Hair loss afflicts millions of people, and not just men, though their hair loss is often the most noticeable. Most women, too, experience some degree of hair loss as they grow older.
Studies have shown that Americans have the greatest incidence of baldness of any people. This is understandable since hair loss is tied to high-fat, high-protein diets, which damage the kidneys and create acidic blood. Meat and dairy, besides being high in fat and protein, are also generally considered "sweet" in Oriental medicine. Considering the additional sweets, desserts, and sugar-laced foods and drinks in which Americans indulge, we can see that the sweet flavor dominates the typical diet. Salt is also prevalent in the American diet, nearly all of it highly refined.
The Inner Classic cautions that too much sweet-flavored food makes the head hair fall out. A further caution from this ancient text states that "Too much salt damages the blood and therefore the hair."
The six main types of food to avoid are as follow:
Coffee and tea
Sweetened foods and soda drinks (softdrinks)
High consumption of alcohol
Fatty foods
High-protein diet
Salty foods
Good Hair Food
Feed the roots of the hairs with a balanced diet, rich in Proteins, Iron and Vitamin B. Foods such as fibers, sprouts, eggs, fish and liver will make your hair roots stronger. Eat a diet high in fruits and vegetables and low in starch. This may help to slow down the process of hair loss. Fruits and vegetables contain flavonoids many of which are antioxidants that may provide protection for the hair follicles and encourage hair growth.
Hair transplantation is a surgical procedure performed on men and women who would like to reverse the signs of hair loss. It helps to correct androgenetic alopecia, scarring alopecia and other types of permanent alopecia. Hair transplantation involves transferring hair grafts (skin and hair units of 1 to 4 hairs extracted from a single donor strip) from the back and sides of your head (the donor area) to balding or thinng areas where you would like new hair to grow.
Today, hair transplantation is a very refined outpatient procedure that can produce full and natural looking results, even after only one hair transplant session. When performed correctly, not even a hair stylist will detect that a person has had a hair transplant. However, it is critical that the hair transplant procedure be performed correctly to achieve such natural results. To do so requires a hair restoration clinic that can perform both Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) and Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) at the highest levels of skill, experience, and dedication. Manzanares Hair Restoration Center is in the forefront of this surgical hair restoration.
Hair transplantation is a surgical procedure performed on men and women who would like to reverse the signs of hair loss. It helps to correct androgenetic alopecia, scarring alopecia and other types of permanent alopecia. Hair transplantation involves transferring hair grafts (skin and hair units of 1 to 4 hairs extracted from a single donor strip) from the back and sides of your head (the donor area) to balding or thinning areas where you would like new hair to grow.
Today, hair transplantation is a very refined outpatient procedure that can produce full and natural looking results, even after only one hair transplant session. When performed correctly, not even a hair stylist will detect that a person has had a hair transplant. However, it is critical that the hair transplant procedure be performed correctly to achieve such natural results. To do so requires a hair restoration clinic that can perform both Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) and Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) at the highest levels of skill, experience, and dedication. Manzanares Hair Restoration Center is in the forefront of this surgical hair restoration.
What is hair transplant exactly?
Hair transplantation is an artistic redistribution system that takes donor dominant hair follicles donor areas such as the chest or from the very back of the head (which are genetically resistant to hair loss) and artfully relocate them into thinning or balding areas. With current microsurgical technologies, this results in a very natural appearance. Basically, we take hair from where you have more than you need and put it where you need it more. The hair that is now growing will be permanent for the rest of the patient's life. Those newly transplanted hairs need no more care than ordinary washing, styling and trimming as you have always doing in your hair. The end result is your own natural hair growing the way nature created hair to look, feel and grow.
How effective is hair transplantation?
Hair transplantation is a surgical office procedure for the treatment of hair loss. This is accomplished by actually transferring grafts or small sections of hair bearing skin from the back of his scalp to bold areas on the top of the head. Follicular hair units are usually used. This technique is very effective in most types of hair loss, including male and female pattern loss. It is also effective when concealing scar injury and complications from disease. It is especially effective in concealing the scars from facial plastic surgical procedures (face lifts, brow lifts, etc.). Even eyebrows and eyelashes can be reconstructed with excellent cosmetic appearance. Women in particular are excellent candidates, as their hair loss tends to be diffuse and can afford them full coverage of the area while undergoing healing. Best of all, your results are permanent.
Are there any risks with hair transplant surgery?
There are practically no risks involved in hair transplant surgery. Occurrences of infection after the procedure are rare. In the few cases where infection does occur, it is often due to the patient’s failure to fully follow post-operative instructions. When infection occurs, it is easily treatable with antibiotics which can be prescribed by the physician.
What are the steps in performing hair transplant?
A typical hair transplant procedure has at least seven steps:
1. Consultation 2. Blood Tests 3. Anesthesia 4. Extraction of donor hair 5. Division of donor hair into follicular units 6. Implanting of donor hair 7. Post operative care
The entire procedure can lasts from 2 to 4 hours depending on the number of hair grafts being implanted. Follow post-operative instructions we have given carefully and expect to wait 3 to 5 months before your new hair grafts actually start growing your new hair. It's important to note that once your hair grafts are implanted, the shock of the transplanting will actually cause them to go into the dormant stage. This means your new hair grafts will actually die and fall out. But don't worry for this is normal and expected.
Is hair transplant procedure painful?
Hair transplantation is often perceived as a painful procedure because of ignorance and lack of understanding of the treatment. However, it is a fairly simple procedure involving only one or two sessions, and is relatively painless. Most patients watch a movie or take a nap while we work. Afterwards, they tell us that during the procedure they felt no pain. Any discomfort they feel afterwards is usually very temporary and nearly always minimal and easily relieved with simple pain tablets taken for 1 - 2 days after the procedure. One third of our patients do not take any pain tablets anymore.
I have a medical condition, can I still receive a hair transplant?
Pre-existing medical conditions are always a concern of Dr. Manzanares. If you have a pre-existing medical condition, please tell us at the time of your consultation. For your convenience, we have listed responses from some of the most frequently asked medical questions:
1. COUMADIN If you are taking Coumadin, you will need to be off Coumadin for a week prior to your hair restoration procedure. When you have a consultation, Dr. Manzanares may require a confirmation from your physician. More...
2. INTRAVENOUS SEDATION At MHR Center, intravenous sedation is virtually never used for hair restoration procedures. Instead, patients are administered local anesthesia and are able to relax and watch a video, stretch or use the restroom at any time during the procedure. If you would like additional sedation or relaxation, you may request it and we will be pleased to order it for you. More...
3. DIABETES We have performed successful hair transplant procedures for patients with diabetes. However, to determine possible candidacy for hair restoration, you will first need to have a consultation with Dr. Manzanares. He may require a confirmation from your diabetes physician to confirm that your diabetes is under good control. More...
4. LUPUS (Erythematosus) – LE In many cases, it is not a good idea to transplant hair into an area where the hair loss caused by LE has occurred. After hair has been transplanted into such an area, the LE process (which caused the hair loss) could recur. However, in some cases (when LE has been inactive for many years) it is feasible to do hair transplants. Dr. Manzanares will determine this during your consultation. More...
5. KIDNEY TRANSPLANT For various medical reasons, a hair restoration procedure cannot be done prior to a pending kidney transplant. However, once a kidney transplant procedure is completed and has healed, Dr. Manzanares can determine if it is feasible for you to have a hair transplant procedure.
Is hair transplant surgery expensive?
Comparatively, no. While there are costs involved, the benefits of growing your own hair make hair transplantation much more cost-effective than other methods, because afterwards, no further expense is incurred plus you may take into account the financial options Manzanares Hair Restoration Center can offer to you. There are no expensive chemicals to be bought or used continually. There are no expensive hair pieces to be maintained, repaired, tinted, conditioned and replaced regularly every 18 months in order to look natural. So, weighed in the light of all possible alternatives, the hair transplant solution is not only the best, but is also the most economical overall.
Will hair transplant procedure suggests time off from work?
Little or no time off from work is required. But if you are sensitive about how you will look during the days immediately following, you can wear a hat, or, if that’s not possible in your work environment, Dr. Frank recommends beginning the process just before your holidays. Many patients return to work the next day. However, every person is different. Beyond examination, your consultation is a good source to be informed of possible strategies for your unique situation.
Is there a chance that hair grafts will be rejected during hair transplant surgery?
Unlike kidney or heart transplant which are donated by another person, there is no possibility that hair grafts will be rejected since hair grafts wil come from the same person. The body’s immune system will not reject such. Moreover, hair from another person cannot be used for hair transplantation purposes.
When should I consider hair transplant to treat hair loss?
The consideration of when to undergo hair transplant surgery is a personal decision. Its success is based on many factors, including the amount of donor hair available as well as the amount of area that needs to be covered. An evaluation for hair transplant surgery with a qualified hair transplant surgeon is most important in determining when surgery should be considered. As a rule, hair transplant surgery is more successful when there is still existing hair that can be used to camouflage the surgical area. The goal of a successful session is to allow the patient to continue to recede in a natural and expected manner, rather than with unchecked hair loss. If you have enough hair with which to cover the thinning area, the better your hair transplantation would become.
How do I choose the right hair doctor for my successful hair transplant?
There are few doctors in the Philippines who perform hair transplantation. Choosing the right hair restoration surgeon is the most significant decision you will make in hair transplantation. Physician standards and practices vary immensely in this delicate procedure. If done correctly, hair transplant will last a lifetime. Demand the best results and don’t limit yourself to surgeons who happen to be near and once products of media hype but do not have the extensive experience and reputation that Dr. Frank Manzanares has to offer. The best way for a prospective patient to choose the right hair doctor is to choose a hair doctor who specializes in hair transplantation with full time practice and is willing to let you view or talk with several of his completed patients or even visit an actual procedure with his patients. Some standards to consider are whether the physician is a member of the governing body for hair restoration surgery both local and International. At the top of these, the best standards are reputation and successful patient results.
Today, hair transplantation is a very refined outpatient procedure that can produce full and natural looking results, even after only one hair transplant session. When performed correctly, not even a hair stylist will detect that a person has had a hair transplant. However, it is critical that the hair transplant procedure be performed correctly to achieve such natural results. To do so requires a hair restoration clinic that can perform both Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) and Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) at the highest levels of skill, experience, and dedication. Manzanares Hair Restoration Center is in the forefront of this surgical hair restoration.
Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT)
A great hair transplant is the result of using a state of the art surgical procedure and performing it with great skill and artistry. Today, the acknowledged "gold standard" in hair transplant surgery is called Ultra Refined Follicular Unit Hair Transplantation.
This relatively new hair transplant procedure enables a patient to achieve extremely natural results because it recreates and mimics the way a person's hair grows naturally, hair for hair.
The concept of follicular unit transplantation is to relocate hair and their respective follicles from the donor area (the safe zone in the back and sides of the head) to the recipient areas (front, top or crown of the head, eyebrows, eyelashes and facial hair).
Transplant operations are performed on an outpatient basis, with mild sedation (optional) and injected topical anesthesia, and typically last about four hours. The scalp is shampooed and then treated with an antibacterial chemical prior to the donor scalp being harvested.
In the usual follicular unit procedure, Dr. Manzanares harvests a strip of skin from the posterior scalp, in an area of good hair growth. The excised strip is about 1-1.5 x 15-30 cm in size. While he is closing the resulting wound, surgical assistants begin to dissect individual follicular unit grafts from the strip by utilizing the stereoscopic microscopes for magnification. Working with stereoscopic microscopes (binocular microscopes), they take great care to remove excess fibrous and fatty tissue without damaging the vital follicular cells that will produce the patient’s first crop of new hair. Each of those graft may contain a single, two, three or four hairs.
This type of dissection approach allows us to transplant thousands of follicular units and ultimately thousands of hairs in one surgery at one time. A session may vary from few hundred grafts to more than 5,000 grafts in one procedure.
Dr. Frank then uses a fine needle to puncture the sites for receiving the grafts, placing them in a predetermined density and pattern, and angling the wounds in a consistent fashion to promote a realistic hair pattern. Then, the final part of the procedure is to insert the individual grafts in place.
We currently employ, on all patients, a unique way of removing the strip and closure, known as the trichophytic scar. The advantage of this scar closure technique is to allow the hairs at the closure point to grow right through the scar. This will add camouflage to the scar and reduce its visibility.
Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE)
Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) represents a major advancement in the way surgeons harvest individual hair follicular units for transplantation. Instead of removing a strip of hair-bearing skin from the donor site, this revolutionary technique allows surgeons to extract individual follicular units from the back of the scalp or the body without the use of a surgical scalpel.
Scalp hair grows in naturally occurring groups called follicular units. Each follicular unit contains from 1 to 4 hairs. In Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT), a single strip of skin is harvested from the scalp in the back of the head and then, using special microscopes, the strip is dissected into individual, naturally occurring follicular groups of 1 to 4 hairs. The disadvantage of this technique is that it produces a linear scar in the donor area, although the scar is generally very fine and can be treated easily.
With the FUE procedure, 1, 2, 3, and 4 hair follicular unit grafts are carefully extracted one at a time using a tiny punch of one millimeter or less rather than by donor strip of FUT. Often the surgeon requires the patient to buzz cut a portion of their donor area so that they are able to see the patient’s scalp.
The follicular units are extracted by placing the punch around a single follicular unit and cutting a small circle through the skin around that follicular unit. The follicular unit is then gently pulled up and away from the loose tissue underneath the skin.
The small hole left behind after the follicle is extracted then heals over the following week. Normally, this small round incision contracts as it heals making the resulting round scar smaller than the size of the 1mm punch that made the incision. The FUE patient ultimately ends up with hundreds of small round white scars, which are normally not detectable once the patient’s hair grows out.
Although follicular unit extraction is a great surgery, not all patients are good candidates for it. During the consultation, this option is explored in depth where the pros and cons of this type of surgery versus the strip surgery are discussed. The following cases might suffice the requirements of the procedure:
Patients with limited hair loss or those who require small sessions
The treatment of small cosmetic areas, such as eyebrow and eyelash restoration
Athletes who must resume full activity soon after the procedure
Patients who tend to heal with wide scars
Patients with very low donor supply, a scarred donor area or very tight scalps
Welcome to Hair Now! This is a blog by Dr. Frank Manzanares of Manzanares Hair Restoration Center aimed to give educational insights about hair loss and how to combat it.
Dr. Frank Manzanares, Jr., Founder and Medical Director of Manzanares Hair Restoration Center has committed to delivering outstanding hair transplant procedures that make a positive distinction in the lives of his patients.
For more than 18 years, Dr. Frank has been practicing hair restoration in the U.S. most notably on the home of Hollywood celebrities, the Beverly Hills. He is also in the forefront of medical and surgical research and development in the field of hair restoration and plastic surgery.
Dr. Frank Manzanares is a specialist in Surgical Hair Restoration and performs follicular unit hair transplantation in his Ortigas, Philippines office. A practice solely dedicated to Hair Restoration.
Dr. Frank Manzanares specializes in all micro-follicular unit grafting, with surgical expertise in Large 3000 hair transplant procedure for MEN, repair of transplants on patients who have had outdated procedures performed, EYEBROW, EYELASH, BODY and FACIAL (Sideburns, Mustache, Beard) work and HAIR LOSS in women for 18 years. Given his extensive US training in Hair Restoration, his medical/surgical research and development of different techniques in the hair transplant field, combined with his artistic passion, he has uniquely elevated the science of hair restoration to an ART form.
Dr. Manzanares is committed to producing excellent results. Assisted by his surgical staff, they prepare micro-follicular unit grafts using special computer-aided magnifiers. He carefully creates all the incision for the grafts using small custom surgical blades. These special instruments create tiny and minimally invasive incisions that enables patient to achieve cosmetic density in a given area even after only one surgical session.
Dr. Frank performs all consultations at his clinic personally. He has numerous patients throughout the U.S., EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST, ASIA, and the PHILIPPINES whom he communicates with. He stresses the importance of establishing a solid doctor-patient relationship. Each step of the process, from the initial consultation, to the actual procedure(s), and follow-up care, is performed personally by Dr. Manzanares. His patients appreciate that he personally calls them on the evening of their procedure.
His solid surgical hair restoration background has enabled him to develop strong competencies, not only in performing ultra refined follicular unit hair transplant surgery, but also in performing repairs of prior bald scalps reductions. However, Dr. Manzanares now rarely perform these scalp reductions since today’s hair transplant procedure are superior and more natural looking. He also provides pro bono hair restoration to burn victims, children and other people in need.
Dr. Manzanares’ dedication to improving lives through his chosen profession is one of the driving forces behind the growth and success of Manzanares Hair Restoration Center today and for the years to come.
FRANSISCO BAKER MANZANARES JR., M.D. Founder and Medical Director, Manzanares Hair Restoration Center
Founder and CEO, Hair Restoration 2000 Inc. (US-based Corporation)
Founder and CEO, Manzanares 2000 Inc. (US-based Corporation)
Founder and CEO, Genesis 2000
Doctor of Medicine, Ateneo de Davao Medical School Foundation B.S. Zoology, University of the Philippines at Los Banos
Professional Affliations: International Society of Hair Restoration Surgeon European Society of Hair Restoration Surgeon Trichological Society Philippine Medical Association Pasig Medical Association Upsilon Sigma Phi Organization of Zoological Majors
Certified Advanced Cardiac Life Support
Certified Advanced Trauma Life Support
Manzanares Hair Restoration Center
Dr. Frank Manzanares, Jr., M.D.
Hair Restoration & Aesthetic Surgery
31/F Tycoon Centre Unit 3108, Pearl Drive, Ortigas Center
Pasig City, Philippines
Phone: +63.2.706.1698
Fax: +63.2.706.1699
Mobile Phone: +63.917.839.1978
This blog is intended to educate the public on hair loss topics based on professional experience and opinions from Dr. Frank Manzanares. Information contained herein should not be used for the purpose of self-medical diagnosis or self-treatment. FREE personal (or even online) consultation with Dr. Frank is highly recommended to combat your hair loss problem.
Dr. Frank Manzanares, Jr., Founder and Medical Director of Manzanares Hair Restoration Center has committed to delivering outstanding hair transplant procedures that make a positive distinction in the lives of his patients. 