I've been asked to post some examples of our hairline work. There are variety of hair types as well as different degree of hairloss to show a small percentage of the hairline work done at SMG. Below is a note from Matt Zupan ("Educator") that we moved into this thread since he's addressing SMG's appoach to hairline, and hopefully eliminate any confusion.




Hello,
My name is Matt Zupan and I represent the Shapiro Medical Group as Patient Coordinator/Educator.

In reading some of the responses to our approach or our results, I would like to offer some insight into how SMG feels we can best help our patients.

Let me preface my comments by saying I think we are well proven with our hairline work, which we have shared industry wide through lectures, conferences, workshops. I think most people know that Dr. Shapiro has peen asked by his peers to run the hairline workshop at the ISHRS meeting every year for the past 10 years, as well as performed the live surgical teaching demonstration of hairlines yearly for the same period of time. Many physicians use the basic principles of hairline design he has developed and shared over the years.

In reading this thread with great interest, I would like to point out a few basic factors that determine what we do within a particular procedure on an individual case basis.

???’?? Have the expertise with many "tool" or "techniques to customize the best approach for an individual patient. We use all of the advanced techniques and then some. We use: Custom made blades and incisions; Microscopically trimmed intact follicular units, and the highest magnification for making incisions and implanting. We have the ability to transplant at densities from 25 to 50+ if we feel it is indicated. We have the ability to use coronal or sagittal incisions if indicated. Actually developing the expertise at using different tools is not hard for Dr Shapiro or our staff. Deciding how to use them is more important

???’?? We assess individual donor supply, risks for graft survival, and vulnerability of injury to native hair. i.e a 28 y.o. patient who has had multiple past procedures at too young an age with now limited door supply and scarred recipient area will need to be more careful with the amount of grafts placed in an area than a 50 year old virgin patient with little hair loss and tons of donor.

???’?? We use our experience in treating a high percentage of very particular patients over the years to the number of grafts required for most patients to be satisfied

???’?? Fourth and MOST IMPORTANTLY, always remembering to ration one's donor with an eye toward future loss

Technically, we don't nor should a patient want us to, use more hair then is necessary to in an area to meet his expectations...This ensures we have as much hair as possible to use in other areas in the future if necessary. Goals should not be to over-achieve, the goal should be to hit the optimal density without using any more hair than necessary!

Generally, as much work as we feel is safe, (from our experience), is done in the first procedure. For hairlines only, we have found that most patients will ultimately be happy with any where between 1200 and 2400 FU depending on the size of the area, characteristics of their hair, and their personal goals (we consider the hairline area as the first 2-3 cm back from the border and can range for m 20-30 cm in size). We want a hairline to have enough substance and naturalness so it can stand on its own and the patient is not FORCED to do another procedure as was often the case in the past.

The majority of patients are satisfied with their hairline after the first procedure, but for some a second procedure is necessary to enhance and refine slightly increase the density. This approach allows us and the patient to specifically pin point the actual number of grafts and density that will be require with out over achieving. It is much easier to occasionally add a little more hair than try to correct mistakes that occur when you are too aggressive.(hairline too low, too abrupt, too straight. and yes occasionally when multiple procedures are done in an area, too thick.

Patients only get one shot at using their donor. We can always add more work.
In some respects there are a few advantages that occur when one gets a second pass at a hairline no matter how great it was the first time. It is sort of like writing a paper. When you first finish writing it looks good to you. But if you put it down and pick it up a few months later you see things you could change to improve it. The same holds true for hairlines.....Even patients that are very happy with their hairlines may ask for a little refinement when they come back years later for work in different areas. It may only be a few hairs at the widows peak or tweaking a corner, or bringing it down a millimeter at one of the areas of irregularity. Dr Shapiro loves using his skills to fine tune particular patients like that. We have had some very particular model type patients come back a week after surgery for suture removal, and although they love their new hairline, they ask for 10 hairs to be put at one point or another......we are talking very particular.....and Shapiro does it because he is an artist.

__________________
I'm employed as the lead medical tech and surgical manager for the Shapiro Medical Group. Feel free to ask me any questions.

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Dr. Ron Shapiro and Dr. Paul Shapiro are members of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians.

Janna,

Pictures look terrific.

Bill

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Nice photos! Any NW6's to show?

Any way I can put in a request for hairline #2?


Talk about looking good----- Damn this NW6 baldness......

I could be restored to full "pimp" status with only 10,000 grafts!!!!!!

LOL!!!!!

Looks great Matt/Janna

__________________
Go Cubs!

6721 transplanted grafts
13,906 hairs
Performed by Dr. Ron Shapiro

Dr. Ron Shapiro and Dr. Paul Shapiro are members of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians.

Personally I think it's best to let the results and patients speak for themselves. Great work by the way, just overt self-promotion rings a bit weird to me.

Hi John,

Just to clarify since I don't want to take credit for someone else's words, the quote is from Matt, our consultant. I don't disagree with what he's posting, but they are his words.

Another thing I wanted to clarify is that Matt is basically writing in response to a thread from a poster who was stating he no longer liked SMG's work based on one patient's results. Matt normally does not post or tout our work. In fact, it was his first posting. He had the long response on the other thread, however, since he spoke so much about hairline work and our appoach, we thought it would be better to move it. I understand where he's coming from. I get hot under the collar when I feel things are not quite right.

We're learning as we go. So please excuse the overt self promotion this time, we plan on posting more pictures instead.

__________________
I'm employed as the lead medical tech and surgical manager for the Shapiro Medical Group. Feel free to ask me any questions.

YouTube: Shapiro Medical Group's Videos

Follow us on: Facebook

Dr. Ron Shapiro and Dr. Paul Shapiro are members of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians.

thanks for the context.

I didn't mean to be a jerk, in fact, I think not looking as eager to promote helps the clinics--especially those with great doctors. I posted a similar comment to jotronics post regarding the "Wow" post so no hard feelings.

Janna/Matt-

Thanks for posting these. Really, really nice work. It's great to see a variety patients with varying degrees of loss. Keep up the great work!

__________________
Hairbank

1st HT 1-18-05 - 1200 FUT's
2nd HT 2-15-06 - 3886 FUT's Dr. Wong
3rd HT 4-24-08 - 2415 FUT's Dr. Wong

GRAND TOTAL: 7501 GRAFTS

current regimen: 1.25mg finasteride every other day

My Hair Loss Weblog

Disclaimer: I'm not a Doctor (and have never played one on TV ) and have no medical training. Any information I share here is in an effort to help those who don't like hair loss.

Nice examples, but I got one question.WHY DIDNT M&MS HAIRLINE TURN OUT THAT WAY? He deserves what you advertise. Hair restoration is one of the most expensive cosmetic procedures,it takes the LONGEST to see results ,its somewhat painful, and pain in the ass for up to the minimum of 6 months. I just hope that SMG isnt turning into the new BOSLEY as far as "get em in ,get em out" Youve already stated how busy Shapiro is I hope he hasnt just burned out. I think M&M deserves compensation. I understand businesses have their little ways of getting you in ,like the Burger king whopper commercials advertises a beautiful picture of the whopper,but everytime you go get one it looks nothing like the picture.The only difference is it doesnt cost $10,000,and you dont have to wait 6 months to be satisfied. I WOULD PISSED TO GET ANYTHING LESS THEN AMAZING RESULTS FROM THE HAIRLINE KING

Hey Bspot might that be possible in the near future with cloning?