I recently heard that you demonstrated your devices at the annual ISHRS meeting in Anchorage, Alaska. Can you tell us who is interested in these devices.

Dr. Patrick Mwamba visited us recently to evaluate the surrounded punches and the PCID. We demonstrated the ease of extraction and the low transection rate with the PCID. We demonstrated chest hair, scalp hair, and beard hair removal. Dr. Mwamba was very impressed with the extraction rates and ease of extraction with these devices. Dr. Cole also demonstrated the new battery powered Cole Isolation Device (BCID) to Dr. Mwamba.

when you have an hair transplant do have to take any drugs i.e propecia?

No, medications are not required for you to have a hair transplant. Many patients do not want to take medications. This is why they have a transplant instead. Hair loss is a life long process, however. The rationale for taking medications in addition to a hair transplant is that they help to slow the progression of hair loss. This can help reduce the need for future hair transplants to replace the hair you loose over time.

In addition, medications can help you have a fuller head of hair than might be possible through hair transplants alone. Like it or not, the donor area supply is limited. There is only so much we can do for any single individual. Medications can help fill the void should your hair loss out tax the amount of donor hair that you have to transplant to the areas of loss or thinning.

my stepdaughter is age 15. when she was in her toddler years she had surgery to remove deposits on her eyelid. the doctor also removed the eyelash root. will she qualify for this kind of procedure?

It is possible to transplant hair to the eyelids to create eye lashes. The only issue is that the donor source of hair will maintain characteristics similar to the donor source. In other words, if you transplant hair from the back of the scalp to the eyelash, the hair will grow longer than the existing eyelashes. She will need to trim them. Usually, but perhaps not always, the hair growth rate will slow down after a year or so

when transplanted from the scalp to other parts of the body, but it will still grow longer than the existing eyelashes and she will need to trim them periodically for the rest ofher life to match the other eye lashes.

Since it has been some time, then you have probably already given them time to re-grow. The next question would be how much of the eyelid is affected. If it is a large area, then it will require more grafts. Also, many women choose to have more than one procedure to transplant eyelashes to achieve enough of them.

It is a simple procedure, but it will result in some temporary bruising and swelling. The primary risk is of ingrown hairs, but this is not highly likely. In that she is still in school, you might want to wait until she has a break so that she can heal properly prior to returning to school.

The fact that she had prior surgery on her eyelid means there may be some scar tissue that could affect the direction of growth of the eye lashes. For this reason, you might want to try a few grafts first to insure that the growth is appropriate and in the proper orientation.

I would like to know a little more information regarding the fatty deposits that were removed when you have an opportunity.

If I can be of further assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Dr. Cole, can you really get better coverage with fewer grafts using FUE?

Many poorly informed physicians claim that you cannot get as good of a result with FUE as you can with strip surgery. Strip surgeons use this misinformation as marketing for strip surgery. Such is not the case. As I’ve stated for many years, you can get better results with FUE than you can from strip surgery. The reason are quite evident. First, with FUE, the grafts spend less time out of body. Second, the FUE grafts contain more hair in each graft than with strip surgery. In fact, the average FUE graft contains 50% more hair than the average strip graft.

Here is a classic example. Most strip physicians would have done 2500 to 3000 grafts in this case to obtain a comparable result that we obtained with only 1800 grafts. Not only did we show that one can obtain better coverage with fewer grafts, we showed that this FUE result from 2004 has stood the test of time. Seven years later the patient still has outstanding coverage despite further hair loss.

Over all planning includes planning for the future. If a patient agrees to planning for the future, further surgery in the short term to keep up with future hair loss is often avoided for many years.

The following patient had CIT procedure of 1,845 grafts. His results show the benefits of the CIT method of FUE.

Dear Dr. Cole, I have a scar on the top of my head from a traumatic injury.  I reside in Bangkok.  I desire to fill this area in with grafts obtained by FUE.  I am of Asian decent.  Is it possible to graft this scar on the top of my head, and where I should have the procedure done.

Yes, it is possible to graft scars due to trauma.  We recently had a patient return to our office following a procedure to help conceal the scar.  He had an excellent yield and result.  Asian patients are ideally suited for FUE procedures to treat both balding areas and scars.

This patient of Korean ancestry returned following treatment for an area of alopecia secondary to a traumatic delivery.  He developed this large area of hair loss following forceps trauma during his delivery.  The trauma damaged the follicles and the area healed by secondary intention.  The results from the initial surgery are 10 months subsequent to hair transplant surgery using the CIT method of FUE.  Because the grafted area was scar tissue, we did not attempt maximal density with the transplant procedure.  Scar tissue has excellent circulation, but high densities might affect the yield so we generally begin with a lower density of 30 to 40 grafts per square cm.  The patient returned to our office in an effort to add additional density.  In the initial procedure we placed 203 grafts.  In the follow up procedure we added an additional 243 grafts.

We have two affiliate clinics in Asia that can provide FUE.  One is in Singapore and is staffed by Dr. Tyng Tan.  The other is in South Korea and is a Dr. Cole Forhair clinic.

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