I recently did an interview on the growing popularity of eyelash and eyebrow transplants with Dr. Barry Lycka at Inside Cosmetic Surgery Today. For those who want to learn more about these cutting-edge procedures, check it out at this link.
Eyelash and eyebrow transplants were originally developed to help trauma patients. Today, they're a helpful treatment for women with thin or sparse lashes or brows, either due to their genetic predisposition or as a result of over-plucking, trichotillomania, etc. In this procedure, living and growing hairs are taken from the back of the scalp and implanted directly into the upper eyelids, or the brows. The transplanted hairs will continue to grow, just like the hair on your head!
Back in 2006, I was the first U.S. doctor to teach hair restoration physicians how to perform eyelash transplantation at the world's first live surgery workshop in California. Check out these 2006 interviews with Good Morning America and Extra for more details about this procedure.
Hair restoration has advanced tenfold in recent years, most notably in hair transplantation. Long gone are the days of “hair plugs” - today, advances in artistry and surgical techniques can undetectably restore hairlines and coverage--without the 'tell-tale' signs.
Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE), which has quickly risen in popularity among patients and physicians. For more on what a no-scalpel/no-stitch FUE hair transplant procedure is, click here.
According to the 2011 Practice Census Results from the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS), there was an 11 percent increase worldwide in the number of hair restoration surgeries, and a more dramatic increase in FUE-type procedures as a percentage of all hair transplants. The percentage of FUE transplants doubled from 2009 to 2011. In 2009, FUE accounted for 10.8 percent of all surgical procedures; by 2011, that number had increased to 22 percent. In other words, in 2009, 25,200 of surgical hair restoration procedures were FUE transplants. In 2011, the number had more than doubled to 61,464.
