Stop Believing These Hair Transplant Myths

Monique Ramsey (00:04):
Welcome everyone to The La Jolla Cosmetic Podcast. I'm your host is Monique Ramsey. Today I have Dr. Hector Salazar with me, and we're going to discuss a topic that's top of mind or maybe top of head, sometimes a source of stress for people. Many men find this a source of stress, but even women also, and that is hair loss and hair transplants. And there's so many myths about what's the right thing and there's fears floating around of what kind of plug is going to look natural versus what isn't. And so I thought, why don't we have, go right to the source, go right to the expert, have Dr. Hector Salazar join us because he is our hair transplant specialist and we're going to talk about micrographs and have him really clear the air on what you can expect. So welcome Dr. Salazar.

Dr. Salazar (00:58):
Thank you so much, Monique. It's always a pleasure. And let's continue de- mystifying this topic.

Monique Ramsey (01:03):
So as we age, hairlines can feel like a ticking clock, what's going to fall out and where and when. And for some people that starts really early, tell us what's normal and how do you know when it's time to take action?

Dr. Salazar (01:20):
So normally, and as you know, as we age, hair follicles are very complex organs. We never think about them as organs, but every single hair follicle, it is a very complex organ that has its genetic information and that the papilla all the way in the nucleus in the center, there are hair follicles. For instance, if you close your eyes and imagine like a 95-year-old grandpa, he's still going to have some hair in the back, right? I mean, he's going to maybe going to be missing hair here, but every single 95-year-old grandpa that you think of, then they're going to have some hair back here. Because the genetic information, the genetic information that's in the papilla and the nucleus of that hair follicle is going to be really, really good. And that hair follicle is going to go through the living cycle multiple, multiple times, the natural living cycle of hair.

(02:10):
While in other areas like the front, the hair follicles that we have there, they don't have that good of a genetic information. And as we start, and we notice that throughout our lifetime that your hairline a little by little, if you compare with pictures, and this applies to men and women, pictures of when you were younger, that your forehead keeps growing and actually it's not growing. But what's happening is that your hair laying is receding little by little. Why? Because the soldiers with not so good genetics there, you're going to be losing them first. So that is normal. Normal is for you to get a more ample forehead and have some hair loss little by little from the front of your hairline. Some of us start earlier, some of us start later, and that's like there's the multifactorial and some of it, it's a lot of genetic load that we have and somehow tends to have on the maternal side, tends to have more weight and then the paternal side for some reason. But it does not always apply. But that's normal. It happens.

Monique Ramsey (03:21):
So okay, if somebody's going to have a receding hairline or male pattern baldness, at what age do those signs typically start to show?

Dr. Salazar (03:30):
Mainly everybody will start noticing some hair thinning at about around 40. And then there is going to be those that are going to be fortunate and they're not going to maybe notice that, but then they'll probably start noticing it around 60. But as everything in life, it's a curve. And then you have the big bulk of people around late thirties, early forties, and the people that are actually going to have an accelerated hair loss pattern, then they're for sure going to start. They're going to always go back and relate to their early thirties and so on. I started noticing, I started noticing some hairs, but then it's not a real problem until mid thirties or they thirties into the early forties.

Monique Ramsey (04:12):
Now for guys and gals out there who don't want to jump right into a hair transplant situation, they don't want to jump into what they think is the extreme intervention. Things like minoxidil or different shampoos or different, there's Nutrafol, there's different things out there that people can take and do. Is that something that you recommend that they do as a intervention early or is it something that's sort of going along with maybe a transplant?

Dr. Salazar (04:43):
When you start having some hair thinning and maybe you don't even call it hair loss, but you want to make sure that you have all the elements, all the nutrients that hair needs to be shiny to be at its maximum. So definitely started with taking some supplements, some vitamins such as Nutrafol that we actually offer in our clinic. And it's really, really important because you don't want to miss the basics. You don't want to be, and I'm going to say something funny because I'm going to say you don't want to be scratching your head thinking,

Monique Ramsey (05:16):
What should I have been doing?

Dr. Salazar (05:18):
What should I have been doing? Well, you could have started with all the basics, so that's important. Then topical minoxidil is another thing that doesn't really create systemic effects but also can boost it or natural topical minoxidil, which is a natural substitute of it to get going that hair cycle and to give you at least improve about three to 5% more fullness of your hair. And those are things that are simple to do and just the only thing you need is a little bit of discipline. But I'm pretty sure that if you're having some hair thinning, you find that motivation to easily to be doing it every day.

Monique Ramsey (05:58):
So let's talk about surgical options. And it's really not surgery, surgery, it's not in the OR under general anesthesia. This is sort of a procedure. So let's talk about hair grafts or hair transplants, what you use and what do people typically think of when they hear that? And it's sort of everybody in there can close your eyes and imagine the worst hair transplant you've ever seen. And that's a different technique maybe. And so let's talk about what you use and why you use it.

Dr. Salazar (06:35):
The reason why you're looking to have a hair transplantation is because you want to improve the way you look. And the worst thing that can happen is that actually you get an unnatural look with it and then having a bunch of hairs coming out of a single follicle or having a very low hairline that's completely unnatural. Or having, when you see this corner here, that's the technical term for that, it's called receding triangle. If you see the receding triangle being completely closed and looking like a doll. So all those different ins and outs is what you want to try to avoid. And that's where artists like all the artistry comes in a hair transplantation.

Monique Ramsey (07:20):
Right? It's sort of designing. It's like, for the ladies out there in the audience, having a makeup artist do your makeup versus you or your 12-year-old.

Dr. Salazar (07:31):
Absolutely.

Monique Ramsey (07:33):
It's a whole different thing. And you're taking into account what is natural to not just filling it all in because that might not even look right.

Dr. Salazar (07:42):
And then sometimes as well, and we were talking about different ages, and that's important to receive the advice of someone who really specializes in this, which is, for instance, if you see a patient that's very young and let's say 28, 29, those patients have a full lifetime ahead of them, and sometimes they want to be very aggressive with bringing their hairline to the front. And the way we're going to talk a little bit about what we do, but when we move follicles and we bring them from the back to the front, what happens is if you are, once you take a hair follicle and then you move it to the front, it's never going to grow back in the back of your head. So you have a finite number of follicles that you can be bringing to the front. When young patients actually start exploring hair transplantation, it's really important then to orient them and don't let them be very aggressive.

(08:47):
So for instance, if they say, we want to have a mega session around 4,000 or 5,000 even with a very prolonged treatment, but we want to do it now and right now and we want to be very aggressive and bring it forward enough that it looks perfect like nothing happened. The problem is that then if you just please them with just delivering what they're asking, then they don't have the vision that we have, meaning they have not seen what happens in 20 years or 25 years, which is going to be, the process will continue happening. And then they're going to have a gap between the transplanted hair because that one's there. Once we put the hair, the follicles that we move forward, they're not going to, it's the problem, it's not the real estate. The problem is who lives there. So if you get one single follicle, put it here, just one, and then wait until you're 95, you're still going to have that one. So if we think about that when we reinforce this, then the process will continue. And then you're going to have a line of hair over here, but then you don't have anything. And if you cannot bring more follicles because you're now going to start already running into density problem back here.

(10:09):
Then you're going to throw away all your investment because then you have to shave everything because you're not going to look good anyway. So taking all those elements into account, as we were saying, designing the hairline, seeing exactly what looks good, what doesn't. I think it's key to avoid what we were talking about of looking so unnatural or looking, we were talking about it in one of our previous podcasts, looking like a puffin with just some hairs right here..

Monique Ramsey (10:42):
The little turfts of thing coming out.

Dr. Salazar (10:44):
Coming out. And they're going to be nice and good and vigorous because those that we transplant are still going to be there right here. And you're receding triangle that some people request, I mean, some patients actually request like, oh, go ahead and close it right here. So the process will continue and then you're just going to have some hair follicles there that doesn't look good. So I think selecting the areas that you're going to be transplanting, the rhythm that you're going to be doing it at, designing that hairline, anticipating for the future needs, and also selecting the single follicles to go to the front of the battle, and then the follicles that have more hairs to go in the back where you need more density, all that together will help patients look natural, look at their best.

Monique Ramsey (11:33):
And so you used the SmartGraft, and we did talk about that a long time ago, and we even did a live webinar, which you guys can get on demand, and I'll put the link in the show notes, where we show some examples of what we're talking about on the screen. So the SmartGraft kind of, if you could do a brief description so people can kind of picture what you're talking about, what happens.

Dr. Salazar (12:00):
Yeah. So SmartGraft, what it does is technology that we use for FUE, which is follicular unit extraction. So what that means is that you're going to go in and harvest, you're going to harvest that living follicle. And as we were saying, it's a living organ, so it needs to be treated, it's a transplant, so it needs to be treated as such. So this device, it harvests it, and then it actually takes it through suction and again, stores it at the perfect humidity and temperature and for it to be waiting for the moment that you're going to be transplanting, that's the FUE technology, you don't get any scars. You don't have a line back here. And that's what we have.

Monique Ramsey (12:44):
So you were talking about you're taking those, each follicle from the back, not in a big strip like the old fashioned way where it was a big strip of skin, the whole thing, and a big incision in the back. These are just each individual follicle and you're there to identify, I'm assuming which follicles we're going to go get and where we're going to put them, because not all hair is created equal, right.

Dr. Salazar (13:12):
Exactly.

Monique Ramsey (13:13):
From one follicle to the next, they might be slightly different?

Dr. Salazar (13:15):
And they can have B singles doubles. And then if we need more singles, we have to divide the doubles or triples into singles. And depending on the areas that we're going to be grafting, and also depending on the fact that if you need, what do you need? Do you need definition or do you need fullness? And in different areas we might have different needs. So yes, absolutely you're correct. So no strip, no incisions, just one follicle at a time.

Monique Ramsey (13:44):
Now is the patient, what is the patient doing during all this and is it uncomfortable?

Dr. Salazar (13:50):
So regularly, patients during hair transplantation, they're going to be like two main stages with one halftime. What happens is that everything starts with, we actually do a fade cut of the hair. This does not need to be shaved if we're going to be grafting here, if we're going to be harvesting.

Monique Ramsey (14:09):
From, for the people listening, where here is your front of your forehead.

Dr. Salazar (14:15):
Exactly, your hairline, and the receding hairline. So we are not going to be shaving that area where we're going to put the hairs in. We're going to be shaving the area where we're going to be harvesting hairs. And then for women, what we do is we allow and we do it in layers. So you don't have, in a gentleman, it's easy to shave the back, and then in a couple of weeks it's going to be like a very small haircut, very short haircut that patient got. But on women, it's important that for women to know that it's not, they're going to be shaved on their back. We do it in layers, so you can have, I mean people will see you from the back and they cannot tell.

Monique Ramsey (14:54):
They won't know, yeah, what's going on.

Dr. Salazar (14:56):
If you lift up the hair, you can find those areas, but nobody does that. It's fine. So that's the first step. And then we numb things up. We know where the nerves that provide sensation to the scalp are, and we give you what we call scalp blocks. So think about it, when you go to the dentist, they numb up the area where they're going to be working, and then we ask the patient to be facing down while we start harvesting, we determine the areas where we're going to be harvesting, we numb all that area. And patients, once everything's numb, they are so comfortable that some of them actually take a nap or they fall asleep. Then there's a short break because that basically takes about two to three hours depending on the number of follicles. But then there's a short break because by that time it's going to be like 11, 11:30, and then patients can actually have a little bite some lunch.

(15:45):
And then after that, the next part would be designing the hairline, exactly understanding and knowing where we're going to be putting that hair estimating how many follicles are going to go here, how many follicles are going to go there. And then after that, what we do is we numb up the part where the follicles are going to be coming once it's all good and numb, again, same thing. Patients then are very comfortable and then now they're sitting facing forward just like imagine in a lawn chair, the grafting starts. So meaning bringing and putting the follicles where they're going to be living in their new address and then the

Monique Ramsey (16:27):
Soldiers in their new barracks.

Dr. Salazar (16:29):
That's exactly right.

Monique Ramsey (16:30):
We'll stick with the analogy.

Dr. Salazar (16:30):
We're going to be consistent. And then what will happen is that pretty much at about the pens anywhere from 2:00, 2:30, 3:00, 3:30, then we're finishing up and then we put some of the bandages that we need. I mean, don't think that it's going to be big and bulky, but it's something just to protect and mainly to protect the areas where we harvested those follicles and patients feel fine. Patients at the most, they feel maybe a little tired, some tension in the shoulders. It's rare that they complain of pain. Sometimes maybe a little bit of a headache. That's what they refer, but that's it. It's a light headache, nothing else. And then they come back the next day for us to change those dressings for them. And pretty much the next day everybody feels at a hundred percent.

Monique Ramsey (17:16):
Okay. Now what, I have so many questions. So one of my questions is, is this something that most people could see the result or get the result that they're looking for in one session or one sitting, or is it something that you do over time?

Dr. Salazar (17:39):
The great majority, yes, the great majority of patients, they can see it in one session. The result is going to be immediate as in that they can look in the mirror and see exactly where the new soldiers are located. So that is going to be immediate. What happens is because of the hair follicle cycle, natural cycle, what's going to happen is that they're going to see how those babies are going to start growing, and then their patients get really excited about it. They can see it in action right there, how little by little they're going to be longer and longer and they can see exactly the territory that was grafted, because it's an area where you have thinning or you have no hair, and then you can clearly see how those new neighbors are going to be starting to grow. But what happens is because that hair follicle undergoes a big shock, I mean the follicle was happily living

Monique Ramsey (18:37):
In the back and now it's in the front.

Dr. Salazar (18:40):
Now it's in the front and then suffer a shock. So what happens is after a period of two, three weeks of that hair follicle growing, what happens is it goes into a hibernation status. So it's going to be alive, but it's going to fall off. So the shaft, not the follicle, the follicle is still in there, but the shaft of hair it's going to fall off. And then patients, actually about two to three weeks, they say like, oh my God, this didn't work. But we prepare them for that part, of course, we literally tell them it does work. That's what needs to happen in order for you to get the result. And then that takes two to three months of hibernation of that hair follicle. And then what happens is at about six months, you can start to have a very good idea why? Because those hair follicles are coming back from hibernation and then they start growing. But what happens is that they need to catch up with the neighbors. So that's the reason why when we take pictures at about six months, you can definitely see a big change. But then when we take pictures of the hair transplantation at a year, it's when you go like, oh my God. Because then you can see the entire full set of hair that now you have.

Monique Ramsey (19:52):
You said earlier you said 4,000 or something. So give us an idea of a small, medium, large hair transplant. How many hundreds or thousands we're talking about?

Dr. Salazar (20:03):
Right, exactly. Millions.

Monique Ramsey (20:07):
Oh my God.

Dr. Salazar (20:07):
So I would say small, we want to do it as you're saying, small, medium and large. When you're going to be thinking as like 800 to 1500, it's like a small.

Monique Ramsey (20:19):
Okay.

Dr. Salazar (20:19):
1500 to around 2,500, it's like a medium and then 2,800, 3000, 3,500, 4,000. It's a mega session.

Monique Ramsey (20:30):
You could do 4,000 in that one day. It would just be a long day?

Dr. Salazar (20:34):
Exactly. A very long day. And again, as I was telling you, we assemble a large team in order for things to happen. So we assemble a team of four or five people, including three technicians and a nurse and doctor and another assistant. So for all the transplant to take place in a nice, timely fashion.

Monique Ramsey (20:57):
And keeping your little soldiers in their little happy home over there in the SmartGraft machine until the proper moment, moment. So they're not sitting off on a tray like getting air on them and dry, because I've seen, it's so funny to see all of the little, what he's talking about, all the little soldiers on as they come out. But the SmartGraft machine is very cool. The way that the technology works. I mean, it really is sort of the gold standard, I think for hair transplants.

Dr. Salazar (21:27):
For FUE, yes.

Monique Ramsey (21:27):
Now do you, or FUE, yeah. Do you ever have your patients pre-treat with a PRP session or do you do it after, or does it not need to be part of it?

Dr. Salazar (21:40):
Well, we recommend to go and do it at the same time because patients are already numbed,

Monique Ramsey (21:45):
Oh, okay.

Dr. Salazar (21:45):
So their scalp is numb, and then remember it involves injections. So if they're already numb for the hair transplantation, then adding PRP and injecting it during it's much, I mean, it's much more comfortable. Then we always recommend to follow up with another treatment at about three months. And now it's very clear for, I'm pretty sure all the audience, you keep hearing that two to three months. So that's the hibernation period. So it's important that then you stimulate another population that went into hibernation two to three months after, and then that way your results can be boosted significantly. So yes, we do recommend to, can it be done without a PRP treatment? Yes, it can be done without it, but if you're adding it, you're definitely getting the double benefit of you're there, it's time for you to do it, and then you stimulate that population and then you stimulate another set of hibernating follicles two, three months later, and then at six months to a year, you get a fantastic result.

Monique Ramsey (22:49):
Now, one of the things I wanted to also talk about is you see there's so much stuff online and it's only natural that all of us are going to go do research in before and after pictures. Why would it not be good to necessarily trust what we see online? Or how do you read maybe a before and after picture to know that's the result?

Dr. Salazar (23:12):
If we would be living in the previous century, I mean the tricks that you can do with editing pictures would've been very, very much limited. Right now, there's a lot of editing. There's a lot of things that can be, I mean, if people are unscrupulous, or they don't have high ethics, they can also simulate a 20,000 hair of transplantation and then just show some pictures. It's important that, I mean, if it looks too good to be true, it is too good to be truth. So for patients not to get their expectations, such as you're seeing someone who's completely bald that has no hair, and then they show up with a full set of hair, I think that it's not, it's not real.

Monique Ramsey (24:03):
It's like you watch those war movies and it's all the troops, and then some guy in the editing room, it makes thousands of more troops on the battlefield. They're not real people. So I guess it's the same thing.

Dr. Salazar (24:17):
It's exactly the same thing. Remember that you need hair in order some hair to be able to perform hair transplantation.

Monique Ramsey (24:25):
Tell us a little bit about the results that patients can expect to get once they're fully recovered and all the soldiers are awake. What is the thickness going to baby be close to what they used to have or what should they expect in that department?

Dr. Salazar (24:42):
It depends on how early or how late in the game we're getting. Again, if we are intervening, let's say when patient's 55 for the first time and then they show us a picture of when they were 25, then most likely the answer is not. If we're intervening when they're like 35 to 40 and they want to start increasing the just like, let's increase the fullness or thickness at the front without advancing much. So then probably, and most likely they're going to look pretty much like the way they look 10, 15 years ago. It's important for patients and us to spend some time together during consultation because it's for them to share with us their goals. There have been times, Monique and this that we're very honest with them, and if we cannot take them where they want to go, then we rather tell them, here is what we can do with our technique, with our technology.

(25:40):
Be careful, make sure that you go and see certified people, board certified doctors, and that they're not going to be overpromising you, but we'll rather be friends than promise something that we cannot deliver. So it's really important that consultation because, and then we will explain to them, look, this is, we're up to where we can take you and this is the reason why. This is our advice because we're planning for this, we're planning for that, we're taking this and that into account. We don't want to rob Peter to pay Paul and then give you a very back that's completely thinned out, and then that is going to look like you're undergoing some sort of a chemotherapy process with a thin back. So it's important. And by the way, for chemotherapy patients that are undergoing chemotherapy, PRP helps significantly.

Monique Ramsey (26:38):
Oh, that's good to know.

Dr. Salazar (26:39):
To bring that up as we're talking about this.

Monique Ramsey (26:42):
That makes sense though.

Dr. Salazar (26:43):
But right, because about cell reproduction and that's what you're hitting with chemotherapy. And then that's where PRP helps with that cycle. So yeah, it's important to keep it real, keep it realistic, go over some the goals. It's really important, but they can find honesty here with us.

Monique Ramsey (27:02):
And I think I say this a lot, but now we're going, if by July it'll be our 37th birthday, you can't stick around that long if you're lying to people or providing bad results. And so I think looking at the before and after pictures, and even asking maybe to talk to a patient who's had it before, if that's something that you're concerned with, we have patients who are happy to talk to you and looking at the reviews and seeing that, and I think that's how everybody should do business. But certainly the integrity of our surgeons here at La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Center is paramount. And we'd rather turn you away than promise something we can't do.

Dr. Salazar (27:52):
That we can't deliver.

Monique Ramsey (27:53):
So getting back to a few, for the women out there, what are the things, because I overheard you talking about eyebrow hair transplants, can I just ask you to talk about that a little bit and who might be a candidate for that while we're talking about hair?

Dr. Salazar (28:15):
Right. So I would say anybody that has eyebrow thinning or practically no eyebrows are good candidates to undergo hair transplantation. We lliterally, I mean, we don't have other source for eyebrow hair for eyebrows than our natural eyebrows. So what we are going to be using, we're going to be using hair follicles for that. There are some intricacies to it in terms of the direction of the hair and the direction of the grafts that which are going to go, which direction, et cetera.

Monique Ramsey (28:51):
We don't want them going left when they should be going right or whatever.

Dr. Salazar (28:55):
Because I mean, you can imagine that you want to start a little vertical and then you want to start moving towards a more lateral growth.

Monique Ramsey (29:02):
The right direction.

Dr. Salazar (29:04):
The right direction. And the number of hair follicles, it's a little bit, I mean, it's lower, right? I mean, it's not going to be the 4,000 mega session that we were talking about, but it is doable. But one thing that, I mean, as we were saying, we are very honest and we prepare our patients for this. You get the blessing and the curse and the blessing is that you're going to have a much thicker, good looking eyebrow, but the curse is that you have to take care of it, that you have to maintain it. And what I mean by that is, as you know, the rate of the growth of the eyebrow naturally compared to the rate of the growth of your hair, it's completely different. Your hair grows much faster than your eyebrows. So once we do the transplanation, your eyebrows now are going to be growing at the rate that your hair is growing.

Monique Ramsey (30:06):
Warp speed.

Dr. Salazar (30:06):
So you got to trim them, you got to maintain them. But the good news is now you have eyebrows to take care and maintain and all that. Before you didn't, now you do, but you have to do it because if not, then they're going to go a little crazy. And then, so that's why it's the blessing and the curse. But I mean, of course you obtain a benefit that otherwise you wouldn't even have. The only thing you would have is maybe either a tattoo or maybe even a couple of hairs there, plus a line. So it is something that patients that have it done, they enjoy it.

Monique Ramsey (30:40):
Okay. I dunno why I thought this question, but I have a question. My question is, a lot of men and women color their hair. Is that something that you have specific recommendations on when that might be able to happen?

Dr. Salazar (30:58):
We only ask patients not to do it, not to add any products or tint the hair or anything for the first two weeks. Then after two weeks, then they can start either with whatever product, treatment gel, spray, anything they want, including color.

Monique Ramsey (31:13):
Oh, perfect. Okay. So everybody always wants to know about prices. And we have prices listed on our website with ranges. And the range really for this is maybe 9,000 to 18,000, somewhere in there. Again, maybe if it's a small, medium, large, moderate, tiny, huge, I don't know what all the words are that you guys use for the different sessions. So that gives you an idea. And of course we have, PatientFi is our partner for financing. And this is something that a lot of people, it's actually one in three of our patients, year over year after year, will use financing to help them get that result now and enjoy it for longer. And would you say Dr. Salazar, if you're in your thirties, waiting longer isn't necessarily the right answer, would you say earlier intervention is best?

Dr. Salazar (32:08):
If it's bothering you, I mean, if you're looking in the mirror every morning and you're taking that shower and then you're seeing how much hair you're losing and it's starting to take over your thoughts. I mean, it's a daily thing that you're seeing. And then you start looking at the pictures, and then you start seeing different angles of your hair, of your hairline, of the back of your crown, and then you start disliking it and saying, wow, I didn't even realize, that can potentially trigger a phone call and visit. And you know what? Let's have a nice conversation and let's see what's happening. Let's make sure that this is just regular either male or female hair thinning process, that it's nothing that has an underlying disease or another different problem. And then as long as good news, bad news, good news, there's nothing else that we need to search or research. And we know that this is just regular hair thinning, then the bad news, so it has started, but then let's see what the different points of intervention that we have and that patients can do in order for them to look their best at that moment in time and during those next 5, 6, 10 years.

Monique Ramsey (33:27):
And maybe slow the progress of your foe on the battlefield, right? Right. Try to freeze, like you say, freeze this moment in time and

Dr. Salazar (33:38):
Age better.

Monique Ramsey (33:38):
Not lose ground. Yeah, yeah,

Dr. Salazar (33:40):
Exactly. Age better.

Monique Ramsey (33:41):
And enjoying it longer. And so bringing me back to financing is where I was thinking is, it really does allow for this kind of a intervention, if you need it. If you need it, you might not need it, but it does help offset. You can go, okay, I could pay 200 a month, no problem. I could figure that out on my budget. And allow for if you need or want that intervention, it's really what you want. If you don't care, it doesn't matter. But if you do, then that helps you get there earlier, enjoy it longer. I just wanted to bring that up. But we do have those ranges on our website. And I think your point about, let's give us a call, let's have a conversation. You do zoom consults for people who are out of town, and I know we have a lot of patients

Dr. Salazar (34:29):
All the time.

Monique Ramsey (34:30):
We have a lot of patients who come in from out of town to see you and have surgery or have hair transplantation. So we're all set up for that. And if you live local, great, and it's free. And Dr. Salazar, really, I think you're going to love that connection. Just like you're hearing right now over the airwaves or on YouTube, he really bonds with his patients. And I see that all the time when his patient reviews come back into how much they felt really heard and seen and cared for. And so having that conversation and just seeing, where should I start? What do you think I need? You tell him your goals and he'll help design that natural looking hairline result.

Dr. Salazar (35:23):
And one of the things lastly, in terms of you were touching on cost, and one of the things is, as you can imagine, when I am talking to patients, and if ever they're concerned or worried cost and all that, the most expensive hair follicle is follicle number one. If you were to come here and have one follicle hair transplantation, right? That's the hair follicle, that's the most expensive. Why? Because you need to pull the trigger for everything to happen. You need all the team, you need all the equipment, you need to get everything ready, you need all the special rooms, you need this, you need that. You have your preoperative visit, you have your follow-ups and everything, right?

Monique Ramsey (36:11):
True.

Dr. Salazar (36:12):
So then the more follicles you add, then those follicles are cheaper and cheaper and get cheaper and cheaper and cheaper and not, because my philosophy is not like, okay, let's go ahead and transplant as many as we can because you just heard me talking about we need to plan for the future and we need to strategize. But in reality, patients can see sometimes if they're ready, I dunno to cover the cost of 2000, but maybe we would benefit from 2,500, then they can potentially finance that part. For instance, if they were maybe ready for the 2000 and then but the other 500, why? Because everybody's there, everything's ready to maybe do like 500 more. And if we think that it'll be of benefit, then oh, why don't we add that little finance part and then let's add some more.

Monique Ramsey (37:01):
So you're maximizing your time in there.

Dr. Salazar (37:04):
Exactly.

Monique Ramsey (37:04):
And your time as the surgeon, the whole team, whole process of getting ready for it, recovering after, going through the time where it's going to go dormant and all that. So you're only doing that one time to add a little bit more. So I think that helps things be achievable. And our patient coordinators are so good at knowing what plans they work with you. And we do it all the time. And so when we just did a podcast recently with Janelle about all the new financing options that there are, and there's like we have up to 24 months no interest. There's fixed rate plans, there's everything. So don't be shy. I think about, I know it's sometimes hard to pick up the phone and call and say, okay, I want to have a consultation. That's kind of hard sometimes to get yourself there, but when you get in and you meet everybody, they're so friendly and they want to work with you and help you get your goal that you're trying to get. And we're your partner in that.

Dr. Salazar (38:06):
Exactly. Absolutely, Monique.

Monique Ramsey (38:08):
Thank you, Dr. Salazar. This was such an interesting little brush up on what is the latest in hair transplants and how to not look strange.

Dr. Salazar (38:21):
Exactly.

Monique Ramsey (38:22):
Not look like a doll when you're done. So thanks again and thanks everybody for listening. And we'll put everything in the show notes. We'll have links to before and afters, to the financing, if you want to get pre-qualified, links to the reviews, links to information, more information about hair transplantation with the FUE and the SmartGraft, and also that webinar that we did that you can do on demand, we'll put that in there as well. So thanks everybody, and we'll see you on the next one.

Dr. Salazar (38:52):
Thank you so much. Thanks, Monique.

Announcer (38:54):
Take a screenshot of this podcast episode with your phone and show it at your consultation or appointment or mention the promo code PODCAST to receive $25 off any service or product of $50 or more at La Jolla Cosmetic. La Jolla Cosmetic is located just off the I-5 San Diego Freeway in the Ximed building on the Scripps Memorial Hospital campus. To learn more, go to ljcsc.com or follow the team on Instagram @ljcsc. The La Jolla Cosmetic Podcast is a production of The Axis, theaxis.io.