Value of hair densitometer?

[slick old]

I've been following Dr Rassman at baldingblog.com and he repeats over and over again about the value of mapping the hair for miniaturization using the densitometer (a device he invented). I visited a top doc and he said it was more of a gimmic than anything useful. Dr Rassman seems to have ignored my email asking him to clarify this. Do any clinics here use this device?

[slick old]

I've been following Dr Rassman at baldingblog.com and he repeats over and over again about the value of mapping the hair for miniaturization using the densitometer (a device he invented). I visited a top doc and he said it was more of a gimmic than anything useful. Dr Rassman seems to have ignored my email asking him to clarify this. Do any clinics here use this device?

[the B spot]

Hey Slick, I am not sure what method or technology is used by Dr. Rassman, but identifying donor and transplanted density should happen more frequently(IMO). It is very helpful to know that a patient has an average donor density of 87 fu's per cm/2 when planning out a surgery. This can help you and your dr decide how many grafts or the size of the strip should be done. Using that information, a 1.25 strip 27 cm long will give you almost 3000 grafts (example only). Of course, for patients getting as many as possible it is not as significant but it can help to figure cost and realistic expectations. I know that Dr. Shapiro uses a high resolution digital camera with a lens densigned to focus on a 1 or 2 cm portion of the scalp which has a grid superimposed on the lens itself, which can give a pretty good density estimate. None of these techniques are 100% accurate, but they are pretty helpful and reasonably acccurate if used in context.

I hope this helps you out.