Alessa Avec Fashion

Alopecia in WomenI'm heading to Florida today for an unusual hair transplant... we're broadcasting it live at 10:00 EST and 1:00 EST on Friday, November 18. Details below on my second hair transplant with the lovely and talented Dr. Alan Bauman. It will also be broadcast by Hair Guru Spencer Kobren.

The event kicks off at approximately 10:00am EST when Dr. Bauman will harvest individual hair follicles from the back of Nalty’s scalp using the Follicular Unit Extraction, or FUE, method.  A second broadcast will take place at approximately 1:00pm EST, where he will show how those follicles are carefully implanted into Nalty’s scalp to produce a permanent, natural hairline. The 1:00pm webcast will also include a live ‘call-in’ Q&A segment hosted by best-selling author and The Bald Truth’s radio talk show host, Spencer Kobren.
Bauman and Nalty are anticipating even more response to Friday’s event as consumer interest in hair restoration is higher than ever, and new techniques like NeoGraft FUE, which will be used again for Nalty’s procedure, have made hair transplantation a less invasive and less detectable option for the estimated 100 million American men and women with thinning hair.What is NeoGraft/FUE?FUE or Follicular Unit Extraction is an advanced minimally-invasive hair transplant technique which, according to ISHRS statistics, has experienced an exponential increase in volume worldwide over the past several years. FUE eliminates the need for doctors to remove a large strip of skin from the back of the scalp—a procedure known as a linear or strip-harvest—and therefore leaves no linear scar.The FDA-cleared NeoGraft is a dramatic advancement over previous manual FUE methods which were more time consuming and less accurate.  Years ago, Dr. Bauman became the first Diplomate of the American Board of Hair Restoration Surgery to routinely use NeoGraft device for mechanical FUE which comprises 90% of all transplants he performs today.“FUE is an extremely effective surgical option for patients that allows for a quicker, more comfortable recovery, less post-op activity restrictions, as well as avoiding the tell-tale linear scar associated with traditional hair transplants,” says Dr. Bauman.  However, patients should keep in mind that a natural FUE hair transplant still requires keen artistry and precision and should be performed by a surgeon with extensive specialized hair transplant training, certifications and experience.Key Benefits of NeoGraft FUE:

Least invasive hair transplant available No ‘tell-tale’ linear scar where the donor hair is harvested Shorter, more comfortable recovery No stitches or staples to be removed Less activity restrictions after surgery Very short haircuts are possible after surgery Transplants more than twice as many hair grafts in a single surgery as the previous manually-performed FUE surgery in the same amount of time

While the benefits of FUE hair transplantation are undeniable, celebrity endorsements help build consumer confidence and awareness.“My celebrity patients are usually reluctant to reveal their hair restoration work,” says Bauman. “However Nalty and Benson are part of a more open generation of celebrities… or weblebrities. Like ABC‘Anchorman’ Jim Abath and NBC Dateline’s ‘Follicle Five,’ they’re helping de-stigmatize hair transplants as a viable hair loss treatment, and help people understand that so much has changed with hair transplantation since the days of old ‘hair plugs’ or ‘strip’ scars.”
“The procedure was pretty much pain free, and it’s actually an engaging process that’s more art than science,” says Nalty. “I love sharing it with my viewers because I feel like Fred Rogers doing a tour of a candy shop.”

Hair loss can be a painful experience for both men and women, but today, scientific advances have made hair loss a treatable condition and hair transplants can now be performed 100% undetectably without the pain, scars and long recovery times that used to be associated with the procedure,” explains Bauman. “I hope viewers can learn from Nalty’s public journey and discover the abundance of resources available from the relatively small number of qualified doctors who specialize in hair loss.”
ABOUT DR. ALAN BAUMAN:Alan J. Bauman, M.D., founder of Bauman Medical Group in Boca Raton, Florida, is a full-time board-certified and internationally renowned hair transplant surgeon whose pioneering work has been featured extensively in the national and international print and television media, such as Newsweek, The New York Times, Cosmo, Vogue, Allure, Men’s Health, Today Show, The Early Show, Good Morning America, Extra, Access Hollywood and Dateline NBC.Dr. Bauman is recognized within the medical profession as top U.S. medical expert on the treatment of hair loss in men and women. A board-certified hair restoration surgeon, Dr. Bauman was the first to demonstrate ‘live’ the FUE method of hair transplantation at the 2003 International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery Orlando Live Surgery Workshop and the first to demonstrate the NeoGraft FUE device at the ISHRS Orlando Live Surgery Workshop in 2010. His practice is divided equally between male and female patients, and Dr. Bauman provides state-of-the-art diagnostic procedures and a multi-therapy approach to the medically treatable condition of hair loss. Dr. Bauman is a member and often a featured speaker at the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine and the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery Annual Scientific Meetings.

I read a comment on a blog from a jaded patient who claims FUEs have a lower "stick" rate than hair transplanted from a strip of hair (this guy must have a sad story because he occupies a lot of his time with negative comments on this blog, YouTube and forums).

Here's a photo I just took (March 21, 2010) after a haircut, so you can better see the hairline.

This is almost exactly 7 months after Dr. Bauman did his magic on me (should be a bit more than 50% of the benefit visible now, with 90% after a year).

It's hard to compare the location of the hairline in these photos, but you do see a density (different lighting conditions aside) that I didn't have before. Basically if I let my hair grow before I'd get these nasty patches and then blank spaces.

Much more even now. I may go hat free when it gets hot! :)


Compare to a few photos I took before the transplant. Whatya think?

According to a recent RealSelf.com survey (see press release by Dr. Bauman), guys want better hairlines second only to whiter teeth... and 20% of the 2000 plus adults said they wanted hair transplants.

Greg Benson, the follicularly challenged brains behind MediocreFilms, has selected Earth's best hair-transplant doctor to update his Bosley transplant (see video). With more than 13,000 live viewers via the Internet, this would indeed make hair-transplant history.

Dr. Alan Bauman, who you may know as SurgeonOfNalts, did the work... and now it's a race to the finish. Will Nalts (me), the YouTube personality who once pitched Propecia, have the best hairline of 2010? Or will Greg? In a great moment of irony, Benson's sporting the old Propecia mirrors. Ah, the days that we pharmaceutical firms could give out tissue boxes, pens and mirrors. Those were the days.



Benson made me proud when he, like perhaps every male transplant candidate, made the obligatory joke when one of Bauman's peeps warned him about the loud, wet and cold cleansing-wash machine. It's funny because it's predictable, like his inclination to yell "bye MiniMi" before he runs over midgets.

Nearly 3500 new follicles (which represent a few hairs each) may be a record for a minimally invasive (no surgical slice) transplant. Dr. B uses a NeoGraft to do follicular unit extraction (FUE). Cutting edge that's so cutting edge, it doesn't require a cutting edge. Here's a photo of Benson, with wife Kim Evey (producer of TheGuild and star of Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show).



Go, Greg. As YouTube funnyman Mark Day exposed, there are some side effects as I well know. Here's some footage I just found that someone took of my live Internet broadcast during treatment, and here's my summary video called "Hair Transplant Fun."

Also worth watching are the educational videos we both did. Here's my conversation with Bauman (which summarizes the steps in 5 minutes), and here's Benson/Bauman talking about the entire procedure. Benson said he slept like a baby after his transplant, which is not what he experienced years before with the traditional surgery from Bosley. In a sequel to Alan's interview, the duo speak about how even a year ago this 3K plus process wouldn't have been possible, and about the recovery phase. After 6 months, you don't notice much, but by 10-12 months you'll see 90%.

Benson and I spoke recently, and are just gaga over this experience. In my Merck/Propecia capacity, I had lots of insights on the best hair-transplant surgeons. When I asked people who they'd chose, Bauman's name came up constantly. We both know why.

Benson did it for his acting career, and I did it because 3 years working on a medication that treats hairloss will make you somewhat self conscious.

With all of this buzz, one can only hope that hair-transplants don't need to be secrets. Some of the film and television actors and actresses you love have had these procedures, but you wouldn't know it. Why?

1. They don't talk about it because they feel it would hurt their image.


2. The doctors can't reference their celebrity patients... unless they're weblebrities who chose to take themselves a bit less seriously.

A viewer asked why I'm still wearing a hat after Surgeonofnalts added 15-eyebrows worth of hair to my head... some facts about post-hair transplant growth...

Greg Benson, actor and "Mediocrefilms" and "Mediocrefilms2," got a hair transplant this week from SurgeonofNalts (Dr. Alan Bauman).

Well here's a 5-minute video that takes you through the 7 steps of a simple hair transplantation. Dr. Bauman and I documented the NeoGraft FUE procedure in layman terms... it's on the SurgeonofNalts account, and Greg Benson (Mediocrefilms) is the next candidate for a hair transplant this week.

We discussed this video during tonight's "Bald Truth" show. I hope you find this informative and mildly entertaining. :)

I just finished editing a fun video that explains my procedure in my language, as well as in medical terms. The video -- hosted by me and Dr. Bauman -- is designed to help educate hair-transplant candidates through the various steps of a follicular unit extraction, and show how the NeoGraft left no scaring on the back of my head. Here's a photo of the back of my head 24-hours after surgery, and 2 months later. No incision scar because the hairs were taken from random spots! More importantly, because the donor hairs weren't from a single strip, Dr. Bauman was able to pick various grades of hair to create a forehead that's more natural... as opposed to that Frankenstein look. Which would be cute this weekend, but not beyond that.

I learned today that Bauman uses NeoGraft to, in fact, conceal transplant scars. So if you had a transplant and decide to enhance it... you can use some of your individual grafts to hide the scar. Cool.

Here are a bunch of the videos documenting the journey. Stay tuned for the educational one. Dr. Bauman is sharing that on his YouTube channel....

When you get a normal hair transplant, you have a big ol' scar on the back of my head. Check out this photo of my head the next day. Pretty clean, thanks to FUE (follicular unit extraction) and we did nearly 2,000 grafts.

Well we've started a fad. Seems Italian Prime Minster Silvio Berlusconi has "come out of the closet" with his hair transplant, and has become "the poster boy for male hair transplants and their age-defying benefit." (Source: Financial Times).

This excerpt is interesting. It puts the technology progress in layman terms, and gives you some insight on what guys go through before getting a transplant, which Beacon (see below) calls "no less painful than going to the dentist." I beg to disagree. It's a hell of a lot easier than going to the dentist. For starters, hair-transplant physicians are slightly less socially awkward.

But today’s hair transplant technology is as far removed from yesterday’s as the iPhone is from the clunky 1980s car phone. Brian Beacom, a 53-year-old journalist and author of Diary of a Hair Transplant: A Journalist’s Search for David Cassidy Hair (Phantom), waited more than two decades before going ahead with the procedure, watching the technology develop until it had been perfected. Beacom says: “Going bald really highlights the ageing process. You look 10 years older if you haven’t got hair, and you can look 10 years younger if you have it. Now people react to me differently, especially bald men who don’t know I have had a transplant; they look at me with a certain amount of envy.”

Not familiar with JimmerSD's term "Squirrel bomb"? It's kinda like getting rickrolled I guess.

Here's a couple "after" photos to show my new hair. It's kinda hard to see because they aren't next to "before" photos that match. The first was taken August. 26 and the second on August 30 (my surgery was August 18). Whatya think?

Most people think the hair-transplant procedure results are immediate, but it takes about 6 months to see 50% of the benefit, and a year to see 90% of the benefit. So I'm taking my Propecia and dabbing on my minoxidil (what Bauman calls the "sugar and caffeine).

Let it grow, let it grow, let it grow!

Hey, if I'm going to broadcast my hair transplant live, why not the follow-up? In my first real live-broadcast (I've done 800 plus videos online, but the live thing always terrifies me), I conduct a live & public follow-up consult via Stickam with someone from Bauman Medical. And I try to stay focused as I read the myriad of insults so common on Stickam. :)

In an unusual publicity campaign, Bosley is offering free hair transplants to 19 lucky war veterans. Time to lose the buzz cut?

Aztarnet.com reports:

Here are the first two videos, documenting my hair transplant! Now let's see if we can get a real celebrity to "come out." Don't forget to join me on "The Bald Truth" on Sunday at 8 pm EST.

How many web-savvy physicians do you know? My surgeon, Dr. Alan Bauman, has a YouTube account, a Twitter account, and Blogtv and Stickam accounts. He sends me an FTP file to upload video (almost ready to post first footage of my transplant), and today sends me a batch of photos from the event on Flickr.

Check me out! Note- you don't have to shave your head like I did, but it makes it easier and faster. Given that I was running around getting footage and broadcasting the surgery to hundreds via Stickam and Blogtv, I wanted to ensure the surgery didn't go too long.

Won't see the full benefits until 6-12 months, but already I have a hairline that looks like it's going to resemble my 1996 wedding photo. :)

It's hard enough to decide whether to get a hair transplant and how to afford one. Choosing the right doctor can be overwhelming. A Google search reveals countless objective and biased sources, and who has time to sort them all out?

Here are a dozen sample resources on picking a good doc, in no particular order. But I've summarized practical guidance below in 10 tips, so you don't have to go on a web safari to find the key considerations.

1. WebMD: Picking a Surgeon
2. US Hair Restoration
3. OmniMedical Search
4. Hair Restoration Advice
5. Skin Treatment Guide
6. eHow: How to Rate Them
7. International Hair Surgical Group
8. International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery: a leading organization with the world's worst logo.
   
9. Life Tips: Finding a Hair Restoration Doctor
10. International Alliance of Hair Restoration Surgeons
11. American Hair Loss Association
    

Whew- that's a lot of content to "comb over." Now before I give you my own top 10 approaches, I should explain my two potential biases. First, I title this blog "The Hair Insider" because I gained some inside perspective while working as Product Director of Propecia (the only prescription product proven to save and grow hair). I met many of the leading physicians -- some made me cringe, while others seemed sincere. Still, I'm more likely to have a favorable view of those larger affiliations like MHR or Bosley (mostly due to the impressive Medical Director Ken Washenik, who struck me as a well regarded leader, despite a whole anti-Bosley site).

Second, I'm obviously partial to (Bauman Medical) because I had a positive experience with Dr. Alan Bauman this week (and I didn't need to pay full price because I am helping him market via online video). But in my own due dilligence (2 years considering getting a transplant), Dr. Bauman and his team in Boca Raton, Florida came highly referenced, well credentialed on television and print, and were often identified by peers as the guy they would choose. I felt like that mattered more than anything.

Biases disclaimed, I'm a former journalist who is sincerely trying to give fellow male-pattern hairloss folks thorough and objective advice to picking the right doctor or practice. Here is "the least you need to know":

1) Nothing beats a reference. True, I can't compare my Bauman experience with other doctors, but I was treated well, liked the staff, and I fully expect positive outcomes. If I hadn't heard so many positive things about Bauman, I would have wanted to speak with his patients -- both the ones who returned, and the ones that might have had a less positive experience, assuming they exist. If you get a reference, put the most stake in the one that comes from someone who had the transplant a year earlier, and can vouche for not just the experience but the ultimate outcome. And put less stake in the references you get from the practice, since those are clearly not drawn randomly.
2) Listen to "The Bald Truth" by Spencer Kobren, an author and founder of IAHRS. Kobren charges doctors for the exhaustive work he conducts to weed out the wackos from the credible surgeons with good reputations and patient experiences. I'm not sure all of the best surgeons are part of IAHRS, but I doubt many hacks are among them. Initially I called Spencer for a reference, but then decided to go with my gut, and called the guy I had met and had been well referenced by my colleagues as somone sincere, progressive, and talented.
3) Remember what's important. If someone is pitching you hard on a specific doctor, take a step back. Don't shop by price-per-graft, or you'll get what you pay for. You want an experienced physician not a noob, but you also one who's not so late in his career that he's unlikely to keep current on the latest technology.
4) The doctor isn't the only factor. Hair transplantation involves a variety of roles: a doctor, a counseler, technicians, specialists, assistants. A good surgeon keeps his staff, and they become a well-oiled machine. Although the responsibility rests in the hands of the physicians, the tech team does a variety of critical work... from harvesting to implanting the hair. It's a team job, so ask about the entire team and don't get woed by the doctor alone. Now consider this tip when you assess the Bosley's or MHR. They've probably got good training, but ultimately the franchise name is less important than the doctor and team you get.
5) Don't worry about location. Hair transplantation can be done anywhere, but proximity isn't vital. It's convenient to have someone close, but far more important that you find the right team. The cost of a flight is trivial in the grand scheme.
6) Don't get pressured by the "consultants." These guys are important to keep doctors doing what they do best (surgery) and they can help you assess your needs. But they're often glorfied sales people, and they want to close the deal. I could not fathom approaching a chain via a consultant, because I'd feel like I was buying time share.
7) Look for passion not profit pursuit. My surgeon, who is about my age, always knew he wanted to be a hair transplant surgeon, and found his calling after dabbling briefly in cosmetic surgery. But there are other physicians that were doing general medicine, and decided they were sick of managed care and wanted the hours and money of cash-paying cosmetic patients. That's not the ideal profile for me.
8) Plunge into a community (Kobren's is called the The Bald Truth Talk forum). Here's a nice post that has some advice for the noobs. Another is the Hairloss Help Forum. These forums will help you learn from people that have, or are currently in your same boat. If you're the guy that likes Consumer Reports and ePinions, then you'll want to conduct thorough reference checks and ask loads of questions. But the references are certainly hand picked by the practice, and who has time for that? I believe in crowdsourcing, so if I see lots of posts and threads that are favorable about a doctor, I'll hope it's not someone "gaming the system" but real patients praising the best doctors (or slamming the worst).
10) It's a Buyer's Market. The transplant industry is not booming like breast augmentation or Botox, and some of the poor surgeons are fading away... while even the good ones are eager for new cases. That doesn't mean you want to haggle or shop and compare, but it means you don't need to feel rushed or pressured.

I long for a day when physicians can be rated by patients on such key attributes as "bedside manner" and "technical excellence." Indeed, perhaps there's a Trip Advisor for hair surgeons that isn't really a disguised pitch for one group or practice. Let me know, and good luck!