Hi, to shave or not to shave that is the question . . .

Basically, is there a general medical consensus among physicians in the hair transplant community that shaving the target area pre-op yields better/same/worse results than those who do not shave pre-op.

I understand that if you're a skilled surgeon you should obtain favorable results but what I'm truly interested in is a physician's medical justification for shaving or not shaving pre-op. Does it really make a difference in the ultimate outcome of the patient?

Any info on this topic, especially from physicians themselves, is greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

http://www.regrowhair.com/hair...-transplant-shaving/

Dr. Hasson. Pro-shaving.

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2008 Dr. G – presumably 1,000 grafts / 2,142 hairs
2009 Dr. Paul Shapiro – 2,348 grafts / 4,258 hairs
2011 Dr. Paul Shapiro – 1,999 grafts / 3,624 hairs

My Hair Transplant Journey with Shapiro Medical Group

I'll definatly have the areas shaved down that need to be when I'm in the chair with Dr Bisanga next April. Makes sense to shave down to get peresct angulation.

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My Hair Loss Website

Thanks guys for your feedback. The Hasson article is from 3 years ago, I wonder if the same justifications still apply today. It would be great to hear from some physicians on both sides to see how to feel about this currently.

It's more difficult for the doc to work in an unshaved area. Especially if you are performing a 4000+ graft megasession. It slows them down and I don't think they are too keen on staying up until 2am in the morning working through 30+ FU/Cm2 hair.

That being said, there are plenty of coalition docs who do not require shaving. I did a partial shave on mine. He left enough where I can do a comb-over on the back where you can not detect I had anything done. It was a compromise between the two approaches and I am glad I went that route.

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My Hair Loss Web Site - Dr. Ron Shapiro

yes have to agree with the above. you need to shave it makes life alot easyer for the doc and you will likly get a more refined result

dont let hiding what you have had done put you off. just have an excuse ready to tell those close to you.

a few examples

you had a bad case of foliculitus
you burned your head
you desided to bleech your hair and it went wrong.

theres plenty of things you can say and no one will assume you have had a Hair Transplant some people dont even know they exist.

unless you are totaly bald and they you sudenly have hair then you should be fine with the excuse route

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Dr A. Armani 2500 Fue
Dec 2008

Proscar X1 Day
Monixodil X2 Day
Msm Daily

I am a "non-shaver" but I will try to give you a balanced answer.

For docs who use the method made famous by Drs. Hasson and Wong, I think it makes sense to shave the recipient area. Pre-made lateral incisions are usually made fairly quickly and it is easier to see where to make the incisions and the angle and direction of the hair when the hair in the recipient area is shaved. Shaving the recipient area makes it easier and faster for the techs to find and fill the small incisions. Particularly for patients having very large sessions, shaving the recipient area could "shave" hours off the procedure time.

Using a stick-and-place technique does not require shaving the recipient area. We continuously part the hair and use hair clips and thus can also see the hair direction and angle well. As recipient sites are created then filled immediately, we do not have to fear that we will miss incisions and leave them unfilled. Shaving the recipient area could make stick-and-place faster too but not shaving it provides better camouflage in the first days and weeks after the transplant.

You can easily see patient results in this forum that demonstrate that you can get good final results with either technique ... provided you do that technique meticulously.

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Cam Simmons MD ABHRS
Canadian Hair Transplant Centre,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Dr. Cam Simmons is a member of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians

I had two sessions of 1000 each with Dr limmer without shaving , i had good enough native hair and had minimum shock loss

I am typically a non shaver. However for cases over 3500 grafts with dense packing, it is easier to plant when the hairs are not there. This can save considerable time and knock off an hour or two from the surgery which is a considerable amount of time. Either way it depends on the patient and his desires. Patients are aware of the advantages and disadvantages and the results are equally good.

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Ricardo Mejia MD, FAAD
Jupiter FL
Hair Transplant Network recommended physician; photos

Dr. Cam Simmons' answer was the perfect one to the question posed. My position and that of my associate, Dr. Chris Pawlinga, is the same as Dr. Meija stated. We do NOT shave the recipient area hair in around 98% of our cases. Only if the patient volunteers to do so or if the case is greater than 3000 FU's, then we will insist upon shaving the area for all the reasons Dr. Simmons mentioned.
To be honest, the main reason I don't choose to shave the recipient area is that most of my patients are from the middle class and have a job they have to get back to either the next week or the week after, and showing up with a shaved head is not a realistic option for them. Another important point is that at least 90% of my patients and those of the average hair transplant doctor are very private about having a hair transplant and don't want to do anything that broadcasts the fact to relatives, friends, work associates, or the public that their business serves. We all read about a handful of doctors who do shave almost all of their patients and do very large cases most of the time (which do require shaving, by the way, due to the challenges inherent in the planting phase of such a procedure). But it's important to realize that, due to the great communication power of the internet and sites such as this, they are able to skim those patients off of the large pool of transplant patients, who are able to somehow adjust their lives to do their transplant and then gradually get back to their usual daily lives despite a shaved head and the slow growing back of the hair. That is not true for most hair transplant patients or in the practice of the average hair transplant surgeon.
Our staff has grown very accustomed to doing cases of less than 3000 grafts (our average case is around 1700 presently) with placing the grafts between long recipient hairs. Paradoxically, I urge most of my patients to have their hair as long as possible, since I know that they will then be much more able to cover and camouflage the work that has been done during those first couple of weeks so they won't be noticeable.
I am not in any way knocking the docs that do the large sessions on shaved patients. I'm simply stating that that's not possible for the majority of patients in the average hair transplant surgeon's office, and certainly shouldn't be a criteria on which you judge any particular surgeon.
Mike Beehner, M.D.