Bovine Colostrum

Given the number of impressive hair transplant results presented in the “Results Posted by Leading Hair Transplant Clinics” forum, Coalition member Dr. Jean Devroye has quickly become recognized as a leading hair transplant surgeon in Europe.

In an attempt to improve the quality of results patients can achieve with follicular unit extraction (FUE), Dr. Devroye designed and has been using for 6 months a unique powered instrument (prototype) for FUE hair replacement procedures. This prototype was designed to improve the speed of the follicular unit extraction procedure while maintaining the same effectiveness as when performed manually by a skilled surgeon.

This new powered FUE device works by spinning alternatively with a low angular motion.  This allows for fast and effective penetration of the scalp and extraction of the follicle while keeping the risks of damage to the follicles virtually nonexistant.  It’s speed is controlled by a foot treadle allowing for better hand control of the device.

While Dr. Devroye believes his FUE tool prototype helps to increase the speed of the hair restoration procedure, he admits it doesn’t reduce the already very low transection rates he achieves while performing follicular unit extraction with a manual tool. Dr. Devroye’s powered FUE instrument has allowed him to increase the number of follicular unit grafts he can transplant daily via FUE from approximately 1200 to 1500 per day.

Above all else, Dr. Devroye feels the skill and experience of the physician and size of the punch are crucial in achieving optimal results. By his observation, Dr. Devroye determined that smaller punches can easily increase the transection rate of hair follicles during the extraction process. For this reason, Dr. Devroye prefers using slightly larger 1 mm punches instead of incredibly tiny punches as small as 0.7 mm. In his experience, scars obtained with a 1 mm punch are hardly noticeable. Even when the hair is cut very short, Dr. Devroye doesn’t notice a difference in the amount of scarring in patients who’ve had follicles extracted with a 1 mm punch verses a 0.7 mm punch. He does however, caution patients who want to shave their head completely that scarring may be slightly visible whether a 0.7 mm or 1 mm punch was used.

Dr. Devroye is currently working on a new FUE prototype that should be ready in a few weeks. Kudos to Dr. Devroye for his innovations in surgical hair restoration.

Bill Seemiller – aka Falceros
Associate Publisher/Editor

Thanks to the online collaboration between educated patients and quality physicians, today’s surgical hair replacement procedures can produce results so natural that even your hair stylist can’t detect them.

Ultra refined follicular unit grafting has raised the bar for physicians and their staff. Today, clinics dedicated to this revolutionary procedure can perform larger densely packed sessions when appropriate for the patient. A surgeon must have a large and experienced enough staff to carefully trim all follicular units under microscopes and pack them closely together into tiny incisions carefully and timely. Only experienced and delicate hands can properly place grafts into small and densely packed incisions without damaging the grafts.

Thankfully, a handful of surgeons, such as members of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians have significantly improved this technique and regularly perform it with excellent results. Below we’ve provided a few recent examples provided by real patients sharing their stories and photos with us. You are encouraged to offer your input on their hair loss websites.

• Hair loss blogger “Christopher” was fairly bald and unhappy so he decided to start looking into hair loss treatment options. After researching our hair restoration community, he found Coalition member Dr. Jerry Cooley who suggested surgical hair transplantation to thicken up the appearance of his hair. 3000 grafts and 2 years later, Christopher ecstatically claims “I have to say that I am still just as happy as I was when my hair first came in. Dr. Cooley did a great job and a million thanks!!” To read all about his impressive transformation and view his photos, view his hair loss website.

• Many men start losing hair in their crown that forms a bald spot. This is exactly what happened to hair loss blogger “SeaChange”. In researching his options, he found that only surgical hair restoration is proven to grow hair in completely bald areas. Thus, he confidently chose Coalition member Dr. Brad Limmer after researching doctors to perform his hair transplant. Read all about how he restored hair to his balding crown and view his photos after 2 procedures on his hair loss blog.

• “Brian in KC” chose Coalition member Dr. Scott Alexander to reconstruct his hairline and restore hair in the front half of his fairly bald scalp. Though he is only 5 months into his procedure, he’s already experienced tremendous hair growth and is very happy with his progress so far. He emphatically states, “I love all the hair I now have and lots of people are noticing.”

Bill Seemiller – aka Falceros
Associate Publisher/Editor

Dr. James Harris has been recommended on the Hair Transplant Network for several years and has consistently gotten very good patient reviews. Impressive examples of his results can be found in the “Results Posted by Leading Hair Transplant Clinics” forum and his recommendation profile.

Dr. Harris is also world renowned and recognized among his medical colleagues as an innovator in refining and teaching follicular unit extraction (FUE). His two step FUE process, which he refers to as the “SAFE System“, improves on traditional FUE by virtually eliminating follicle damage during the extraction process.

Follicular unit extraction (FUE) has become an increasingly popular procedure over the years due to its elimination of a linear scar and increased recovery time for patients.

Recently, Dr. Harris presented the “Powered SAFE Scribe“, a new and revolutionary surgical FUE tool to his colleagues at this year’s 2009 ISHRS (International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery) scientific meeting in Amsterdam. Research and testing have proven that this new powered instrument is even more effective than its manual, non-powered predecessor. The Powered SAFE Scribe is safe and effective in the hands of a skilled hair restoration physician and can reduce the time it takes to perform the procedure by half. Extraction rates of 500-700 per hour have been reported using the new powered version of the Scribe as opposed to approximately 200-300 with the manual one.

Surgeons who have used the powered SAFE scribe have reported the following benefits

* Reduction in pain
* Minimal scarring
* Almost all patients can become candidates for the FUE procedure
* Minimal follicle transection and damage
* Decreased time to perform the procedure (potentially leading to lower costs)

Kudos to Dr. Harris for working to revolutionize and improve the follicular unit extraction procedure and making it a more viable solution to prospective hair transplant patients.

Bill Seemiller – aka Falceros
Associate Publisher/Editor

Our mission is to recommend only the best hair restoration surgeons to hair loss sufferers worldwide.  Thus we evaluate a hair transplant physician’s experience,  skill,  surgical technique and patient results to see if they meet our high standards for recommendation.  Those performing ultra refined follicular unit hair transplantation are invited to become a highly esteemed member of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians. 

When evaluating clinics we live by the Old Russian proverb “Trust by Verify”. That’s why in addition to evaluating surgical techniques and real patient feedback and photos on our forum, Pat Hennessey, Publisher of the Hair Transplant Network travels frequently in “Hair Force One” visiting leading clinics worldwide. By observing live surgery, examining their techniques, and meeting with their patients, he can accurately evaluate their level of experience and skill in producing quality results. To learn more about why we visit clinics, visit “The Value of Visiting Clinics”.

A few months ago, Pat was in Arizona and visited with Coalition member Dr. Sharon Keene and observed her perform live surgery.

Dr. Keene has been recommended on the Hair Transplant Network for years and is a highly esteemed member of the Coalition.  To see Pat’s detailed review and observations of Dr. Keene in live surgery including live surgical photos, view “Visit to Dr. Sharon Keene’s Clinic – Physician’s Hair Institute“.

To see the highlights of his visits to dozens of other leading clinics worldwide, visit our “Visits to Leading Hair Transplant Clinics” forum.

Bill Seemiller – aka Falceros
Associate Publisher/Editor

This insightful article was written by Dr. Paul Shapiro of Bloomington, MN who is a member of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians. 

Here are few examples of hair transplant patients in which I believe dense packing in the hairline area is appropriate. I consider planting at densities between 40- 60 follicular units per square centimeter (FU/cm2) as dense packing. There are hair restoration patients in whom I will plant at densities from 60-80 FU/cm2, but they are the rare exceptions and need to be perfect candidates for what I would call super dense packing. In order for me to feel comfortable dense packing the hairline I think the following criteria need to be met:

1) The patient must be at least 30 years of age
2) The patent should have a family history that suggest his hair loss will not progress further than a class IV on the Norwood Scale of hair loss.
3) The donor area has to have at least an average density of 80 FU/cm2
4) The donor area has to have good laxity
5) The hair behind the hairline should have no or little evidence of miniaturization.
6) The crown should have no or little evidence of hair loss or miniaturization.

At Shapiro Medical Group, we have a camera which can take close up photographs of a 1 cm2 area of the skin which allows us to get a measurement of donor hair density and the density of our incisions. That is how we can get an accurate measurement of density. As you can see, to get an accurate count the existing hair has to shaved / buzzed. We rarely take postoperative density photographs because most post-op hair replacement patients do not want to buzz their new hair. Even it the patient did buzz his hair it is difficult to tell previous existing hair from transplanted hair in post operative photos. That is one of the reasons it is so difficult to do accurate post operative density studies. These cases were both done within the last month so I do not have 6 month results. I will post them when they return for their follow up visits.

Examples of dense packing are below

Case #1: I packed at a density of 60-80 FU/sq cm. He had all the criteria for a case in which I feel comfortable packing at super high densities. He is a 33 year old male with no family history of hair loss more than a Norwood type IV. He has great donor density of greater then 100 FU/cm2., and no hair miniaturization or baldness behind his hairline. He also had no evidence of hair loss or miniaturization in his crown. I must stress we do not get many patients like this. But he is a good candidate for super dense packing. The photographs show my incisions ranged from 60 -80 FU/cm2. A total of 2164 FU’s were planted.

Below are photographs showing his donor density, the density of my incisions, and day of surgery photos: (in the photos where the title is Hairs/cm2, it should read FU/cm2)

DONOR DENSITY

INCISION DENSITY

DAY OF SURGERY PHOTO (before and after comparison)

Case #2 I packed at densities of 40-50 FU/cm2.  He represents the more typical patient I see in which I feel comfortable doing dense packing.  He is a 38 year old male with most of the males in his family not progressing to greater then a Norwood type IV, but he did have an uncle who had Norwood type V hair loss.  His donor density was not as good as case #1 and there was some evidence of hair miniaturization in his central core and crown areas.

DONOR DENSITY

INCISION DENSITY

DAY OF SURGERY PHOTO, (before and after comparison)

Paul Shapiro, MD

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Bill – aka Falceros
Associate Publisher/Editor

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