More men and woman are turning to hair restoration surgeons to replenish a fuller, natural looking head of hair. According to the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery’s 2012 report, ISHRS surgeons performed more than 83,000 scalp hair transplants. Other popular areas receiving hair transplants were the eyebrows (3,670), beard/mustache (1,315), and eyelash (157).
If you are considering a New York hair transplant, Dr. Jeffrey Epstein is the premier expert. He started performing hair transplants in 1993 and has since helped men and women from more than 75 countries restore a natural-looking hairline. Learn more about the steps he takes when planning and performing hair transplants.
The Consultation
During the consultation, your medical history is taken and a patient advisor will sit down with you to discuss your goals as well as thoroughly review the procedures in detail. Dr. Epstein will then meet with you to speak for a while, then he will examine your hairline. By viewing the level of hair loss you have, he can start planning the best way to transplant hair so that it looks natural.
It’s also important for Dr. Epstein to check out the best site for taking hair follicles that will be transplanted to your bald spots. There are cases where you may not have sufficient density in a donor site, so the surgeon must reduce the number of grafts you receive. When this happens, Dr. Epstein creates a hairline that will still look natural, even as additional balding occurs with aging.
The Hair Transplant Surgery
Prior to the hair transplant surgery, you are given a sedative to help you relax. While the medication takes effect, Dr. Epstein marks the areas where hair grafts are needed. He also takes photos of your hairline and donor site. Right before the surgery, the local anesthesia is delivered through a device called the Wand which uses a computerized flow of anesthetic that is easily adjusted. You are awake during the entire procedure and talking to the surgeon, but you will not feel anything.
Once the local anesthesia is working, Dr. Epstein surgically removes the donor strip of hair follicles by a strip, or one at a time by the FUE technique. His team of assistants get to work cutting the grafts into slivers that are then dissected under a microscope. The grafts are placed on cooled saline to keep them fresh. Dr. Epstein begins making the small incisions where the grafts will be transplanted. The grafts are then transplanted into the incision sites following the pattern created during the pre-operative planning.
Following the surgery, which can take hours to complete, you move to a recovery room so that the anesthesia begins to wear off. Dr. Epstein utilizes a local anesthetic that lasts for up to 12 hours, allowing prolonged pain-free healing. After that, you go home where you may shower and go out the very next day- some patients actually go out to dinner the evening of their procedure. You need to avoid strenuous activities for five days, and there may be some crusting that will start to fall off after seven to ten days. Your new hair falls out after three weeks, but this is normal and will be replaced by new hair in four to six months.
Look at some of Dr. Epstein’s former patients in his before and after hair transplant gallery. To schedule an appointment with Dr. Epstein in his New York office, call (212) 759-3484. He also has an office in Miami, Florida, if that is easier for you. To see Dr. Epstein at the Foundation for Hair Restoration in Miami, call (305) 666-1774.