Welcome to the Foundation for Hair Restoration's BLOG. As Founder and Director of the Foundation for Hair Restoration, and one of the top hair transplant surgeons, I feel a responsibility to educate those experiencing hair loss on the common sense, intelligent approach to surgical hair restoration. After more than 14 years of specializing exclusively in surgical hair restoration, my track record of having literally thousands and thousands of happy patients speaks for itself.
As an American Board Certified Facial Plastic Surgeon and American Board Hair Restoration Surgeon, I attempt to apply aesthetic plastic surgery principles to surgical hair restoration, allowing for the most aesthetic, natural appearing results. All of the other Foundation for Hair Restoration Surgeons are also highly skilled and trained to achieve similar results. And with the microscopic technique of follicular unit grafting, for the first time, it is in fact possible to attain restorations that, even with the hair cut short, look completely natural.
I am proud of the top notch devoted doctors, technicians and staff affiliated with The Foundation for Hair Restoration. We are pleased to invite all of our visitors to learn from the questions of others who find themselves with a similar concern: hair thinning or loss issues and other hair related concerns.
Can hair be transplanted to the chest?
Posted March 08, 2010 8:05 AM
Absolutely. Typically a procedure of anywhere from a few hundred grafts to over 3,000 hair grafts can create chest hair or other body hair where there was not hair before. Of course, it is important that the surgeon create recipient sites typically in a cross patch pattern to provide the most deliberately irregular pattern of growth for the hairs. If the chest hair growth pattern is too regular, than there is a chance it will appear unnatural. It is important that the surgeon create a very irregular pattern of growth in order for the hairs to look the most natural. And again, it is important that any prospective patient request to see photographs of prior patients to see the results that have already been achieved by the surgeon for other people.
Posted by Jeffrey S. Epstein, MD, FACS
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Can hair be transplanted to help conceal scars from prior plastic surgery?
Posted March 07, 2010 4:26 PM
Yes. Many of our patients choose Dr. Epstein for his experience in hair restoration but also as a Board Certified Facial Plastic Surgeon to help conceal scars from prior plastic surgery procedures like face lift scars and brow lift scars that may have caused hair for both men and women to stop growing in the sideburns, the mid scalp or behind the ears. Hair can typically be grafted to those areas to help conceal the scarring.
Posted by Jeffrey S. Epstein, MD, FACS
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Can hair be transplanted to help fill in or create a beard?
Posted March 07, 2010 10:31 AM
Yes. In almost all cases, Dr. Epstein is able to transplant hair from the scalp or sometimes other parts of the body to the face to help fill in or create facial hair for a patient where no facial hair existed before. However, the doctor does prefer to avoid transplanting to the "soul patch" or the area beneath the lower lip and centrally located toward the chin mount due to the risk of lumps forming in that particular area as it is a very sensitive area of the face.
Posted by Jeffrey S. Epstein, MD, FACS
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What is platelet-rich plasma?
Posted March 06, 2010 5:11 PM
Platelet-rich plasma or PRP is an injectable treatment that has recently been used to treat hair loss, as well as being used in conjunction with a hair transplant procedure. For almost eight months, Dr. Epstein has been using platelet-rich plasma or PRP in conjunction with a hair transplant in a few different ways, including injecting the PRP or the platelet-rich plasma into the donor site incision before suturing and furthermore injecting it with small injections throughout the scalp to help aid in the healing, recovery and hopefully the yield of the transplanted follicles. Platelet-rich plasma is a procedure in which we remove or draw a bit of the patient's own blood, place the blood into a centrifuge and spin the blood to manually remove the plasma from the blood, which is rich in platelets and growth factors that naturally occur in the patient's blood, essentially all the "good stuff" that rushes to any site of infection or injury, that we manually isolate and then inject into the scalp, particularly in areas where it is needed.
Posted by Jeffrey S. Epstein, MD, FACS
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Why are women sometimes told they are not good candidates for hair transplants?
Posted March 06, 2010 8:17 AM
Women are sometimes told they are not good candidates for hair restoration procedures because the surgeon is not confident that they can provide improvement without damaging individual hair follicles. It may be the case that a patient simply does not have enough space in between existing hairs or the surgeon simply does not have enough experience working with women's hair restoration or is not using tools refined enough to work among existing follicles without damaging them.
Posted by Jeffrey S. Epstein, MD, FACS
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Is women's hair loss the same as men's hair loss?
Posted March 05, 2010 2:19 PM
Not typically. While men usually have very defined patterns of hair loss, women have a much more diffuse pattern of hair loss where they have experienced thinning, typically in certain areas or more throughout their scalp. Currently, as far as we know, Dr. Epstein performs more women's transplant procedures than any other doctor in the United States and he is particularly adapt at working among a patient's existing hair with very refined tools between 0.5 and 0.8 mm small to create recipient sites in between existing hairs without damaging the existing follicles and therefore avoiding shock loss.
Posted by Jeffrey S. Epstein, MD, FACS
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Will a hair transplant look natural?
Posted March 05, 2010 11:13 AM
If performed properly, yes. It is important that a surgeon pays attention to a few particular details. (1) If grafts are being placed along the hairline, they must exclusively be only single hair grafts and only single hair follicles, reserving two and three hair follicles to be placed behind the initial hairline to add density. (2) It is important that a surgeon create a hairline that is not only natural and irregular but also age appropriate. (3) It is most important that the surgeon create recipient sites at the correct angle so that not all the hairs grow straight up and out of the scalp. The hairs will typically grow more forward and down in the case of being toward the front of the scalp, whereas in the crown it is important that recipient sites are created so that the hairs will eventually grow radially or in a typical swirl pattern.
Posted by Jeffrey S. Epstein, MD, FACS
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How short can you cut your hair after a "strip procedure."
Posted March 04, 2010 2:32 PM
Dr. Epstein's patients are typically left with a donor site scar that is less than 2 mm wide, although there is a 10% chance that the donor site scar could be a bit wider. The vast majority of patients, of course depending on their own individual donor density and how well the incision heals, can cut their hair as short as the number three or four guard on the buzzer, or 3/8 to 1/2 of an inch. Of course, with thicker donor density, some patients can even go as low as a number two guard without a donor site incision scar being noticeable.
Posted by Jeffrey S. Epstein, MD, FACS
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How long does it take transplanted hair to grow?
Posted March 04, 2010 9:12 AM
Before the hair from transplanted follicles begins to regrow, the hair that comes with the follicle will fall out and the patient should look almost as they did before the procedure for about three months. Typically three to four months after their procedure, the patient may start noticing very fine new hairs coming through the scalp. Over a period of three to six months, they will become a bit stronger. At six to nine months, the hairs will continue to grow a bit faster and typically even a bit thicker and by twelve months the patient should have significant results. Of course, every patient responds a bit differently to a procedure. Some notice results sooner and for some patients it may take a bit longer.
Posted by Jeffrey S. Epstein, MD, FACS
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How long before a patient can return to the gym after a hair transplant?
Posted March 03, 2010 3:32 PM
The patient can typically return to the gym after five to seven days. They can continue light exercise as soon as two days after the procedure. Heavy lifting is not recommended for at least five to seven days in the case of a strip procedure because pressure in certain places can add tension to the sutures in the donor area which can lead to a wider scar so it is important that the patient closely follow the surgeon's postoperative instructions to make sure that their results come out as well as they possibly can.
Posted by Jeffrey S. Epstein, MD, FACS
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