I get a lot of questions on a regular basis. It takes up at least an hour of my day almost every day to answer these questions. One of the more common questions I get asks about hair transplant recommendations and if the doctors I work with are the only doctors I think are doing good work. The answer is more complicated than a simple “yes” or a “no”.
I come from a hair transplant background where my opinion was rooted in the experience I had with one specific clinic. Any opinions I had about other clinics were based on seeing their work in person, speaking to patients that have been to these clinics and having an expert eye seeing the work of multiple other clinics online just like hundreds of thousands of other internet researchers. A lot has changed however, not just where I work or whom I work for but in how I believe my own hair transplant recommendations should be viewed.
To expound on this subject I need to discuss the list of doctors that I have put together. When I first started my list I wanted to avoid the recommendation game as I felt that to make a recommended list was doing nothing unique and to say I recommend these doctors would somehow make me look like everyone else. As I continue my work, however, I have realized that my list is unique simply by virtue of my vast experience of actually working in two of the most respected clinics in the field, and by being privy to the day to day operations of how an outstanding hair transplant facility should operate in order to provide prospective patients with the best possible outcomes.
Since I have actually been in “the trenches” so to speak for my entire career, I feel compelled, to visit any clinic that I choose to potentially work with, and to my knowledge I am the only person in my position who includes this step in their selection process for hair transplant recommendations. Since I have worked extremely closely with physicians and hair transplant staff members for so long, I have an uncommon understanding of the nuances and protocols that make a clinic great. When considering working with a clinic I’m basing my decision not only because I have strong evidence that they are consistent in their results, but more importantly, in my view, that they have a clean protocol for their procedures, strong follow-up for their past patients and a policy that takes care of patients with bad outcomes instead of ignoring them.
You may be asking yourself if I’m serious in this regard, but I can assure you that I am very serious. If patients aren’t careful they can be pushed aside and considered antagonists by the very clinics they previously entrusted with their surgery. My selection protocol in no way invalidates the recommended lists or hair transplant consumer organizations of others, as I happen to think that Spencer Kobren’s IAHRS is a great resource for finding and researching doctors that one might want to consider. As matter of fact, I will only work with physicians who are recommended members of the IAHRS. Ultimately, I have to get on a plane to verify as much as possible if only for my own piece of mind and that is exactly what I do. I have been to each of the respective clinics recommended on this website and I will for each new clinic that I recommend in the future.
Someone once asked me what I thought of anonymous posters on hair restoration forums making hair transplant recommendations based on hearsay, what others have said, or photos that have been uploaded online. I think that these hair transplant recommendations are as valid as one wishes them to be but a thinking person will realize that there are lay persons online sharing their opinions and then there are others that have real experience and weight behind their comments that is legitimate.
It is this reason that my list of Hair Transplant Mentor partner doctors is unique. I have been to each clinic and spent a number of days watching, observing and interacting during surgeries. I’ve spoken with personnel, had lunch and dinner with them, spent time with their patients and scrutinized their clinics. I think at this point it is safe to say that I do indeed recommend these doctors because I have found myself realizing that I cannot recommend a doctor that I would not have a procedure with myself. This means that I would in fact have a procedure with any doctor that I profile on this website.
Hair Transplant Recommendations
Of course, this is not to say that the doctors profiled here are the only doctors to consider. Quite the contrary, there are many doctors worthy of consideration but only one will wind up being the one for you. Let’s explore some of your options. In North America you have several to choose from. Starting on the West coast you have Dr. Stephen Gabel. Dr. Gabel is based in Portland, Oregon and is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. He is energetic, passionate and damned good at what he does. Dr. Gabel performs a lot of high quality FUSS surgery and has many satisfied patients. He can perform surgery with dense packing and he can perform larger sessions as well. Dr. Gabel has also taken on FUE and is putting out some solid work. Further south in Los Angeles there is Dr. Mark Dauer. Dr. Dauer has a boutique hair transplant clinic and he performs some of the best eyebrow transplant work I’ve seen anywhere in the world. Dr. Dauer performs solid FUE as well as FUSS.
In the Mid-west there is of course Shapiro Medical in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Dr. Ron Shapiro is one of the great legends in the industry and
is single handedly responsible for the current standard in how to create a natural hairline. His brother Dr. Paul Shapiro has been producing excellent work alongside for many years. They also have a third doctor that has joined the clinic named Dr. David Josephitis. I’ve met Dr. Josephitis and on the surface he seems like a good addition to the clinic. I’ve seen some of his work, not a lot, but it looks good.
Dr. Bernard Arocha is another hair transplant doctor in Texas worth speaking to. Dr. Arocha is a hair transplant patient himself so he understands what it is like to go through the procedure and to have the questiosn and doubts that so many of us have before we reach our final results. He has told me personally that he wishes more doctors have had hair transplant surgery on their own scalps so they'd understand what it is like to be a patient of the procedure they practice. This makes sense and I think it shows a strong level of compassion not found in every hair transplant doctor.
In the UK there are two places where I think one should consider for hair transplant recommendations. The first is Dr. Edward Ball. I briefly met Dr. Ball in Chicago and while I didn’t get a chance to speak with him as much as I wanted to I have followed his work for a while. I also tend to think that the Harley Street Hair Clinic, yes the clinic that worked on Wayne Rooney the famous footballer, is a clinic people may want to speak with for hair transplant recommendations. I know the owner of the clinic and I know that he understands the meaning of integrity and giving informative hair transplant recommendations. The one thing I can say about this clinic is that if one needs solid information they can certainly provide it.
In India I think Dr. Tejinder Bhatti is one of the few doctors to consider. Dr. Bhatti is an interesting man. I’ve spoken to him a few times by phone and via Skype and I finally was able to spend some time with him in Chicago during the ISHRS conference in September 2015. Dr. Bhatti is one of the more pleasant doctors I’ve met in this field. He’s always laughing or has a smile on his face and I know he is a man that believes in family as he’s always talking about his daughter. Dr. Bhatti is an anomaly in India in that he performs all of the FUE extractions himself. India is a lot like Turkey in that clinics are everywhere that are run by technicians only so it is refreshing to see that Dr. Bhatti has not taken the easy route. He is also one of the few doctors I’ve seen that have embraced the use of beard and chest hair with success. Some clinics advertise the use of body hair a lot but many of their cases wind up looking unnatural. I feel it is because they try to get too much out of a very limited donor resource. Dr. Bhatti seems to have an approach that allows him to have results that are far better.
The above clinics that I have mentioned all have great reputations and I feel they are worth keeping in mind for anyone looking to have hair transplant recommendations. I can’t actually recommend any of them beyond getting hair transplant recommendations however simply because I have not been to these clinics to review first hand how they operate and perform their respective procedures. I have no idea as to how they maintain their surgical environments nor do I know about their follow-up protocols. That is the point of this post in that from now on I cannot in good conscience make anything resembling a recommendation for a clinic I have not been to but can only recommend hair transplant recommendations from these clinics as a consideration when one is looking for alternatives to whom I work with. Reputations are built on consistency and great results, obviously, and each clinic I have mentioned have these qualities but I know from many years of experience that what you see online is normally not representative of what goes on in reality. Those clinics that I have listed on this website do in fact have what I consider to be higher standards behind the scenes which is why I feel comfortable giving my recommendations if one is considering a Hair Transplant Mentor partner doctor.
