for either mileage or gasoline expenses. If you fly to one of our offices, please note that frequent flyer miles are not reimbursable. NHI can only reimburse you for your flight-related out-of-pocket expenses. In all cases, please remember to provide receipts. In addition, you will receive one night’s stay at a pre-selected area hotel at our expense. This program is based on a minimum procedure fee of $3,000.00.“
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Trapped Nerve After a Hair Transplant?

Your blog is incredibly insightful and useful, can’t believe its a free resource. I’ve had a strip excision, my question is that there is one area directly above the scar line, about 3 cms wide and maybe 3 cms high (where scar is probably about 20 cms long) that feels raised and different. if I run my finger from below the scarline in that area up and over you can feel how that area becomes distinctly raised even sometime after transplant. the other areas above the scar dont have that feeling. could it be a trapped nerve ? and how easy is it to treat ? my doctor (even though giving good cosmetic hair results) doesn’t have your diagnostic capabilities. thank you !

First, with regard to the free service, I have never turned down money offers or checks in the mail. I haven’t received any, but still… 🙂

You raise a series of questions that pose different problems. Some people heal with elevated scars that are like mini-keloids (heaped up scar tissue on the skin edge). These scars can be difficult to control and the wider they are, the more difficult they are to treat. Steroids injected into the scar helps on those that are fresh (under 6 months old). When you don’t have feeling about the scar, if it is just the area within an inch of the scar, it may be attributable to cut nerves, which occur in everyone who has had a strip. The feeling usually returns in weeks of months after the surgery. If the area is more extensive, like a hand’s width, then you may have a cut major nerve trunk. The nerve may be cut or just squeezed in the scar tissue. You will need a skilled surgeon to make the diagnosis.

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Transplants in Young Men Under 25 (from Reddit)

I hope that you are not under the age of 25. Men who have hair transplants at, for example, age 21 will most likely continue to bald which means that the area behind the transplant will also bald. Then, if you transplant that area at age 22, the area behind it may also go, so that will require a third hair transplant. This can continue year by year, putting you in a difficult situation. If, however, you are over age 25-26, then it gets less likely that the balding will go fast behind the hair transplant. This surgery looks good, but I am talking not about the surgery; I am talking about you and your age.

He Got a Hair Transplant in KOREA! [Part One] from tressless


2018-09-19 06:24:26Transplants in Young Men Under 25 (from Reddit)

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Transplants in the Baldest Men

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.

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


2005-09-02 16:17:31Transplants in the Baldest Men

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Hair Transplants in Young Men

I just answered a question about transplanting in older men, so I’ll answer one on the other side of the age scale. “Youngtoo” asks…

Why exactly is 20 too young if the hair is taken from the permanent growth zone? I am 23 and a doctor also told me that I was too young without giving a real justifiable reason. thanks for your time.

There are many reasons why transplanting a very young man is not a good idea. I will list some of them:

  1. The final balding patterns start to become evident on a men in his mid-20s. Earlier than that, one may not be able to determine the final pattern so that surgical planning becomes difficult. If a 20 year old is destined to become very bald (e.g. the most extreme Class 7 pattern) then he may not have enough hair to tackle the balding pattern, so planning is critical. On the other hand, a man with only mild balding can be aggressively treated after the pattern is clear without putting him at significant risk for placing his limited donor supply in the wrong places.
  2. The ability to slow or halt the balding process with Propecia needs to be determined. For those men in their early 20s who do not respond to this drug and continue to bald, the future prognosis is far more bleak than for those who are drug controlled. I generally like to get a ‘feel’ for the aggressiveness of the balding process.
  3. This is a life-time decision, a decision that many people at age 20 are either not equipped for or do not have the financial follow-through capabilities to manage. Maturity on a 20 year old is different than a 30 year old.
  4. We change as we get older and along with that change, our priorities change. Once the decision to start a surgical hair restoration course has begun, there is no going back.

I never make absolute rules and each person is different. I have done transplants on some men around the age of 20, but when I have, I was able to get to know and become comfortable with them, their maturity and their decision process. I also ask men of that age to bring in a parent, a girlfriend or good friend to listen to the consultation and become involved in the decision process like a “brick wall” to bounce ideas off of.

I hope that this answers your question. With more time, I will add to this list of ‘reasons’ to slow down the transplant process for a 20 year old.

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Transplanting with Limited Donor Area

I have had several transplants over the last 20 years. My donor area is generally depleted and cannot support any large procedures. I have 1-2 very small (quarter size) areas that if some additional transplants were done only in these strategic areas my hair would appear much fuller. Considering the small amount of donor plugs needed could these be provided by smaller more random/scattered donor sites as opposed to the larger harvesting rows that are more concentrated in one area. Thereby minimizing the thinning effect we see in a typical donor area.

There is an art to making less hair look like more hair. I have many patients like you who have paid the price of the old antiquated procedures of the 1970s and 1980s. I have already written articles on the subject, but what I do for each patient is a one on one determination that takes the years of experience I have spent to develop the Master Plan for such person. Simply put, a good doctor, upon examination, should be able to determine the answer to your question.

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Transplanting Wavy Hair

I am scheduled to go in for a consultation in two weeks for getting a procedure done. What I wanted to know, I have wavy hair but when it is short its not wavy. However, the wavy hair starts to come out on the top and front of my head first then the donor area follows a few week after. Wouldn’t that be a problem if I get a transplant b/c I will have straight hair in certain areas and then wavy hair?

Are most clinics required to develop a long term plan for future hair loss for a patient, and are they required to use devices to measure miniturization on the scalp for a patient?

You should always start off with a Master Plan, created by you and your doctor based upon his findings during your examination. If you have wavy hair in the donor area it will grow out as wavy hair in the transplanted area.

There are no requirements to measure miniaturization. It is something I stress in my practice and on this site, but many doctors do not do this, nor do they measure bulk of the hair in the various parts of the scalp in the initial examination.

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Transplanting to the Hairline Corners Without Risk of It Looking Bad with Future Loss?

Hi Dr Rassman,

I am 30 years old and for the past four to five years have had some recession/thinning at the corners of my hairline. It is uneven (on the left side around a 6cm triangle shape in area) and on the right side around half that area. For years I’ve monitored the area (even went to see Dr Farjo two years ago who confirmed i had mild recession – not a mature hairline) and in terms of area of recession it has got no worse – maybe a little thinner in those areas but it has not spread.

The fact that I have a receded hairline REALLY bothers me because i have very dense hair in the middle and on top but it is thin on the sides making my hair very messy when i wake up etc. I would love to have it filled in slightly with a hair transplant to frame my face better and so I wouldn’t have to worry about styling it as soon as I wake. It consumes too much of my time/thoughts and I’d like to not have to worry about it so much. So here are my questions…

1) If my hair loss has been fairly stable for over three years is it likely that I won’t lose so much hair in future or does it not work like this? Dr farjo didn’t seem to think that I would not lose a great deal of hair in future but my dad is NW6 bald, My maternal grandfather was more NW3-4v in his later years with hair combed over.

2) If as I suspect it is just not possible to predict that I wont lose too much more hair in future, is there any way that I can have a hair transplant to the hairline corners without risking looking stupid in future if I do lose lots of hair behind it and can’t afford a future hair transplant or don’t have enough grafts left to cover it all (I have very fine hair by the way). What I mean is, is there any way for a HT surgeon to do a lower density transplant at the corners to stop it looking like the patient is looking like they have thick horns of hair left in future as they go more bald? By the way – I have ruled out the option of ever taking propecia as for me i can’t afford messing with my hormones (other health issues) and minoxidil never worked for me in this area (I sometimes wonder if it did more damage than good as it is when i used it years ago that the thinning progressed).

3. Finally… For someone with fine hair…what would be the density per square centimeter needed for a transplant at the hairline corners. I’d like to get an idea of how many grafts i might need if it is possible.

Thanks in advance for your help.

p.s. I realise my questions are quite specific and will of course go back to see a surgeon for an opinion but just can’t afford to at this moment hence my questions.

Dr. Farjo will give you good advice on these issues. If he thinks your hair loss won’t progress to your father’s pattern, I would plan for that. Ask you dad when he started to lose hair. I suspect he started earlier than you and accelerated more quickly.

That said, since we never know with 100% certainty what is going to happen to the hair loss over time, you need to make plans for now and then be able to maneuver to another step if the hair loss progresses. You should have a Master Plan created with Dr. Farjo if you have not done that yet.

Concerning a transplant to your hairline corners and having very fine hair, if you do opt for surgery, be sure to have it done right. Creating a thinning or balding look with this hair is not in your best long term interest.