Best Surgeons in the US that do not require shaving

[Forrest Gump]

readyand40, I had the exact same reservation as you did. Due to my line of work, there was no way I was shaving off my head.

 

From my research, I found out that there are several doctors who do NOT require shaving. I guess it also depends on the amount of grafts transplanted and the degree/type of hair loss.

 

So research around, and I am sure you'll find several doctors who do not require shaving. Btw, I am also based in the New England area, and hence my initial plan was to have the transplant in NY and I did do virtual consulting with several NY area based clinics. However, finally I decided to do the surgery with a coalition doctor in California. So while NY has several top doctors, you might want to keep your options open regarding traveling.

 

FG

[Dewayne]

Originally posted by readyand40:

Dr Meshkin- I appreciate you taking the time. I tried to set up an account with photobucket and pray it is easy for you to access www.photobucket.com/readyand40 I had some work done in the late 90s which my hairline is now receding behind. It was only about 500 grafts (not a butcher job but not nearly up to par with work done today and obviously the # of graphs was minimal) Based on these pics what do you think about shaving? How many grafts am I looking at? I do not mind a bit of a receeding hairline as I am 40. Would like to have filled in and temples filled in. I hope you can access the pics. Let me know. Thanks again.

 

Your old plugs don't look nearly as bad as mine did, from 1991. You know, I often wonder how many guys are walking around fairly satisfied with an old looking plug job, as I was. Although I was always conscious of it, it started bothering me pretty suddenly just a few months before I had the procedure. Now, after seeing and experiencing todays transplants, I can't believe I was ever satisfied.

 

I think you'd see a big difference with about 3,000 grafts at the front 1/3 and some in the crown.

[Dr. Michael Meshkin]

Hello ready and 40,

I donot shave all of my patients and give the option of shaving when I think it is absolutely beneficial to the client. We can get just as good a result with or without shaving the patient because I do take the time and use very strong magnifiers when making the reciepient sites to make sure that the angles are done correctly and there is minimal or zero damage to the native hair. From looking at your pictures, I recommend 3000 follicular units to fill in the frontal to the mid front area and make a nice hair line and temples. However usually my final count is when I examin the donor and the head from upclose.

[Guest]

Dr. Meshkin- Glad to hear you do not believe results are impacted by not shaving the head. This is a continuous debate on this forum, and it appears some Docs agree and some do not. I wonder if other cosmetic type forums have such caring doctors who take the time to inform and educate they way you and others do here. You truly make a difference!!! You mention 3000 grafts. Let me be clear that I am in no way looking for a hairline like I had in my 20s. I am a proud 40 year old so some recession works for me. Does your rough estimate of 3000 grafts take this into consideration , or were you planning to considerably lower my hairline? I do not want a drastic change that people really notice a major change. Thanks again for taking the time.

[Dr. Michael Meshkin]

Hi Ready and 40,

With my estimate of 3000 grafts I did take into account building a nice hair line using about 400 ones and some twos. The hair line wouldnot be necessarily low like when you were younger, I always take into account the patients age and goals. I usually take about one hour discussing the future hair loss and designing the hairline. If you donot want to build a new hairline, then ofcoarse the number of grafts will be less.

[Dr. Ricardo Mejia]

We do not require shaving the head. Depending the size of the surgery, the shorter the hair the better. I have posted on this previously. We do alot of women and have never shaved a womens head. The same can be done for men of any hair style.

[yourcoach]

I am going for 4,000 to 4,500 grafts next week with Dr. Cooley in Charlotte, NC. He does not require shaving. It wasn't even brought up as a possibility until I asked to confirm it wasn't an issue for him.

 

Carl

[GrayFox]

Originally posted by readyand40:

There is no way I will shave my head and I was wondering who were the best in the country who can meet my needs. I have been leaning towards Epstein but he does not seem to have as many patient posts as Feller (No way am I shaving) or Wong (same issue). I would greatly appreciate some help. I am located in NYC but would be willing to travel if I really had to do so. Is Epstein really great or just ok. All I see on this board is FELLER, Feller, Feller. I do not think he has a negative review.

 

Dr. Paul Shapiro did not require me to shave my head, but he did not want the hairs in the transplant area to be cut to no more than 1 1/2" long. My transplant area was thinner that the rest of my hair, including the area in front. I had grown my hair out to cover the donor area and had it about 2 1/2" long in front to "float" over the thin area.

[Dr. Paul Shapiro]

readyand40

At Shapiro Medical Group (SMG) I would say that about 40% of our patients shave their head. We do not require it, and as GrayFox stated, we get excellent results without shaving the head.

I did review your photos and personally I would not do a case larger then 2,000-2,500 without shaving your head. That would allow for increasing the density in the front two thirds and filling in the hair loss in your frontal-temporal alleys. I would not lower your hairline much because you may have future hair loss.

This would give you a very good cosmetic result. We did not even shave patient's heads at SMG until 2 years ago when we started to do large cases or dense packing in some areas. If you look at the photos in either mine (Paul Shapiro MD) or my brothers, (Ron Shapiro MD) profile on HTN, none of these patients shaved their heads.

The difference in your case if you shaved your head would be that I could place the FU's a bit closer together to increase your density. Sometimes this increase density shows up as a significant cosmetic benefit, but many times it does not.

Once we hair transplant doctors get use to making incisions and placing in shave heads it is difficult to go back to unshaved heads because the field of view is so much better.

But we can do the whole procedure without shaving and get great results!

So don't worry. You can get a great cosmetic result without shaving your head.

 

I hope this is helpful.

 

Dr. Paul

[JohnS]

I am glad to see some world class doctors believe excellent results can be obtained without shaving. This makes the procedure much more pleasant.

[Guest]

Doctor Shapiro- I can not tell you how much better you have made me feel. Nice to know that I can still have excellent work while not feeling insecure about my looks. Thanks so much for your feedback. It is greatly appreciated. Now the hard part of choosing a doctor from here in NYC. So many good ones all over the US. The journey begins.

[Dr. Bernardino Arocha]

readyand40

At Arocha Hair Restoration 100% of our surgeries are done without shaving. Most of my patients are already concerned about how they look, the last thing I want to do is make them more uncomfortable, albeit for 4-6 weeks. The other day, I was doing a mega session on a patient with a lot of hair remaining, he offered that we can shaved his hair. I almost took him up since his blood was a bit thin, he had curry for dinner the night before.I reviewed your photos, depending on your desire for density, I would recommend between 2500-4000 FUT. Thanks for the opportunity to review your case.