We answer to our patients and other patients who underwent or planning to undergo a hair transplant surgery in our hair restoration blog.  Here is one of the question from a patient who has hair transplant around four months ago. Patient is anxious to see growth of his transplanted hair as soon as possible.  He stated that he underwent a procedure four months ago and it has been hard to tell the growth of hair.

He continues as follows, “In November at least over 2 months after the surgery I started using a buzzer on all unaffected areas of my head to balance out the length of the shave of the recipient area.  I wasn’t totally bald before so eventually, my already existing hair in the front starting getting a little out of balance.  I was pretty cautious about shaving the recipient area, so roughly around mid-December I started shaving it all to balance everything out. I also did it so I could monitor the improvement better, as it’s not easy when it’s uneven.  It seems like I have more hair than I used to, but it’s still barely half the density of all the surrounding hair on the sides and around the top, not the front, which is approximately half as dense.

Can it be the side effect of the finasteride? But I barely remember the holes being poked in the recipient area when my hair transplant doctor performed the procedure.  One thing that concerns me is that I was never told exactly how many grafts were transplanted.  It never really worried me until now.  When I had a previously replacement at X hair clinic, to be exact, they told me, but then I wasn’t under any strong sedatives so perhaps that’s why I’m concerned.”

Patient asked, “Does transplanted hair regrow at different rates?  I know that some has grown in, but to me it’s not enough, as it’s very noticeable that it’s much less dense in the area I expected to get treated the most.  Like it doesn’t seem too much improved when compared to before the procedure. To put it frankly, I’m already considering undergoing another transplant procedure, because my expectations were not met.

I must admit that my doctor was very nice, and answered all of my questions.  However, I must say that I’m not impressed.  This isn’t the first hair transplant procedure I’ve undergone. Actually, it’s the third.  I don’t clearly remember the dates involved, like basically how long it took to see a difference, but for some reason I’m expecting to see more of a difference this most recent time around, because this hair restoration procedure involved the largest number of grafts.  I’m just hoping that it takes longer for all the transplanted hair to actually kick in, and that it ramps up over time.  Basically I’m hoping that seeing any difference doesn’t mean that that’s it.

If you have similar question after hair transplant surgery, don’t panic. The growth of transplanted hair could be very gradual and full result may not be seen before one full year after hair transparent.  Of course you need to discuss your concerns with your hair transplant doctor.  Transplanted hair generally sheds in 90% of people and you do not see anything for about 3 months after the hair transplant surgery.  After the third month you may start seeing growth of most transplanted hair.  That is more obvious for the patients who do not have any hair at all.  People who already have some hair should not be able to see much before 6-8 months from the time of their surgery when transplanted hair is long and thick enough to be distinguished.

I understand that you are anxious to see the final result as soon as possible, but you cannot rush the growth of grafts.  I do not perform nor recommend doing a second procedure before 6 months from the previous hair transplant because many of the grafts are not even out at that time.  Be patient and you will see your transplanted hair growing in a few months.

What is the best hair loss product?  We are hearing many things about new hair loss products every day.  Many contain active ingredients that may help hair, some don’t have anything for hair loss treatment and some may be harmful for your hair.  Here is what one of my patients asked me and I answered in the blog about one of the hair loss product.

The patient has been experiencing male pattern baldness for some years now.  He used Rogaine, it worked at first but now no longer respond to it.  Propecia is tried too, but had to stop it for the side effects.  Patient is saving money to be able to get a good quality hair transplant and meanwhile is wondering whether or not hair loss products can help him keep his own hair.  In this case he is using Revivogen.

I generally research about all incoming questions by reviewing the websites for the hair product.  For similar patients, I really like to know what kinds of side effects you experienced with finasteride (Propecia), because finasteride is an effective hair loss medication, although it has been blamed unfairly for many side effects. I put most my Los Angeles and Orange County Hair Restoration Clinics patients on finasteride when they have significant miniaturization. Finasteride can help prevent further hair loss. Some of your hair loss might be irreversible by medication and you may need hair restoration surgery, but at least you can stop further hair loss by the time that you can restore your hair surgically. Revivogen is a hair loss product with some natural compounds that mainly inhibit 5-Alpha-Reductase. 5-Alpha-Reductase is the enzyme that converts testosterone to dihydroxytestostrone (DHT). Prevention of DHT production can slow down hair loss in male pattern baldness.

Saw Palmetto Extract is a good component of this hair loss product, which is a DHT blocker and is used systemically for prevention of both hair loss and prostate enlargement. The efficacy of its topical product is not studied as extensively in large human experiments. Other components include a variety of fatty acids like: Gamma Linolenic acid (GLA), Alpha Linolenic acid (ALA), Linoleic Acid and Oleic Acid without strong human research on their absorption from skin level as well as their efficacy on human hair growth. Other components such as Azaleic acid, Vitamin B, Zinc, Beta-Sitosterol and Procyanidin Oligomers have shown some effects on the DHT production in labs, but the extensive studies to compare their effect with more researched medical treatments for hair loss is lacking.

One problem is the absorption of the active ingredients, which is not studied extensively. I personally have not heard anything about any serious side effects of Revivogen, but I would rather have more information about long term studies, which are published in peer reviewed medical journals, before I can recommend the product to my patients. There are many hair loss products out there, which are safe, but you do not have a life time to go around and try them all to find out whether they have any effect on your hair or not.

A good hair specialist that you can trust can help you tremendously. Patient believe that since they are not spending much money on hair loss product and hair loss products are more affordable than hair transplant, but they don’t realize that most time they may not get any result from some hair loss products. Your hair loss doctor should be able to document the level of your current hair loss and miniaturization of hair and can come up with a master plan, which includes medication treatment, surgery and even cosmetic alterations that can make your hair look better. Side effects of the medications that you tried before need to be re-evaluated closely by your doctor.

You want to make sure that the side effects of finasteride are for real and don’t take away this powerful, FDA approved hair loss treatment. If you have no alternatives, your doctor may have some suggestions for your individual condition to preserve whatever hair you have with a hair loss product with minimal side effects.

Bakersfield, California: US Hair Restoration hair transplant clinic soon will start its first clinic in the city of Bakersfield in California. US Hair Restoration already has three other locations at Encino, Beverly Hills and Orange County.  Dr. Parsa Mohebi the medical director of US Hair Restoration stated that since we are getting many patients for hair transplant from the city of Bakersfield in our Encino and Beverly Hills hair transplant offices, we decided to make it easier for our hair transplant patients from Bakersfield to find access to our services in their town.

Hair Transplant Surgeon Restores Patients Hair and Self-Confidence was the title of Dr. Mohebi’s recently published article in the the magazine of Beverly Hills Courier.  In the article Dr. Parsa Mohebi, hair transplant surgeon and medical director of US Hair Restoration discusses the modern hair transplant techniques and the innovation that a perfect hair restoration is made of with the most natural results possible.

US Hair Restoration announced the opening of its hair restoration clinic in the city of Bakersfield, CA to serve Southern California, particularly the northern cities of Los Angeles such as Sacramento and Fresno and north of the San Fernando Valley.  US Hair Restoration hair transplant clinics are also accessible and being used by the residents of Las Vegas, Nevada and Phoenix, Arizona.

From Beverly Hills Courier magazine:

We all know that nothing looks better than a full head of hair, and one of the best people to provide it is Dr. Parsa Mohebi, medical director of US Hair Restoration.

Dr. Mohebi specializes in several hair-transplant procedures:

• Follicular Unit Transplant (FUT) is the gold standard of hair-transplant surgery, Mohebi said, giving very natural results. A strip of donor scalp is removed and the follicles are prepared under microscopes and distributed in the bald area in the natural direction and orientation.
• Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE), also called non-invasive hair-restoration surgery, uses special biopsy devices to extract individual follicular units without having to remove a strip of skin; so there is no linear scar.

Not everyone needs FUE or follicular unit extractions hair transplant Mohebi says. But people who want to shave their head in the future for any reason may consider FUE because there is no visible evidence of surgery on the back of their head. There’s nothing to suture, and the small dot wounds are not detectable a few days after surgery.

Since the newly placed follicles are so fragile, patients return the next day to get their hair washed professionally, given special shampoo and taught how to take care of their hair at home. After five days, no special care is needed, Dr.Mohebi said.

Ten days after the surgery, patients return to have the donor site checked and staples removed for those who had them. Hair starts growing after three months, and is long enough to style and comb after ten to twelve months. The third follow up is at 10 months after the procedure.Continuing to pioneer in the field, Dr. Mohebi is the inventor of the Laxometer, a device to measure the laxity or mobility of the scalp. Laxity of the scalp is key in determining the size of the donor strip so that enough can be removed for bigger cases, and the wound can be closed without too much tension and the scaring will be minimal.

US Hair Restoration has Southern California Clinics in Encino, California, Orange County, Beverly Hills and now Bakersfield.  US Hair Restoration also offers hair transplant services in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). To help people stay abreast of all that’s happening in the field of hair restoration, and to answer questions ( heard from Europe and China) Dr. Mohebi maintains the US Hair Transplant Blog to answer your hair loss and hair transplant questions.

Happy New Year from US Hair Restoration

I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year! Last year was a year of great achievements for our hair restoration offices in Orange County and Los Angeles area in Southern California. We are pleased to announce that we continued our research in hair loss treatment and hair restoration and were active at the medical meetings at an international level.  I am proud that our articles on hair restoration were published on Hair Transplant Forum, the most prestigious journal of hair restoration surgery.

Our last two articles, Psychology of Hair Transplants and How to assess scalp laxity, were published on hair transplant forum international, both on the cover of the magazine within the last year.  I have to be thankful for Dr. William Rassman and Dr. Jae Pack who assisted me with our studies and our invention: Laxometer.

My presentation at annual meeting of International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) on Psycho-social impacts of hair restoration surgery on men was well received.  Our new intention, Laxometer is being developed and I hope that it will be mass produced to be used in hair restoration field.  Laxometer is a device that can help hair transplant surgeons to increase their precision in harvesting hair and making hair transplant a safer procedure for patients.

Adjacent to our accomplishments in hair restoration research and development, we have expanded our Medical Spa to provide a lot more cosmetic procedures to our patients under one roof. Our Encino, Beverly Hills and Orange County hair transplant offices facilitated the access of our patients to our quality services especially for the residents or Southern California.  We also provided a great travel package for the patients who traveled from other states or other Countries to take advantage of our quality services.  I need to thank our office staff and medical assistants for coordinating this process to make our procedures as smooth and pleasant as possible.

We all know that last year has been a challenging year for America and other countries financially.  We at US Hair Restoration achieved reducing the rates of our procedures while maintaining a very high standard.  We offered a variety of low rates and 0% interest finances for qualified patients to make our hair transplant procedures more affordable.

I am thrilled that I found many great friends during last year, individuals who I admire for their willingness to become a better person inside and out.  I am grateful for my colleagues for not keeping it a secret and introduced their patients and friends to us.  I also have to thank our previous patients who did not stop bragging about their new look after their hair restoration procedure with us.

Have a great New Year,
Parsa Mohebi, MD
Medical Director
US Hair Restoration

US Hair Transplant centers and USHR Med Spa