Hair Restoration Blog Dallas

One of my greatest passions in hair restoration is designing recipient sites. These sites dictate the pattern, direction, and density of transplanted and grafted hairs – something I feature throughout this website. At my annual hair transplant course that I direct and have done so now for 9 years, I always incorporate a lecture that […]

Passion in Hair Transplantation At times I get the question during a consultation, “What makes you better than [fill in the blank name]”?  Even though I may spend 30 minutes detailing every little nuance of what makes us better:  a more artistically designed and customized hairline, better donor harvesting and closure, better recipient site creation, […]

Fronto-temporal Design Options (illustration taken from Dr. Lam’s book, Hair Transplant 360) Although we have discussed the bell and the round patterns for hairline design in other blog articles, we did not discuss what the impact is on the temple hair when creating these types of hairline shapes.  When the temple hair is not simultaneously […]

Central Forelock and Extended Central Forelock in Hair Restoration The central forelock is one of the most important concepts that exist for hair restoration.  If the central forelock, that lies immediately behind the hairline looks empty, the person will remain looking bald.  Every graft that is situated in the central forelock also blocks light from […]

When we discussed the bell shaped design of the hairline, we talked about a point known as the “lateral, anterior point”.  This point is relatively aligned with the mid-pupil and it represents where the shape of the hairline goes from convex toward the midline and concave toward the outer portion.  After evaluating a lot of […]

Shoreline model for understanding natural hairlines in hair restoration I really like using the idea of a shoreline to educate my students and my patients on the proper design of a hairline.  A shoreline from a great distance looks relatively straight but the closer you get to the shoreline, the more jagged and imperfect the […]

How to determine the lowest acceptable point for the hairline (from Hair Transplant 360, Lam SM, Jaypee Brothers, 2011) When designing a hairline that are many ways to create one.  In almost all cases, my hair-transplant colleagues and I start with the most fundamentally important point that defines and sets the remainder of the hairline, […]

By Emina Karamanovski Over the years working with Dr. Lam and observing female and male patients approach aesthetic surgery differently, I also noticed that within hair restoration men and women behave differently. It is socially more acceptable to see a man than a woman losing hair. Therefore, women are more secretive about their hair loss […]

By Emina Karamanovski In many years of helping people restore hair, I have seen only a handful of times when the result of hair restoration has touched someone to tears. It is especially rare to see a man tear up from joy.  Two patients and two different life stories but their joy was for the […]

In a previous video featured on YouTube and on this Web site, I discussed the dangers of performing hair transplants in men who are too young. Age is a relative thing and it depends on how much baldness one has, how fast that hair loss is, what kind of hair quality (density, thickness, color, curliness, […]

There is perhaps not a day or maybe week that goes by without my thinking of how to perform more beautiful artwork for the head. Is it all just the same thing? I certainly do not think so. I have worked on constantly refining my thinking of how to create better results. Recipient sites, the […]

Hair loss that affects men can be devastating. Hair loss in men who believe that they are truly women can be exponentially worse. They do not have the option of shaving their head and their gender identity can be worsened because of it. By being sensitive to this kind of plight is the first step. […]

I have heard these words many times throughout my hair-transplant consultations, usually leading to the next sentence, “Please make my result as conservative as possible.” That sounds intuitively appealing but it is really not the right answer. I totally understand the issue with one’s fear that a result will be spotted out, especially since hair […]

I was on the panel for the Basics course at the ISHRS annual meeting in the Bahamas and explained my algorithm for how I speak with patients in a constructive and efficient manner, and my colleague sitting next to me wrote down my algorithm saying it was a great idea. Accordingly, I thought I should […]

Follicular unit excision, also known as FUE, is a minimally invasive hair transplant procedure in which hair follicles are harvested from the back of the scalp with no incision. Newly developed, FDA-cleared, technology has been developed by Restoration Robotics, Inc. that assists hair transplant surgeons in harvesting hair follicles with minimally invasive techniques. Called the […]

Hair Transplant Hairline Principles from a Profile View (from Hair Transplant 360, Lam SM, Jaypee Brothers, 2011) When I design a hairline I not only stand in front of the patient, but I go to every angle of the patient to make sure my design work looks good, symmetric, and natural. The side view of […]

When you look at a hair-transplant clinic’s before-and-after photographs, what are you really seeing? The number one issue that I have with large clinic chains is the use of pooled photographs that represent the work of surgeons from across the world who work at those Wade Bogg’s Hair Transplant Results clinics past and present. That […]

Throughout these blog articles, I have emphasized the need to respect natural hair angles and directions when performing a hair-transplant procedure for optimal naturalness in the result as well as for superlative visual hair density. However, I have not globally discussed all of the hair angles and directions required for the entire head. As a […]

In an ideal world, even the baldest man could have a fulfilling hair transplant and have his entire head covered with hair again. Obviously, this is realistically not always the case. It is a question of supply and demand: supply being how much usable donor hair there is to transplant the area and demand being […]

The central forelock is one of the most important concepts that exist for hair restoration. If the central forelock, that lies immediately behind the hairline looks empty, the person will remain looking bald. Every graft that is situated in the central forelock also blocks light from the front and the two 45-degree side angles as […]

One of the most important concepts when designing recipient sites, i.e., the “holes” into which the hair grafts will be placed, is to make very low angled sites, especially near and at the hairline. What I like to call the “picket-fence” look is due to the fact that recipient sites are made almost 90 degrees […]

At times I get the question during a consultation, “What makes you better than [fill in the blank name]”? Even though I may spend 30 minutes detailing every little nuance of what makes us better: a more artistically designed and customized hairline, better donor harvesting and donor closure, better recipient site creation, more gentle graft […]

Many times hairs are just moved from the back of the head to the front of the head based on the number of hairs that are bundled in each follicular unit. For example, 1-hair grafts are placed into the front hairline and 2-hair grafts behind that and so on. However, little is paid to the […]

In the past decade, attending almost every meeting of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS), I have witnessed topics of growing interest. I believe that temple restoration or also known as temporal point restoration has become a very major part of creating aesthetically pleasing and balanced hairline work. As mentioned in previous articles, […]

One of the biggest topics that has fascinated hair-transplant surgeons, at least as presented at the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS), is temporal point transplantation. The temporal point is the hair point that emanates forward from the temple that can be reconstructed to frame the face from the side as part of an […]

Many of the other blog articles have touched upon various elements of quality control that lead to excellent surgical outcomes. What I would like to do is to talk more globally about problems that I see that make a hair transplant result look fake when looking closely at the work. Unfortunately, the public thinks that […]

Although there are many types of hairlines that can be designed, for the sake of simplicity I try to discuss two basic shapes when I lecture to students at my hair-transplant course in St. Louis every year. They are the bell-shape and the round-shape. The bell shape is a narrower design that changes from a […]

Is hair restoration an artistic endeavor? Or in fact is it simply a rudimentary technical procedure in which hair is placed into the head and only the sheer number of grafts count? I will explain in a point-by-point manner why hair restoration is truly artistic in my opinion, focusing on three major elements: macro hairline […]

Hair Transplant is as much an art as it is a science. Many times we simply see very bad hair transplant work that scares us into not wanting to have the procedure done. When the procedure is done well, it is seamless. Take Christian Slater’s hair transplant, which I think is both natural and artistically […]

We all know that we can recognize a bad hairpiece or a bad wig when we see one, right? Yes. However, hair systems today can be quite natural in appearance even to the most experienced eyes. Woven, natural hairpieces can escape the detection of many individuals looking at them like John Travolta’s. However, perhaps one […]

Following a hair transplant, many surgeons have differing ways to manage and guide a patient through that process so if you are not my patient I always differ to your surgeon who did your procedure. For my patients, here are the basic things to know in your after care. Immediately following the procedure, there can […]

Jude Law’s Central Forelock The actor Jude Law has significant hair loss but does not seem that bald in appearance simply because he has a relatively strong retained central forelock. (I believe he has had a hair transplant by the way.) As a reminder, the central forelock is the tuft of hair that sits immediately […]

Hair Angles and Directions for Good Hair Transplant Results Throughout these blog articles, I have emphasized the need to respect natural hair angles and directions when performing a hair-transplant procedure for optimal naturalness in the result as well as for superlative visual hair density.  However, I have not globally discussed all of the hair angles […]

Jamie Foxx’s hair transplant looks natural and appropriate for his ethnicity. When designing hairlines for a person, it is important to consider that individual’s ethnicity and gender. For African-American hairlines, the shape is oftentimes square even despite ongoing aging. Clearly with hair loss, there is a blunting or loss at the fronto-temporal angles like in […]

One of the original ideas that I have been working on is why and how to use a mirror when designing a hairline. What I am always shocked by is that I will look at a patient and draw in a proposed hairline then look at the hairline with the patient in the mirror to […]

As everyone knows when they watch Tiger Woods play without a baseball cap, he is in serious need of a hair transplant. Perhaps the media attention has focused on other aspects of his life that he seems to be losing control of more than his hairline but for the sake of this blog, let’s focus […]

In the past two years I have made a small but significant modification to my hair transplant work that I would like to share with my prospective and established patients. The concept is convergence and how to place grafts especially toward the midline of the head in such a way as to achieve even greater […]

As a studious observer of celebrity hair transplants, I remember a couple of years ago looking at Matt Lauer conducting an interview in which his bald crown was exposed. The area known as the posterior lateral hump (side temporal hair) has fallen since his previous hair transplant away from his vertex transition zone (the point […]

When I was recently in Phoenix writing questions for the hair transplant board examination, I had a touching story recounted to me that I wanted to share with you. A fellow hair transplant surgeon had a patient come to him at 59 years of age to ask whether it would be considered too late to […]

There has been a controversy over the past few years regarding the best method to make a recipient site. There are basically two ways to make recipient sites parallel (also known as sagittal) and perpendicular (also known as lateral slits, or coronal). A recipient site, as a reminder, is the “hole”, or slit, that is […]

To conclude this blog article series on crown hair restoration, we leave the most complicated part to the end. This article combines much of the knowledge that has been presented in the first four parts of this article series into a composite whole so some prerequisite knowledge is assumed. This article will focus on how […]

To continue our series on crown restoration, this article will focus on creating the right angles and transitions during the procedure. When viewed from a profile, a patient without hair in the crown looks bald because there is a relative flattening of the crown. To restore the round appearance of the crown it is important […]

This brief article will discuss the regions of the crown and why they are important when designing a crown for hair transplantation. The crown can be divided into three geographic zones that run like bands across the scalp: the vertex transition zone, or vertex transition point; the upper arc; and the lower arc. The vertex […]

For the sake of completeness, it is worth starting our discussion of crown restoration by understanding the types of hair loss that occur in the crown as well as the types of hair growth patterns as well. Finally, we will discuss the principle of the “billboard effect” which is to say why crown transplants may […]

Hair transplant into the crown is one of the most complicated areas to understand for both patients and for beginning surgeons. In order to comprehend the benefits and limitations of crown hair transplant in a comprehensive and clear manner, it is better to split this into a 5-part series, with each article focused on one […]

Throughout many of these articles on hair restoration, I am trying to open up to you the reader the technical terms that I use in my day-to-day discussions and thoughts. This article will focus on one particular region of the scalp, the lateral crease. The lateral crease may be more colloquially defined as the line […]

We too often focus on the results of hair restoration, i.e., how the transplanted hairs look, and forget the importance of the donor area. I like to call this the “bank” since withdrawals are made from this area and it is important to preserve the “funds” here for future withdrawals. However, too often, the donor […]

The temporal point has become a much-vaulted point of discussion in many of the recent International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) meetings. When discussing the temporal point, the conversation is reserved here for men, as women typically do not have a pronounced temporal point (but still have one to a lesser effect). A strong […]

My mentor always taught me, “Sam, no amount of ice can replace the gentle hand of a surgeon.” Those words have remained fixed in my mind every time I approach a patient and his/her tissues. Training for many years as a surgeon, I saw the full gamut of surgeons at work: some with delicate hand […]

Over the past few years, there has been ever increasing popularity of harvesting hair without an incision on the back of the head. This technique is known as Follicular Unit Excision, or FUE for short. It also has been called by other abbreviations, FOX, FIT, etc., all meaning the same thing. Although this method has […]

What has been making rounds on the Internet this past week is a shocking report in the Journal of Sexual Medicine that states that finasteride (marketed as Propecia) for hair loss can cause permanent impotence and related sexual problems. Merck, the manufacturer of the product, has reported between 3 to 8% incidence of sexual side […]

The donor area where hair is taken should be treated with the same degree of meticulous respect as the transplanted area. A good donor closure begins with excellent donor harvesting: when the hairs are cleanly removed without notable transection of the hair shafts, the nerve and blood supply are preserved, and the wound is clean […]

There are so many aspects to making excellent recipient sites during a hair-transplant procedure including angle, tilt, direction, pattern, density, etc. We will just focus on one aspect: interlocking. As a reminder to the general reader, recipient sites are the “holes” that are created by the surgeon into which the dissected hair grafts will be […]

All donor closures are not the same, nor is all donor hair harvesting. What is a prerequisite to good donor harvesting and closures is excellent tumescence. Tumescence refers to the injection of fluid under the skin the area for donor harvesting and closure prior to undertaking the harvesting. In this article, we will discuss how […]

Hair Transplant Testimonial (Update) I just posted this hair transplant testimony of a gentleman who was also kind enough to do a video recovery journal several months ago.  I am posting his results so far (as growth should continue to occur over the next few months), his video testimonial, and his original video recovery diary. This […]

Male hair transplant procedures for young men is perhaps one of the most important if not the most important article I will be writing in this blog series, especially considering the preponderance of young men who are on the Internet searching for solutions for their hair loss. With my YouTube channel, I have personally encountered […]

The final area of the scalp that I am going to address is the crown. It is also known as the vertex. Some surgeons differentiate between the two terms, but I personally think that the two should be synonymous. The crown rests on the posterior vertical scalp transitioning to the posterior midscalp (on the horizontal […]

The lateral humps are the areas of the scalp that fall on the sides of the head. They start, as mentioned in the second part of this series, from the transition of the horizontal plane of the midscalp as it transitions over to the vertical side plane of the head and they end just above […]

The midscalp is the term used to describe anything behind the hairline zone, which in turn is defined as the first 2 to 3 centimeters in the front part of the transplant. The midscalp extends from behind the hairline zone all the way back to the crown. The area at which the midscalp turns into […]

In this article series, I will investigate some of the vital areas of the scalp that are transplanted and how I go about doing that. The terms that I describe here are ones that I use to communicate with my team and also how I strategize my approach to transplanting the scalp. The only area […]

Like any surgical procedure, pain can be part of your experience. The goal of this article is to describe ways to manage or minimize this part of a hair-transplant procedure. We will divide this article into how to manage discomfort during a procedure and then how to do so after one as well. What I […]

This is a basic article about how modern hair transplantation works with a little review of the history of hair restoration to understand how far we have come today. When many of my patients come to see me they are simply confused about how a hair transplant works and what they will need to do […]