Posts

Early Growth Post Hair Transplant Procedure

Greetings,

Typically the information I give patients is that at around the 6 month post hair transplant procedure time period they should see 50-60% of the transplanted hair growing and that by 12 months post procedure they should see most of the  growth. From 12-18 months the hair thickens in caliber thus increasing the cosmetic density.

I have recently been seeing patients who are showing more significant growth at 6-7 months post hair transplant than I typically see and I wanted to post these photos for you to see. Nothing specific was changed for these cases so I am assuming they are just fast growers, but I will continue to keep you updated to see if this is a trend that continues.

All the best,

Marc Dauer, M.D.

Hair Transplant Photo

Hair Transplant Photo

Hair Transplant Photo

Hair Transplant Photo

/by Los Angeles Hair Transplant Specialist

Beard Transplants – The Latest Trend

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.

/by Los Angeles Hair Transplant Specialist

Precautions After Hair Transplant Procedures

Greetings,

There are many precautions that I advise my patients of post hair transplant procedures, and I give all my patients thorough instructions outlining these in detail. One precaution that is not as obvious but just as important is to watch your head getting in and out of cars and around other objects that are around your height. Because of the fact that your scalp is typically numb for a period of days to weeks after the procedure, there is some difficulty gauging the exact location of your scalp in relation to other objects. For this reason it is very common to hit your head by mistake and this can cause minor irritation to the transplanted grafts or major irritation if hit hard. It is very important to be extremely careful getting in and out of cars, in and out of the shower, and any other place that you can possibly hit your head. Keeping your head safe post hair transplant will keep your grafts safe and will lead to great growth of your new hair.

All the best,

Marc Dauer, MD

/by Los Angeles Hair Transplant Specialist

Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) in Patients with Androgenic Alopecia

Greetings,

Today I will discuss the use of PRP in patients with genetic hair loss. Many physicians have been offering this to their patients, either alone, or in combination with a hair transplant procedure. In the most recent issue of the ISHRS Forum newsletter there is an interesting article that describes some of the different approaches that physicians are using to implement PRP into their Hair Restoration practices. What I found very interesting was some of the points of general agreement among Hair Transplant surgeons.

1) Ideal candidates for PRP are patients with thinning but not complete balding areas

2) Patient satisfaction after PRP injections may be between 70%-90% though no randomized clinical studies have been done and approximately 20% will be disappointed with their results.

3) Peak improvement after PRP would be seen at 2-6 months after injection and treatment must be continued to achieve long lasting results.

My opinion on these numbers is that I don’t feel given the very high price tag of the treatment  that there are high enough satisfaction numbers to warrant this treatment. Additionally the absence of hard data from randomized clinic trials leads me to believe that satisfaction numbers may even be lower and exact effects cannot be scientifically documented. Finally, we also don’t know about any possible long term negative side effects from the injections of PRP which may exist.

Until we have the hard scientific evidence I believe PRP injections into the scalp should not be considered not as a primary therapy for patients with genetic hair loss. It is important that we continue to research this treatment in a scientific manner and proceed cautiously before recommending this to our patients.

All the best,

Marc Dauer, M.D.

/by Los Angeles Hair Transplant Specialist

Keeping Grafts Moist Post Hair Transplant Procedure

Greetings,

Today I will discuss the importance of keeping the hair transplant grafts moist during and after the hair transplant procedure. It is imperative that the grafts are kept moist throughout the procedure as drying out of the grafts is one of the most common causes of poor growth. To that extent, my nurses are constantly spraying the grafts as they dissect them under the microscope, the grafts are submerged in saline before and after dissection, and my nurses use small “ring dishes” that have saline in them and allow the grafts to stay submerged in the saline even after they are taken out of the petri dish, but just before they are implanted.

Post hair transplant procedure, I give all my patients a specially formulated copper peptide solution that they use to spray the grafts every 4-6 hours to keep them moist, and I also cover the grafts in a generous amount of vaseline that functions to keep them moist and create an anaerobic environment which minimizes any possibility of infection.

All these steps contribute to great survival rates and thus great growth rates of the transplanted hair follicles.

I have included photos of the copper peptide solution and the graft ring dish holders below.

All the best,

Marc Dauer, M.D.

Copper Peptide Spray Graft Ring Holder

/by Los Angeles Hair Transplant Specialist

How Many Linear Donor Scars With Multiple Hair Transplant Procedures?

Greetings,

Today I want to address the question I am commonly asked, “will I have a different donor scar for each procedure?”. Every patient that has a hair transplant procedure, has more than one procedure. This is for 2 reasons. Firstly, the patient loves the results of the first procedure and at some point wants to add density to those results. Second, the hair we transplant is permanent hair and should never fall out, but the native hair that is present will erode over time, so additional procedures are usually needed to keep up with the continuing hair loss. In the strip procedure a small linear scar, usually between 1-3mm is left from the harvest of the hair from the back and sides of the scalp. When I perform additional procedures, I always make every attempt to resect the previous donor scar so that the patient does not have train track  like multiple scars in their scalp. Sometimes I see multiple stacked scars from other Doctors and it makes absolutely no sense to me that one would create an entirely new scar if the original scar was within normal limits. The instances where this is unfortunately not possible are where the previous donor scar is too wide and by resecting it we would not get any hair but just scar, or in a situation where the previous donor scar is too low or too high and taking it out would risk creating a much wider scar, or moving into an unsafe region of impermanent hair. The photos below show a patient who came to me from another physician with multiple strip scars from previous procedures and I consolidated the multiple scars into one fine scar that is much more cosmetically acceptable.

All the best,

Marc Dauer, M.D.

This is a photo of multiple strip scars created by another Hair Transplant surgeon.

This is a photo of multiple strip scars created by another Hair Transplant surgeon.

This is a photo after the multiple scars were removed and consolidated into a single fine line strip scar.

This is a photo after the multiple scars were removed and consolidated into a single fine line strip scar.

/by Los Angeles Hair Transplant Specialist

Eyebrow Transplant In African American Patient

Greetings,

Today I want to demonstrate the results of an eyebrow transplant I performed on an African American female patient. I always let patients know that since I am taking the donor hair from the scalp, the eyebrow hair that grows in after the eyebrow transplant will resemble the character of the scalp hair. For this reason patients with straight hair on their scalp have the closest resemblance to typical eyebrow hair. In patients with very curly hair I do advise them that they will probably want to trim their eyebrow hair on the shorter side in order to maintain the most natural look to the eyebrows post eyebrow transplant. However, as you can see from the photos below, this patient who has very curly scalp hair still has a very nice cosmetic result after only a single eyebrow transplant procedure. I transplanted approximately 300 grafts per eyebrow on this initial procedure.

All the best,

Marc Dauer, M.D.

Eyebrow Transplant In African American Female patient

Eyebrow Transplant

/by Los Angeles Hair Transplant Specialist

Propecia and Hair Loss

Greetings,

Today I will discuss Propecia otherwise known as Finasteride and it’s role in preventing hair loss. Propecia works by inhibiting type 2 5- alpha reductase which converts testosterone to DHT. DHT is what binds to the receptors in susceptible hair follicles and causes them to fall out. By inhibiting the formation of DHT we are decreasing the amount of hair loss. Propecia works especially well in the crown and mid scalp and not as well in the hairline.

Unfortunately many people have reported sexual side effects from the use of propecia. Numerous blind studies seem to show not much difference between the sexual side effects caused by placebo versus the actual medication but despite this the complaints persist.

In my practice I give all my patients a detailed information packet that describes all the benefits of Propecia and the possible disadvantages of using it. I recommend it to my patients but ask them to clear it with their personal physician prior to starting.

I also tell my patients that propecia will not affect the transplanted hair, as this hair is immune to genetic hair loss, but it will allow you to keep the native hair longer, and in some cases bring miniaturized hair that is on its way out, back to life. This will extend the time between procedures and make the overall hair appear denser for a longer period of time.

If you decide to stop propecia after taking it, you will lose any benefit that the medication afforded to you.

All the best,

Marc Dauer, MD

/by Los Angeles Hair Transplant Specialist

Hair Transplant Donor Scar Revision

Today I will discuss about Hair Transplant Donor Scar Revision. A patient who came to me with a wide donor scar and 2 separate donor scars from 2 previous hair transplant procedures all performed by another physician. In my practice I never create a second scar unless it is absolutely necessary. This is another reason why it is so important to me that I create the smallest donor scar possible, so that when the patient returns for the next procedure I can include the previous scar in the new donor strip and get an adequate amount of donor hair follicles as well as leaving the patient with only a single strip scar.

Unfortunately  when this patient presented to me he had 2 separate scars and in some areas where there was only one scar it was much larger than it should be. What I did was consolidate the 2 scars into a single scar and took out the larger scar and made it much smaller. The photos below demonstrate the before and after of this patients donor scar.

My specialized technique of suturing the donor scar with a fine suture, as well as trichophytic closure, and fluid injected into the donor region, allow me to create the smallest possible donor scar in my hair transplant patients.

All the best,

Marc Dauer, M.D.

R Hair Transplant Scar Pre Revision

R Hair Transplant Scar Pre Revision

R Hair Transplant Scar Post Revision

R Hair Transplant Scar Post Revision
L hair transplant scar pre- revision

L hair transplant scar pre- revision

L Hair Transplant Scar Post Revision

L Hair Transplant Scar Post Revision

/by Los Angeles Hair Transplant Specialist

New Hair Transplant Patient Testimonial

Greetings,

Below please find a new hair transplant patient testimonial. The video was taken 9 months after the patient’s first procedure. The patient describes his thought process in choosing his doctor, and then his subsequent procedure experience and the recovery afterward.

I hope you enjoy watching.

All the best,

Marc Dauer, MD

/by Los Angeles Hair Transplant Specialist

Pages

Nothing Found

Sorry, no posts matched your criteria