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Greetings,

Today the NY Times did a nice article on facial hair transplants. They quoted me and one of my patients. Unfortunately they stated that the donor hair for his procedure came from his scalp (which is most commonly used in these procedures). But in actuality this patient’s donor hair came from his neck beard hair. This is because the patient no longer possessed any additional donor hair from his scalp because he had received prior procedures to treat scalp balding from another physician and his donor scalp hair was depleted in the process.

Regardless it was an informative article and I was honored to be included.

Below is the link and a copy of the text.

All the best,

Marc Dauer, M.D.

 

Baby-Faced Men Opt for Beard Transplants

By ANDREW ADAM NEWMAN

Photo

Jose Armos, 28, a paramedic who lives in Miami, looked so young that, when responding to 911 calls, he seemed to add to some patients’ distress.

“They would look at me and be like, ‘O.K., is this 16-year-old really going to take care of me?’ ” said Mr. Armos, who had the sparsest of beards. “It was hard for people to trust me because I had that baby face.”

Earlier this year, Mr. Armos visited the Miami office of Dr. Jeffrey S. Epstein, a hair restoration surgeon. “I wanted that stronger, manlier look,” Mr. Armos said.

He had a full beard transplant, from sideburns to chin, at a cost of about $7,000. More than a thousand individual hair follicles were harvested from the back of his head, where hair grows thickest, and transplanted to his face.

“It does play a role in me looking more mature, more manly, and just kind of getting respect from people,” Mr. Armos said.

Dr. Epstein, who has offices in Miami and Manhattan, performed four or five facial hair transplants annually a decade ago. Now, he said, the average is three a week.

According to the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery, a nonprofit medical association, beard transplants grew from 1.5 percent of all hair restoration procedures performed internationally in 2012 to 3.7 percent in 2014.

Hair transplants from a generation ago had the unfortunate effect of making the scalp look like a doll’s head, because what were transplanted were pluglike grafts of about 15 hair follicles. Those who underwent the procedure could disguise the plugs by growing their hair longer and teasing it into Trumpian swirls.

A beard transplant was not possible then because the procedure would have left the patient with a cobblestoned complexion.

Today, surgeons, whether working on a scalp or face, transplant single hair follicles instead of plugs of 15 of them. That means more natural-looking beards, which can be shaved and then regrown, just as with regular beards .

“No one suspected,” said Jeff, 30, a health care consultant who lives outside of Toronto. (Like other men interviewed, he asked that his last name not be used.) Dr. Jamil Asaria, a facial plastic surgeon in Toronto, performed the beard transplant at a cost of about $10,000. “It’s like I was never a beard guy, and now I grew a beard,” Jeff said, “so I would say it was pretty stealth.”

Dr. Marc Dauer, a hair transplant surgeon in Los Angeles, said that five years ago he performed about five beard transplants in a year. Now he does that many in a month.

Phira, 33, who works in talent management in Los Angeles, went to see Dr. Dauer last December because of the large patches on his cheeks where no whiskers grew. “It looked like I had facial-hair leprosy or something,” said Phira, who had the spots filled in with follicles transplanted from the back of his scalp at a cost of roughly $4,000.

Ray, 53, who works at a Pittsburgh university, said he had always looked forward to growing a beard, from as young as age 12. But whiskers never appeared on his cheeks.

After his first procedure, in 2011, Ray wanted his beard to be denser and climb higher up his cheeks. He had a second transplant in 2012, from another hair restoration specialist, Dr. Glenn Charles, who practices in Boca Raton, Fla. In 2013 Ray returned to Dr. Charles for a third go-round. Total cost: $22,000.

“I don’t really even care that much if people know that I’ve had the transplants,” Ray said. “I just don’t want them to know how much I’ve spent on it, because then they’ll think I’m crazy.”

But whenever he catches his reflection as he passes a mirror, he gets a jolt of satisfaction. “A lot of guys go through a midlife crisis and they buy the sports car,” Ray said. “I just got a beard.”

 

Greetings,

Here is a patient of mine who received a beard hair transplant from grafts harvested via FUE from the scalp. The results are shown 1 year after the procedure.

All the best,

Marc Dauer, M.D.

Beard Hair Transplant via FUE

Beard Hair Transplant via FUE

Beard hair transplant via FUE

Beard hair transplant via FUE

Greetings,

With all the recent press surrounding beard transplants I wanted to highlight a patient of mine. This patient had 2 bald patches in his beard in the same spot on both sides. This is genetic and a very common phenomenon. In this case I harvested the donor hair from his neck beard via FUE and transplanted the grafts into the bald patches. The result is shown 10 months later. The patient was very happy with his results.

All the best,

Marc Dauer, M.D.

Beard Transplant via FUE

Beard Transplant via FUE

Beard Transplant via FUE

Beard Transplant via FUE

Greetings,

After an article a few weeks ago that was picked up by multiple press publications about facial hair transplantation there has been a great deal of press focus on this topic. I have been performing facial hair transplantation for many years now. The donor hair to be transplanted on the face can be harvested either from the scalp via FUT or from the neck beard using FUE. I prefer to use the neck beard hair whenever possible as it provides the exact same character hair as opposed to scalp hair which is different from beard hair. This procedure can be very useful for cosmetic purposes to augment ones beard, goatee, or sideburns, or even reconstructive purposes in cases when one has a scar in the beard region and wishes to cover the scar with hair in order to minimize its appearance. When transplanting into scar tissue the growth rate is not the same as with healthy tissue, but there is still good growth, and it just may require more sessions to accomplish the patient’s goals.

I have attached a photo of a patient  of mine who I transplanted hair into a mustache scar with excellent results. I have also attached a link to the ABC news article on beard transplantation below.

All the best,

Marc Dauer, M.D.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/beards-hair-raising-transplants-rise-ny-doctors/story?id=22682089

Here is a patient with a scar in his mustache who received transplanted hair grafts to cover the scar and enhance his mustache.

Here is a patient with a scar in his mustache who received transplanted hair grafts to cover the scar and enhance his mustache.

Greetings,

Today I would like to discuss Facial Hair Transplants. Many people of varying ethnicities have varying amounts of facial hair due to hereditary factors or even due to facial scarring secondary to trauma or surgical intervention. Facial hair transplants are also beneficial in female to male transgender patients to allow the individual to grow more of a full beard. It is possible to take hair from the head and transplant it to areas of the face where the patient may desire more hair. It is possible to harvest the donor hair for facial hair transplantation by either the strip harvesting method or follicular unit extraction. The hairs placed on the face are almost entirely single hair follicles and they are placed in receptor sites that are created with a custom size blade that measures between .5mm-.7mm depending on the caliber of the individuals hair. It is imperative that the receptor site angles are created almost parallel to the skin to make the new hair grow in as naturally as possible. Is it also very important to follow the changing directions of facial hair as you move along to different areas of the face. The growth timeline is very similar to other areas where we perform hair transplantation in that most of the transplanted hairs initially stay for about 2-4 weeks and then fall out. The new hairs then begin to grow in at 3-4 months and about 50% growth is seen at 6 months and full growth is seen at around 12 months. Below I have shown an example of a patient with almost no hair in the goatee region. The first photo shows the patient before the procedure with the transplanted areas marked out. The second photo is immediately after the procedure and the third photo is 10 days after the procedure with many of the transplanted hairs still present and appear to be growing. Most of these grafts will fall out in the next few weeks and they will begin to grow back at 3-4 months post operatively. I hope to post a follow up photo at 9-12 months.

All the best,

Marc Dauer, MD

This is a pre op photo of a beard transplant.

This Photo is 2 weeks post operatively after a beard transplant.

Immediately Post Op Beard Transplant