So how did you find your way to the hair restoration field?
I was talked into it by a patient.… I trained as dermatologist, and I just happened to learn how to do hair transplanting. This person had actually gone to a dermatologist and was referred to me. He was a terrible candidate for transplanting, but he kept coming back. He kept saying, “I don’t want much hair,just give me any hair, just give me any hair.”
Finally,he came back one more time and said, ‘Look it, you’ve been a good doctor. You’ve told me I shouldn’t do this. But just let me ask you one question.Will I have more on top than I had before?’I said, yes, and he said,‘Well then just do it. I’ll work with it.’ I did it, and when I was finished, I was horrified, but the patient was thrilled.
Are there more people getting transplants now?
There are many more people having it done. I mean, when I first started, in Canada there was only a few who even knew how to do it.
There was very little demand, very little knowledge about the procedure at all. Now it is more popular, and we’re getting better and better results.
Is it expensive?
It depends on the doctor you go to. I imagine on the low end of the scale you might be able to get the operation for $5,000, and on the upper end maybe $15,000.
Can women go bald the same way as men?
No,they don’t go bald the same way. Very few women would go completely bald, but thinning of the hair in women is becoming more and more common and more and more severe over the last few decades for some reason.
I’m seeing a lot more women for treatment, and the majority of women are good candidates for transplantation.
So why do we go bald at all?
First of all there is a bad gene, the baldness gene. And contrary to popular lore, it isn’t carried through the mother’s side of the family. It is carried through either side.
Then there is a genetic predisposition to the hormone dihydro testosterone.… For some reason, the amount of dihydro increases in the area going bald — that hormone triggers the gene, and there is a progression of malepattern baldness.
Do certain shampoos and other hair products make it worse?
No not really. Shampoos would not make you go bald faster than otherwise. But it might dry hair out, get fragile and break off, but that’s a different kind of hair loss.
What about diet?
Unless you have a terrible diet, it is not affecting the rate at which you lose your hair. But if you don’t mind, a one-a-day vitamin and mineral supplement is a good idea. If the body is deprived of certain vitamins, it may accelerate the rate at which you lose your hair — specifically vitamin B6 and B12. It is easy not to have enough of those unless you eat liver or brewer’s yeast every day.
Is there anything I can do to slow the rate of baldness — Slick Willy’s Hair Tonic?
There are two medications recognized to be able to slow down or even reverse balding: one is topical called mynoxidil, or Rogaine.The other is a pill form of antiandrogen, Finasteride, which is a one a day pill.
What about hair cloning?
Everybody is working on cloning. There is probably more effort and money being spent on cloning today than maybe any other field in medicine, save perhaps trying to cure cancer.… It has all been stopped at the same place whether it is heart tissue, liver tissue or hair.
We know how to grow them: we grow tissue we want in experimental animals, but when we introduce them into humans it doesn’t work as well, and that’s across the board. I could grow your hair on a mouse, and in virtually every instance I tried it, but I couldn’t put it back into you. Some of the best minds in medicine are at work solving this problem.
So how long?
I’ve been telling everybody five to 10 years for the last five to 10 years.
It is going to happen?
Absolutely.
And are you also a client?
Actually, now I am a client. About two years ago, I started thinning quite badly at the back of my head. Actually, I don’t think I minded that much. But I kept telling people for so many years how easy it is and how they’ll feel better after and that it doesn’t hurt. Well, why keep going bald? So I got my daughter to operate on me. She works with me. It went great.