Five questions to ask your hair restoration surgeon.

When you commit to getting a hair transplant, you are putting one of your most prominent features—your scalp—in the hands of a hair restoration surgeon. It pays to do your homework, be thorough and ask the right questions. Any competent hair restoration surgeon will be happy to answer these questions.

1.  What is your background?

The American Board of Medical Specialties certifies surgeons in every specialty area. But, there is no formal certification and licensing program for a hair restoration surgeon. That means it’s important for you to find out how any hair restoration surgeon learned to due hair transplants, how long they have been doing it and where they went to medical school. Any surgeon you are considering should also be a member in good standing of the American Board of Hair Restoration Surgery.

2.  Are you dedicated solely to hair restoration?

Some practices do a wide range or cosmetic and invasive and non-invasive plastic surgeries. It’s best to go with a facility that puts its focus on hair loss restoration and nothing but hair loss restoration.

3.  Can I speak with some of your patients?

It’s important to know how other transplant patients think their procedure went, what they thought of the doctor’s competence, his bedside manner and, most important, the final result.
Satisfaction with a hair loss restoration procedure is subjective and highly personal. However, you can get a clearer understanding of the hair restoration surgeon you are considering if you talk to four or five former patients.

4.  Are you an artist?

Hair loss restoration is part science, part medicine and also part artistry. You are asking someone to design you a new head of hair. That might include a hairline, how a part and how it will lay on your head. Above all, that takes a good aesthetic sensibility so it’s important to talk about it.

5.  How will you value me as a patient?

This is probably a question you will not ask directly. But after you’ve spent time with the surgeon, his staff and asked all your questions, you should get a pretty good sense of how you are valued and treated. Ask your self, “Do I want to put hair restoration in the doctors hands?” It’s an important question because you will be the one who will be wearing the results on your head for everyone to see for a good long time.