Young Hair Podcast transcripts

— Hello, and welcome to the Young Hair Podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Wayne Young. I’ll summarize all the latest and best proven advances and advice for you to get the most out of your hair restoration.

Each episode, I’ll cover the most common questions about hair restoration, and also the best ways to get the most out of your procedure. I keep it real easy, so let’s get started. And welcome to today’s episode.

Why do I do consultations? Well, first of all, I think it’s very, very important to understand that there are new guidelines written up by the Medical Board of Australia, and these new guidelines came out on the 1st of July, 2023. They pertain to cosmetic and non-surgical, cosmetic surgical procedures.

And how practitioners need to follow these guidelines. And one of the most important features is the assessment. At the start, the first consultation is performed by the doctor during the procedure.

So first of all, it’s law. Secondly, I think it’s respect. And I think it’s so important to understand that from the get-go, the doctor-patient relationship needs to be on strong ground.

So when I consult on my patients, I really, really try to get to know them and understand what impact their hair loss has on them and on their lifestyle. But that’s just one aspect of the consultation. I need to know their medical history, their past hair loss procedures, their past hair loss medications, and if they had any problems with these medications.

I also need to know if they’ve had any surgical procedures or any problems with anesthetics or any medication problems in the past. Do they have any allergies? So these are all basic, basic things that all doctors do, and I’ve done it for 28 years now.

The medical history. Then we go on to the examination, and part of the examination is taking photos. Again, I need to have a consent for these photos because this is a new law.

And the importance of this consent is that these photos form part of the medical history, but they also are stored securely and safely, and they’re not used or shared inappropriately or without the patient’s consent. These photos are then examined and assessed, and I discuss the particular areas of hair loss with the patient. Examination-wise requires me to use my dermatoscope to assess areas of hair loss, and also to understand what their donor or their hair bank looks like, because this really will dictate how much hair I can supply to the hair loss areas.

The density required to restore to appropriate level will need to be adjusted if the hair bank isn’t as good as it should be. And these are all explained in this first consultation, and it’s really, really important. The procedure itself, how long the procedure will take, if there will be pain, who’s…

And this is really important, so I tell all my patients that I do the procedure with two assistants, and I believe that this is the way it should be. You know, there are many clinics that let the technician do the whole procedure, and I think that’s not the way to do it. And certainly this is the way that it’s done in Turkey.

There was very, very little doctor input with these clinics in Turkey, and almost all of them in Turkey, the technicians, usually one or two, does the whole procedure, and the doctor will make a cursory hello and goodbye and draw a hairline or do some anesthetic. But I’m doing the procedure all day, every day. The other things that are really important with a consultation is to know what sort of follow-ups there are, and I do all the follow-ups.

In addition, the post-care plan. So we send all our patients the post-care plan prior to their booking, so they really can understand what requirements are due for them from day one, day two, day five to day 30. When can they go to gym?

When can they get a haircut? These are all really, really important questions. So in summary, really important to get a thorough doctor-led consultation with the person who’s doing the procedure right at the start.

Secondly, try to come up with a good list of questions for the doctor. Try to really understand what you’re in for and understand the differences of some clinics where they may not be doing the procedure themselves. They will be getting some fly-in, fly-out technicians with some technology, and the clinic with the doctor won’t have any chance or ability to correct any things that will go wrong.

So these are the things you really, really need to understand in your consultation. Thank you very much. Goodbye.

And thank you for your presence, and I hope you enjoyed today’s podcast. Reach out and like and follow us on Instagram. And if you would like a consultation with me, info at younghair.com.au.

Please subscribe to this podcast to keep up to date. We’ll see you next week. Goodbye.

— Key Points

• Body hair can be a secondary donor source when scalp donor supply is limited.
• This is mainly relevant for patients with reduced safe donor capacity or those needing repair/extra grafts.
• Patients need to understand that body hair transplantation is a special indication, not a standard first-line approach. 

Welcome to the Young Hair Podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Wayne Young. I’ll summarize all the latest and best proven advances and advice for you to get the most out of your hair restoration.

Each episode, I’ll cover the most common questions about hair restoration, and also the best ways to get the most out of your procedure. I keep it real easy, so let’s get started. And welcome, everyone.

So, we are going to talk about body hair transplants today. What are they? Why do you do it? When do we do it? And how do we do it? Let’s take a deep dive into body hair transplants.

So body hair transplants is when we take hair from the beard or the neck, the chest, the abdomen or the arms, and we then transplant those into another area. They’ve been around for a long, long time. In fact, Japanese surgeon Okuda in the 1920s was thinking about body hair transplants, taking hair from other parts of the body and using it for, for example, eyebrow restoration or beard restoration or scar restoration.

So, they’ve been around for a while. Not many doctors do it. Not many clinics do it.

They are for a specialized clinic and for certainly a specialized patient. So, why do we do it? Well, for one, we do it primarily for when the Safe Donor Area or the area at the back of the head, the normal donor area, has been exhausted.

Or you need significant hair restoration follicle numbers and you need to look for other donor areas. So, that’s pretty much it. So, usually, Norwood 6 or plus will require many, many follicles.

And most patients do not have enough donor in their donor area. It’s also important to use specific beard hair follicles. For example, beard reconstruction or beard restoration.

So, it’s specific types of follicles. And what are the characteristics of the beard hair? So, first of all, usually, it’s one or two hairs per follicle in the beard.

And they’re usually thicker than the scalp hair. The interesting thing about being thicker than the scalp hair here, they will then obviously block more light and allow a greater appearance of density. What are the limitations of beard hair extraction or body hair extraction?

Well, it’s a lower yield. It’s much, much more higher skill required. And then you need to also consider scarring.

How do we do it? Well, first of all, I use five times magnifying loops, and then I obviously will pick primarily the beard underneath the chin or around the neck, sometimes the chest and sometimes the abdomen. And obviously the patients will require a very, very thick and coarse beard hair or chest hair or abdominal hair.

The more hair that’s present, the better. The technical aspects of extraction are quite significant and the skill required is much, much greater than the usual extraction from the back of the head. These follicles then need to be placed behind the hairline, and certainly if you consider trees amongst trees, trees in the forest, these thick coarse beard hairs need to be shaded by other head hairs for the effect to be natural, or they can be used in the crown.

Don’t forget, beard hair transplants can fit perfectly for beard to beard FUE restoration. And I do many beard restorations, beard corrections, because many men have got asymmetries with the beard, or they’ve got some decreased density in certain areas. So, the beard extraction and the beard implantation is very, very useful.

Other areas on the body such as the chest or the abdomen are good matches for eyebrow hair restoration. The thing about these particular body hair follicles, they may not grow quite like the head hairs, and this is really important. Certainly, there’s a smaller yield and there’s a slightly smaller survival.

Specifically, when you start going to chest, abdomen and legs and arms, the survival is best with hair from the head. So if you’re considering a significant hair restoration and you don’t think that you’ve got enough hair in your Safe Donor Area on your scalp, then consider body hair transplants by myself and we will maximize the results that are possible with your body hair restoration.

So if you’ve got any questions or you’d like to book in for a consultation, please contact me at younghair.com.au.

Thank you. And thank you for your presence and I hope you enjoyed today’s podcast. Reach out and like and follow us on Instagram.

— Key Points

• Recovery quality affects comfort, healing, and possibly overall experience.
• Patients need guidance on preparation before the procedure day and how to manage the early post-op period.
• A structured post-care plan is essential rather than vague or generic aftercare. 

Welcome to the Young Hair Podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Wayne Young. I’ll summarize all the latest and best proven advances and advice for you to get the most out of your hair restoration.

Each episode, I’ll cover the most common questions about hair restoration, and also the best ways to get the most out of your procedure. I keep it real easy, so let’s get started.

And hello everyone, so today we’re going to talk about post-care plan, post-care planning and treatments.

This is really, really important because from the get-go, I have to say, I give my patient their post-care plan before they even do the procedure, so they understand and they read and they digest what they’re going to do day one, day two, day three, et cetera, to day 30.

They can also have the ability to read that and then ask me the questions during the procedure. And this is, let me just say, a great, great time to really explain the procedure, the post-care recovery and plan, the medications that they need, how they’re going to feel in the next couple of days, and what they need to do and what they shouldn’t do.

This is also a great time. Bear in mind that we are spending many hours in the procedure room where we can communicate and understand each other better and also develop a relationship, and it is really, really important to understand each other. So, the post-care plan.

What are the most important factors with this plan? The timing. So, what happens in day one?

What happens in day two? Et cetera. What medications does the patient need?

After the operation, we give them antibiotics. We give them swelling pills if they get the hairline or the front of the head restored. How do we reduce the swelling?

If these areas are restored, this is really important. It’s obviously a common area to treat, but it’s also a common area where patients get swelling.

And we also are using lymphatic drainage. So, we’ve got an allied clinic in Doublet Bay who does an amazing job with lymphatic drainage, where our patients can get this lymphatic drainage at a discounted rate. This is really, really one of the groundbreaking care factors that we’ve instituted in the last three months.

We can obviously look up lymphatic drainage, and it’s quite a well written up procedure and treatment modality for post facelifts, post rhinoplasty, but not that commonly used post hair restoration. So in terms of the post care plan, a lot of questions my patients will have is when can I cut my hair? When can I go back to work?

When can I lie on the beach? And the very, very common questions, and some of the ways I would say is obviously take it easy for at least 10 days. So you cannot go to gym prior to 10 days.

You can walk around the block. Can you wear a cap only from day 5 onwards? And it needs to be loose.

Please, no scratching of the head. And don’t bump your head. There’s so many of my patients who get a bit careless or they get a bit tired or they’re not really concentrating.

And certainly can hit the head getting in a car or getting out of a car. So please be careful. Take your time.

First couple of days, take your time. Be patient. Rest.

No alcohol please for the first 5 days, especially if you’ve had your hair restoration in your hairline in the front part of your head. You will exacerbate any swelling, by increasing the diffusion of fluid from the blood vessels into your subcutaneous tissue.

So please avoid alcohol. Coffee, maybe drunk the following day. I think getting back to work really depends on what type of work you’re doing.

And if you’re a bricklayer working in the sun, lifting up heavy bricks and other building material, then you’re probably not going to go back to work till at least 10 days. If you do laptop work, video consulting, you may be able to go back to work the next day after the procedure. I do most of my hair restoration procedures unshaven.

So this means that you’re able to get back to work much, much faster, with only the donor area partially shaved. So this really, really assists all my patients to get back to their life as quickly as possible. The post-care plans require some time to understand, and obviously, please follow them.

They’re very, very clearly stated. And if you’ve got any questions, any concerns about post-care planning, please email me and contact me, younghair.com.au. So take care and see you soon.

Bye-bye. And thank you for your presence, and I hope you enjoyed today’s podcast. Reach out and like and follow us on Instagram.

And if you would like a consultation with me, info at younghair.com.au. Please subscribe to this podcast to keep up to date. We will see you next week.

— Key points

• Eyebrow restoration is about facial balance, contour, and proportion, not just “adding hair.”
• Patients need to know who is suitable, how it is performed, and what recovery involves.
• Expectations must be realistic because eyebrow transplantation is highly design-sensitive. 

Welcome to the Young Hair Podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Wayne Young. I’ll summarize all the latest and best proven advances and advice for you to get the most out of your hair restoration.

Each episode, I’ll cover the most common questions about hair restoration and also the best ways to get the most out of your procedure. I keep it real easy, so let’s get started. And welcome everyone.

So today we’re going to talk about eyebrow hair transplants. So let’s think about that—eyebrows and hair transplants. Quite simply, we take hair from behind the ear or some fine hair donor areas, and we transplant it to the eyebrows.

Now you say, why would you do that? Well, let’s get right into it. There are many reasons why mostly ladies need eyebrow hair restoration or hair transplants.

The number one reason is they’ve been overplucking or they’ve just eventually lost the eyebrow thickness and shape over the years. Obviously we need to exclude any medical reason why the eyebrows have lost their thickness, especially in males who may lose their eyebrows, especially on the outer part of the eyebrows. This is a medical condition that would be related to their thyroid.

So the important thing with eyebrow hair restoration is to define if there is any medical cause, and then it’s all about design and planning. And it’s a very, very personal decision about what type of eyebrows will suit my face, my eyes. And that leads us on to the importance of eyebrows.

Eyebrows are really important to give your eyes a frame. The important thing is you need to have an appropriate density of the eyebrow to give you that definition and that shape. The shape is also very, very important.

So obviously depending on your face structure and also your personal cosmetic likes, you will be able to tell me what shape, what design, what density you would like. Recently, we had a gentleman who required an eyebrow hair restoration procedure. And he showed me some of his children’s eyebrows.

And he said to me, these are the eyebrows that I used to have 15, 20 years ago. And they subsequently obviously thinned over the years as he progressed in age. So when I assess eyebrow restoration, we think about one, the shape; two, the density; then how long will they be?

Where will they start? Where will they end? And if we discern these particular points, then we’ll get to somewhere much, much closer to agreeing what should be done.

And usually, this requires obviously an in-depth consultation, multiple photos, drawing on the patient’s eyebrows, showing them the mirror, and then also looking at previous photos of the eyebrows five, 10, 15 years ago. Then the patient goes away and thinks about these plans that we started. Then they’ll usually send me more and more photos of a particular woman that will have a particular style of eyebrow.

And then we’ll work together to get the appropriate eyebrow shape, density and design that most suits them. So you can see it takes a lot of thought, a lot of consultations and a lot of planning. And this is the most important thing about eyebrow restoration: planning.

In terms of the procedure itself, it’s reasonably straightforward. We try to match the eyebrow hair with fine hair from either behind the ear or lower down the neck. They’re usually the nape of the neck here, very fine, and usually behind the ears is very fine hair.

Sometimes the patient’s hair is very coarse and thick. Then we may need to think of another area to take donor hair, or even body hair or beard hair. Usually it’s not a problem to take care from the head.

And usually the patient leaves about four, four and a half hours after their presentation to the clinic. Usual post-care guides we institute for eyebrow restoration is very similar to the hair transplants with some adjustments. Then we plan our post-care reviews and what medication the patient can take and can’t take.

And we usually have some special care to maximize the results for the eyebrow hair restoration. Just one note, some of the other reasons why ladies would want to get an eyebrow transplant and hair eyebrow transplant is that they’ve received many tattoos to the area and the tattoos do not take, they fade, they become orange, they become yellow. And then the patients will get another tattoo and another tattoo.

Hence they’re left with this smudged coloring in their eyebrow region. And this is where you need to then cover this tattooed area of skin with hair. And I think most ladies will appreciate that this is a God-given send and will assist them with their appearance.

Post-care guides, which are really important with eyebrow hair transplant, says particular taming of the hair and shaping and trimming of the hair as it grows a little bit longer than normal eyebrow hair. What we usually find after a year or two, this particular taming or trimming of the hair lessens as time goes by because the hair becomes more recipient dominant and takes on the character of the new region.

So if you believe that you’re in need of an eyebrow restoration or unhappy with your tattoo, it’s fading, and also or you like to improve your eyebrows in any way, shape or form, feel free to email and contact us at info@younghair.com.au.

Thank you everyone. And thank you for your presence. I hope you enjoyed today’s podcast. Please reach out and like and follow us on Instagram.