The Trustees of Columbia University have named hair transplant pioneer Dr. Bernstein Clinical Professor of Dermatology. This promotion was based on Dr. Bernstein’s teaching, lectures, research, original scientific papers, and outstanding patient care.

Q: What are the major obstacles for scientists to cloning hair? A: The main problem is that the cultured cells may lose their phenotype with multiple passages, i.e. lose their ability to differentiate into hair follicles after they have been multiplied. Another problem of hair cloning is that the orientation of hair direction must be [...]

Q: Dr. Bernstein, is a follicular unit hair transplant, the way you perform it, very painful? A: We perform our hair transplant procedures using long-acting, local anesthesia, so after the initial injections, the patient doesn’t experience any pain or discomfort. The local anesthesia (a combination of Lidocaine and Marcaine) lasts about 4-5 hours. For long [...]

Q: Dr. Bernstein, I remember Senator William Proxmire. He was one of the first sort of high-profile people who had a hair transplant probably, what, thirty years ago, and to be honest with you, it wasn’t all that great. It looked kind of funny. Have we made any progress in the last twenty-five, thirty years? [...]

Q: I am interested in FUT. How do you figure out how large a strip to use for the hair restoration when transplanting all follicular units? A: The length of the donor strip incision is determined by the number of follicular unit grafts required for the hair restoration. There are slightly less than 100 follicular [...]