August is Hair Loss Awareness Month, and CTV interviewed Dr. Rahal on medications to prevent hair loss and advancements in hair restoration including a Robotic assisted hair transplant. Dr. Rahal is the first to perform a Robotic hair transplant in Canada and the only Canadian doctor offering this FDA cleared procedure to his worldwide patient base.

Video Transcription

Dr. Rahal: Good morning.

Kurt: It’s not a problem I have and I’m very thankful for that, having a
full head of hair. But there are so many fellows out there who battle with
hair loss all the time.

Dr. Rahal: Yes. By the age of 50, about 50% of men will have hair loss that
can be treated surgically. It also affects women.

Kurt: We were talking about that this morning.

Dr. Rahal: Women are commonly affected and it affects them a little bit
more psychologically than men. Men are expected to lose hair whereas if
women do lose hair, they’re more able to hide it because they have longer
hair but it does affect them just as much.

Kurt: Exactly. And you have solutions to those problems for a lot of
people, right?

Dr. Rahal: We do. First, we have to figure out what is the cause of the
hair loss. Most of the time it is a genetic reason. So in men 90% of the
reasons is genetic. That you can not really treat with most over the
counter products and/or medications. There are a couple of medications that
are proven by the FDA, Propecia and Proscar, that can work to reduce the
rate of hair loss.

Kurt: For the most part though, is it safe to say that having surgically
implanted hair is a better way to go for most people?

Dr. Rahal: Well, when the medications are not working and when there’s no
way you can hide it. You don’t want to have a comb-over. You don’t want to
cover it with a hat all your life. So ultimately, surgery can be the
solution. Today, with the advancement of the surgeries, we can have
surgeries that look very, very natural, very undetectable, and you can meet
a lot of men who’ve had surgery and you would not know they had it done.

Kurt: You brought along an example of what you’re talking about here. This
model has all kinds of markings on it, right?

Dr. Rahal: Yes. Basically when we look at a typical patient, the hair loss
can affect the front where they lose it from the front, or the top or the
crown. Genetically, these hairs in the back, you can see the zone that we
call the save zone, this zone is genetically programmed not to be lost.

Kurt: So is that where you harvest the hairs from?

Dr. Rahal: Yes. Correct. So when we take hairs from this area, we can
transplant them into the front, the top or whatever area that is needed.
This way, these hairs will be permanently growing. And there’s a couple of
ways where we can take it. Traditionally, in over 80% of the procedures we
take a small strip, which is illustrated by this line. This strip is taken
out, the hairs are taken out, then divided into one hair, two hairs or
three hairs, and then they are planted in the natural angles and direction.

The other method, which is the more newer method that we’re using, is we’re
taking hair using a very small punch which is about .8 mm which can take
out one hair or two hairs out at one time and when we take those out,
we’re left with a very, very small mark. So for men who want to have their
hairs very short, you don’t have a scar. You can have these little tiny
dots that are easily covered.

Kurt: Right. You do this by hand, but you also do it with robot, is that
correct?

Dr. Rahal: Yes. Over the last five years, we’ve had advancements in
utilizing this method, but using a robot. Today we have one of the first,
it is the first robot we have in Canada, and there’s only about a handful
worldwide. So the idea by taking this punch is that we’re still using a
manual to take out the hair. But the hairs are not always in a straight
line at an angle so we have to adjust the angles and the depth so when
you’re doing it manually, we’re very accurate but if you can automate this
you can have a lot more precise approach to being able to extract the graft
out.

Kurt: It’s a very interesting world that of hair surgery or stuff like
that. So people should be in contact with you if they want to find out
more. That’s the best solution. Get in touch, make an appointment and go
from there because everybody’s different, right?

Dr. Rahal: Right. There are a lot of misconceptions. Everybody’s different.
Everybody’s reasons are different. So essentially a professional opinion
will help.

Kurt: RahalHairTransplant.com is here. First stop is the website. The good
doctor here has people from all over the world coming to Ottawa for his
treatments. Thanks for coming to see us.

Dr. Rahal: Thank you.