ISHRS 21st Annual Meeting in San Francisco

The International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) is having its 21st annual meeting in San Francisco from October 23-27, 2013. Unlike some hair transplant and hair loss related associations that are operated by hair loss forum owners, the ISHRS has no connection with any private forum.

In my mind, this makes it the best association out there, albeit a bit large with almost 1,000 members. Their annual conferences have become superb in recent years, and I would probably go to this one if I was allowed entry.

The summary of this 21st meeting is excellently presented in the below page:

ISHRS 21st Annual Meeting Daily Review

In order of what interests me the most from the 100 plus scheduled presentations and workshops:

1. I am especially interested in the 30-minute presentation on hair follicle cloning and regeneration by Dr. Colin Jahoda. Of particular noteworthiness to me, Dr. Nigam is a huge fan of Dr. Jahoda. It seems like out of all the hair loss researchers in the world, Dr. Nigam respects Dr. Jahoda the most.
2. A 30-minute presentation on Extra-follicular Environmental Modulation of Hair Regeneration by Dr. Cheng-Ming Chuong (with moderation by the famous Ken Washenik).
3. Dr. Jerry Cooley’s 12-minute presentation titled “Bioenhancements of Hair Transplantation”.
4. Dr. Carlos Wesley’s 20-minute presentation on scarless follicle harvesting, which is presented as part of a section called “Beyond FUT and FUE”.
5. “Is Low Level Laser Therapy Effective in Treating Androgenetic Alopecia? A Review of 5 Years Experience in Treating Hundreds of Patients with Male and Female Pattern
   Hair Loss” — 10-minute presentation by Dr. Shelly Friedman
6. A 10-minute presentation by Dr. Nilofer Farjo summarizing highlights from the 7th World Congress for Hair Research.
7. Dr. Wayne Hellstrom’s presentation title (“Post Finasteride Syndrome Update: Urologist’s Perspective”) is a bit scary to me, since I still take 5mg Proscar quarter tabs once every 2 days.  Hopefully, any side effects he has seen are largely in those who take higher doses.
8. Dr. Christian Bisanga has an interesting 7-minute presentation on miniaturization in the donor area. For years, I have been skeptical about hair transplant surgeons’ claims that a hair restoration procedure is permanent. Meaning that any hair moved from the donor area at the back to the front of the scalp will remain permanent. I think this is a lie. Most severely balding people I see also have some thinning in the donor area, and many older people have absolutely no hair in the donor area. My grandfather was one such case, and I have been heading in that direction for a few years now. My donor hair and side of scalp/above-ear hair are clearly thinning. Donor hair is often not permanent, but admitting that can hurt a surgeon’s customer base significantly.

The majority of the presentations and workshops are quite interesting, but largely focus on hair transplantation techniques. FUE is becoming especially important based on the number of presentations covering that method. Dr. Robert True, in his introduction, states that “FUE has emerged, and in the minds of many, will soon replace FUT as the hair transplant procedure of choice.” Hard to believe that 10 or so years ago, almost no-one was doing FUE.