Q: There is a famous hair transplant out there, Vice President, Joe Biden. How come it looks so unnatural?

A: With Joe Biden’s hair transplant a number of errors were made. Some were unavoidable due to the older technology and some were just poor planning. He had a hair transplant consisting mainly of large plugs because that was the way hair transplants were performed many years ago. But many of those plugs have now been fixed.

The persistent (but avoidable) problem is that Vice President Biden has a low, broad hairline. But when you see a low broad hairline one expects to see the rest of head to be covered with hair. But he didn’t have enough donor hair to accomplish this. With better planning, the hairline would have been more receded at the temples, producing a more natural, balanced look.

 

Q: Can I use Toppik if I had a hair transplant?

A: Yes, but I would wait at least 5 to 7 days after the hair restoration procedure before applying Toppik, Couvre, Derm Match or other cosmetic camouflage products to the transplanted area. For the first 9 days after hair transplants, the cosmetic should be washed out very gently so as not to dislodge the grafts. At 10 days following the hair restoration, the grafts are permanently in place, so you may shampoo as vigorously as you would normally do when showering.

 

Q: Have there been any lab studies proving that Saw Palmetto works to prevent hair loss?

A: There have been no verifiable clinical studies that show saw palmetto can stop hair loss or cause hair to re-grow. There have been some preliminary tests showing that saw palmetto may be able to inhibit 5-alpha-reductase, but its usefulness for androgenetic hair loss has not been documented in controlled studies.

 

Q: What is the main difference between NeoGraft and the ARTAS^™ robotic system?

A: The Neograft device is basically a powered FUE tool. It is still done by hand and therefore risks operator induced errors and damage to hair follicles. The ARTAS System, made by Restoration Robotics, uses electronic image-based tracking capabilities to map the individual follicular units. It does so to determine the optimal approach for automated graft harvesting. The robotic harvesting device produces consistently high quality grafts and low dissection rates.

For more information on these systems, visit the Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) section or read more on the Hair Transplant Blog by viewing posts in the Robotics topic.

 

Q: What is Saw Palmetto?

A: Saw Palmetto is a dwarf palm plant native to North America. The active ingredients can be found in the plant’s brown-black berries. It’s proposed that it blocks the enzyme 5-alpha-reductase that converts testosterone to dihydrotestosterone (DHT). There is little scientific evidence that Saw Palmetto is actually effective for hair loss.