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.
I have heard that Propecia restores hair but that it is only for men.
Posted July 18, 2010 8:11 AM
Question:
I have heard that Propecia restores hair but that it is only for men. How is that possible? Do men and women have different hair follicles? What is different between men and women that makes this so?
Answer:
Propecia does work much better in men than women and the reason for this is that hormonally the two genders are very different. Men and women lose their hair usually for different reasons. Men have a problem with the testosterone and male androgens that work in concert with the genetic disposition to lose hair that women do not have. Because the genesis of the hair loss is different, it also is affected differently by the medication which works to solve the problem in men but not so with women.
Posted by Richard Galitz, MD, FACS
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I am a 50-year-old woman and have always been embarrassed by having excess facial hair.
Posted July 17, 2010 3:26 PM
Question:
I am a 50-year-old woman and have always been embarrassed by having excess facial hair. I have tried all the drugstore products but my hair, especially on the upper lip, just keeps coming back. Can you help?
Answer:
Yes. It sounds like you are an excellent candidate for hair removal laser. The hair removal laser can remove the hair of the upper lip without creating any abnormalities either in skin color or skin texture. The other thing is that you will not appear to have some blond-dyed hair in that area which you would have to frequently dye again if you use that method. Usually the upper lip area or the mustache area in a female is an excellent area for the hair removal laser because after two or three episodes the hair almost completely fades away and does not come back.
Posted by Richard Galitz, MD, FACS
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My husband is almost completely bald on the top of his head and he is only 28 years old
Posted July 16, 2010 12:51 PM
Question:
My husband is almost completely bald on the top of his head and he is only 28 years old. I want him to try a hair transplant but he says they do not work for everyone. Is this true or false? Who do they work for and who do they not work for?
Answer:
A hair transplant works for everyone who has a healthy scalp. There are individuals, however, who because of the degree of baldness and the nature of the donor site and the kind of hair that is there may not be as good a candidate or get as good a result as someone else who may have an excellent donor site and very good donor hair. Hair transplants, however, can be of value to just about every patient and certainly your husband should have a consultation to see where he stands and the particular degree of response to the work that would be done for him.
Posted by Richard Galitz, MD, FACS
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Is a hair transplant the same thing as getting hair plugs?
Posted July 15, 2010 7:42 PM
Question:
Is a hair transplant the same thing as getting hair plugs?
Answer:
The term "hair plugs" is an outdated, outmoded term that was used years ago when patients had small areas of skin removed and where a plug of hair with anywhere from five to ten hairs was placed in, sometimes sewn into position in the scalp. The problems with these hair plugs is that they left a very visible and very regular and unnatural look to the hair transplant work itself. Today, a modern hair transplant which is done with follicular unit hair grafts involves either one, two, three or even sometimes four hairs with a minimum of skin and placed into a small tiny incision. The modern way of doing the hair transplant does not involve any evidence of transplantation. Once the new hair grows in it simply looks like your natural hair without any evidence of a "plug."
Posted by Richard Galitz, MD, FACS
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Does laser hair removal work on any part of the body?
Posted July 14, 2010 10:11 AM
Question:
Does laser hair removal work on any part of the body? I am sick and tired of shaving my legs and underarms.
Answer:
Yes, hair laser works on all areas of the body. However, the response you get depends on the particular area and also depends on the color of the hair, the color of the skin and the thickness of the hair. The darker the hair and the lighter the skin creating a more visible contrast, the better the result from hair laser. Also, laser hair removal is usually done a number of times, sometimes two, three or four times, before it becomes extensive in time between needed repeated episodes of lasering. Also, in some areas like under the arms or the legs it can almost become permanent after four or five treatments. We usually wait approximately one to two months between treatments to let the skin heal and to see what kind of response we are getting from the original laser hair removal work.
Posted by Richard Galitz, MD, FACS
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Due to an accident, a portion of one of my eyebrows has never seemed to grow back and this looks very funny.
Posted July 13, 2010 12:52 PM
Question:
Due to an accident, a portion of one of my eyebrows has never seemed to grow back and this looks very funny. I am wondering if the eyebrow transplant would be a suitable remedy for my situation. It seems this procedure is mostly performed on women but do men ever get this procedure as well?
Answer:
We have many patients here at the Foundation for Hair Restoration who elect to have eyebrow restoration performed due to accidents and other events that cause scarring or loss of eyebrow growth in either one or both eyebrows. It is always possible to create re-growth in an area that no longer has hair as long as the scar tissue still has blood flow to the region. If the scar tissue is too thick there may be a decreased percentage of re-growth or in very rare cases no re-growth whatsoever.
By having an evaluation with Dr. Epstein or another Foundation for Hair Restoration doctor, they can tell you with great certainty whether you are a great candidate or not a great candidate for eyebrow transplants. As long as there is blood flow to the area, most patients can be excellent candidates. We do perform a large number of eyebrow transplantations on both men and women. Dr. Epstein likely performs more of these procedures himself than any other hair restoration doctor in the country, which means he has a large clientele of both men and women who have had the eyebrow transplant performed.
Posted by Jon Hoffenberg, Executive Vice President FHRPS
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I would like to get a hair transplant and I was under the impression that anesthesia would not be involved in this process.
Posted July 12, 2010 4:33 PM
Question:
I would like to get a hair transplant and I was under the impression that anesthesia would not be involved in this process. However, I recently uncovered conflicting information and could you please clarify this?
Answer:
There are typically two forms of anesthesia under which most cosmetic surgeries are performed. Those are local anesthesia and IV sedation. IV sedation is rarely used for hair transplant cases although a patient can elect to have this type of sedation if they prefer it for an additional fee. Under IV sedation, a patient is put completely to sleep through an IV in the patient's arm. They sleep entirely through the procedure, remembering nothing. This is not necessary for a hair transplant procedure but is an option.
Most hair transplant procedures are performed under local anesthesia which is very similar to what one would experience in a dentist's office. The patient is awake, however we do use light sedatives like an Ambien or Valium to help the patient to relax and rest through the procedure. We also use local anesthesia which is injected into the patient's scalp where the transplant is taking place but there is no pain felt by the patient. This procedure allows the patient to both rest and relax comfortably without taking any risk of being under full IV sedation, and this is the type of anesthesia that most patients elect to receive.
Posted by Jon Hoffenberg, Executive Vice President FHRPS
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Does Dr. Epstein use the Neograft machine?
Posted July 11, 2010 10:51 AM
Question:
Does Dr. Epstein use the Neograft machine?
Answer:
The Neograft machine is nothing other than a mechanized way to harvest FUE grafts. It has been heavily marketed by the manufacturer, but to date has not been embraced by very many of the top hair docs- in fact, I don’t know of a single one of my top 20 colleagues that use it.
The FUE procedure is one that I perform on average 4 times a week, and overall I am happy with the results it can produce- however, I don’t recommend it for women, as it has a lower percentage of growth, whether done by the Neograft or another technique. Personally, I and my specially trained team of FUE assistants are able to harvest the grafts with the least trauma and therefore can achieve the highest possible rate of regrowth.
Posted by Jeffrey Epstein, MD, FACS
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I am 47 and would like to get a hair transplant to fill in my crown
Posted July 10, 2010 4:31 PM in Hairline Advancement
Question:
I am 47 and would like to get a hair transplant to fill in my crown. I am assuming that I am still loosing my hair there because it is not yet completely bald. I was wondering if there were any risks or concerns about filling in the crown before the hair loss was stopped.
Answer:
No, you certainly can fill in the crown at your age of 47. You may still lose some hair in the area but you always have the option of taking more hair and filling out the crown with a little more density. One must also remember that the crown is a more difficult area to fill in than the front of the head and that the take is not quite as good as other areas. However, I would certainly recommend getting the crown filled in at this point and then, as the years go on, you can make some adjustment in it with more hair transplants.
Posted by Richard Galitz, MD, FACS
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I am debating between FUT and FUE techniques for hair transplant
Posted July 09, 2010 11:07 AM in Follicular Unit Extraction (fue)
Question:
I am debating between FUT and FUE techniques for hair transplant. I am fairly young and hair loss is not too extensive at this point. With what I can gather, this means I am more likely to need an additional procedure in the future. When you have a second procedure does this mean you also have an additional scar? This might help make the decision between the two techniques.
Answer:
Personally, if you can do an FUT technique, it certainly is to your advantage for the reason that FUT techniques get a better take of hair and an overall better result. The FUE is a good technique for people who are planning on having very short hair or people who have obvious scar problems like keloids and hypertrophic scar formation. However, there is a less high percentage of hair take in the transplanted area from that and there is some loss of the follicles in the process of removing the FUE grafts. If you are going to have a second procedure, the fact that that you had FUT is not a problem because most of the new hair removed is done through the old original scar. You do not have to have a second scar, the new one can be placed over the first one and you still look excellent. As long as you keep your hair over about three-quarters of an inch in length, there should be no problem hiding this.
Posted by Richard Galitz, MD, FACS
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