“I Hated My Hairline, So I Got a New One”

“I Hated My Hairline, So I Got a New One”

A female hair transplant patient recounts her experience at Bernstein Medical.

Like many women, Alden Wicker felt self-conscious about her naturally high hairline and burdened with the high-maintenance of trying to keep her bangs perfectly positioned to cover her forehead. Alden discovered an article on Dr. Robert M. Bernstein, founder of Bernstein Medical – Center for Hair Restoration and pioneer of Follicular Unit Transplantation, and decided to see if he could fix her hairline. In an article she contributed to Racked, an online magazine published by Vox Media, Ms. Wicker describes her experience with Bernstein Medical and how thrilled she is will the results of her hair transplant.

Since the age of 13, Alden wanted full, voluminous hair and a lower hairline. After 16 years of covering her forehead with bangs, she started researching how to fix her naturally high hairline. In the course of her research, she stumbled on a 2009 article in the New York Times that featured Dr. Bernstein’s work in treating women with receding hairlines. She decided to come to his NY office for a consultation.

After Dr. Bernstein explained that she was a good candidate for a hair transplant, Alden scheduled her procedure for a cold Friday in January. Alden describes the entire procedure, including how Dr. Bernstein removed the strip and made sure the aesthetic plan was followed to a “T”.

She speaks about her post-op recovery and positive lifestyle changes that resulted from her procedure:

“By Tuesday, I was easily able to cover my forehead with my bangs and use BB cream to cover the yellowish cast to my forehead, the last remnants of the swelling and bruising.”

“When I went in for a trim before Memorial Day weekend and showed my hairdresser the new hairline, he was thrilled and started plotting with me to grow out my bangs.”

Alden even recollects how the transformation affected her self-esteem on a very important day, her wedding day. She says, “My new hairline had grown in enough to let my hairdresser pull the new hair back on the sides into a loose half-up style.”

Her bottom line:

“I bought myself aesthetic freedom, a carefree attitude, more minutes in my day that I could focus on living instead of ironing my hair and cringing at photos. And in that sense, it was totally worth it. My only regret is that I didn’t do this earlier.”

The article is titled, “I Hated My Hairline, So I Got a New One.”

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2015 ISHRS Survey: Hair Transplant Surgery More Popular Than Ever

The 2015 hair restoration practice census, published by the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS), showed that hair transplantation is an increasingly popular treatment for hair loss. The biennial survey found that 397,048 procedures were performed in 2014, an estimated increase of 28% over the previous survey, published in 2012. Three prior surveys found increases of up to 12%, so the rate of surgical hair restoration seems to be accelerating.

Since 2006, the number of procedures worldwide has increased 76%, with the estimated global hair restoration market now valued at approximately $2.5 billion annually.

Age
Over half of all men and women treated were younger than 50. Men aged 30-39 made up the biggest percentile at 31.7%, followed by those aged 40-49 (26.9%). It was the inverse for women, however, with those aged 40-49 making up the biggest percentile at 27.7%, followed by women in the 30-39 year old bracket (27.0%).

Gender
In 2014, 84.7% of surgical patients were men and the rest (15.3%) were women. The number of women receiving a hair transplant increased by 12% since 2012. There was also a 21% increase in non-surgical female patients.

Procedure
While Follicular Unit Transplant (FUT) procedures accounted for over half of all hair transplants, Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) is gaining rapidly, with a 51% increase over the 2012 results (from 32.2% in 2012 to 48.5% in 2014). See the chart:

Posted by Robert M. Bernstein M.D.

Can a Hair Transplant Treat an African-American Woman with Scarring Alopecia?

Q: I’m a 42 year old African-American woman and I’m losing hair on the crown of my head. Would I be a good candidate for a hair transplant? — E.E., Philadelphia, P.A.

A: Hair loss in the crown of an African American female can have several different etiologies, so the first thing to do is to make the right diagnosis. The most common causes of hair loss are androgenic alopecia (AGA) and scarring alopecia, also called ‘Central Centrifugal Cicatricial Alopecia,’ or CCCA. A biopsy is often useful to differentiate these two causes of hair loss when the diagnosis is unclear. A biopsy can also identify other, but less common, causes of crown hair loss.

AGA presents with a history of gradual thinning in the front and/or top of the scalp, a relative preservation of the frontal hairline, a positive family history of hair loss and the presence of miniaturization in the thinning areas. Miniaturization, the progressive decrease of the hair shaft’s diameter and length in response to hormones, can be identified using a hand-held device called a densitometer. If the diagnosis is AGA, then a hair transplant can be very successful provided there is enough donor hair.

CCCA presents as a progressive form of scarring alopecia that occurs almost exclusively in African American women. The onset of CCCA is very slow, typically developing over the course of years. CCCA starts near the vertex or top of the scalp and spreads in an outward direction. The involved area is usually smooth and shiny with decreased hair density.

Central Centrifugal Cicatricial Alopecia is diagnosed with a scalp biopsy performed in the area of hair loss. Those patients with CCCA are generally not candidates for a hair transplant procedure since the body may reject the transplanted hair. This condition is better treated with oral and injectable anti-inflammatory medications. Surgical treatment for cosmetic benefit may be an option in some cases after the disease has been inactive for many years.

Click here to read more about Scarring Alopecias

Posted by Robert M. Bernstein M.D.

British Vogue Interviews Dr. Bernstein on Women’s Hair Loss and Female Hair Transplants

British Vogue Oct 2012 Cover Hair transplantation for women is in vogue. As a pioneer in the surgical treatment for female hair loss, Dr. Bernstein was featured in an article in the ‘Beauty’ section of the October 2012 issue of British Vogue.

After describing a visit to Bernstein Medical – Center for Hair Restoration in New York City and giving readers a primer on hair transplant surgery, the article turns to Dr. Bernstein to describe the surge in popularity of the treatment of hair loss in women.

“A quarter of my consults are women. It was 10 per cent five years ago,” says Dr Bernstein. “These improved [hair transplant] techniques work especially well for female hair loss, where it is usually localised patches of thinning that need attention.” And while in the chair, you can even have your eyebrows boosted to Arizona Muse quality, too, if they’ve also taken an ageing hit.

Dr. Bernstein speaks to the difficulty of being a woman suffering from hair loss:

“This is life-changing. Bald men are commonplace, but to have less than a full head of hair for a woman can be isolating. Although there are more tricks women can use to disguise the problem.”

The article also discusses a variety of products and techniques to boost hair volume or camouflage hair loss. Among these are: Kérastase, Nicky Clarke’s ‘Tease Me’ powder, Viviscal Hair Nutrition, laser stimulation, Michaeljohn’s ‘Fine Hair Clinic’, and Touché by Flavien.

Reference
“Hold Onto Your Hair”, Vogue Magazine, October 2012; p375-6.

Posted by Robert M. Bernstein M.D.

Is A Hair Transplant For Women Different Or More Difficult Than One For Men?

Q: Is the hair transplant for women different from the one for men? Anything easier? Anything more difficult?

A: Women’s hairlines are far more complex than men’s as the hair in a women’s hairline often creates subtle swirls and directional changes. These must be mimicked in the surgical design for the hair transplant to look natural.

In women, we are more often working in and around existing hair, as most women that seek hair transplantation are thinning rather than bald. This slows down the graft insertion steps and makes the procedure take a bit longer compared to men.

Posted by Robert M. Bernstein M.D.

O, The Oprah Magazine Discusses Hair Loss In Women, Female Hair Transplants With Dr. Bernstein

O, The Oprah Magazine - March 2010 O, The Oprah Magazine featured hair loss in women in the beauty section of their March 2010 issue.

Dr. Bernstein was consulted for the article:

Hair transplant: A possibility if your hair loss is concentrated in specific areas. Hair follicles (in groups of up to four) are surgically removed from an area on your scalp where growth is dense and then implanted in the thinning patches. Since female hair loss is often diffuse, only about 20 percent of female patients with thinning hair are candidates, says Robert Bernstein, MD, a New York City dermatologist who specializes in these surgeries. (The price tag can run from $3,000 to $15,000.)

In October 2008 Dr. Bernstein appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, where he spoke with Oprah and Dr. Mehmet Oz about hair transplantation and gave a live demonstration featuring the hair transplant results of one of his patients.

Watch a video clip of Dr. Bernstein and Oprah discussion hair transplantation.

Read the full article at Oprah.com.

Reference:
“The Truth About Hair Loss,” “O” – Oprah Magazine, March 2010; p90.

Posted by Robert M. Bernstein M.D.

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Female Hair Transplant

“I Hated My Hairline, So I Got a New One”

2015 ISHRS Survey: Hair Transplant Surgery More Popular Than Ever

Can a Hair Transplant Treat an African-American Woman with Scarring Alopecia?

British Vogue Interviews Dr. Bernstein on Women’s Hair Loss and Female Hair Transplants

Is A Hair Transplant For Women Different Or More Difficult Than One For Men?

O, The Oprah Magazine Discusses Hair Loss In Women, Female Hair Transplants With Dr. Bernstein

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