The International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) is having its 22nd annual meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from October 8-11, 2014.  Surprisingly, this is the first time this conference is being held in Asia, home to over one-half of the world’s population.  As was the case with last year’s conference in San Francisco,  the initial online outline of their program is excellent:

ISHRS 22nd annual meeting

The chair of the conference is the renowned Thailand based surgeon Dr. Damkerng Pathomvanich (also called Dr. Path on the forums). As usual, the majority of the presentations are related to hair transplantation techniques and improvements in that field.  The four main non-hair transplantation related presentations from invited speakers are:

1. The key Norwood lecture by Dr. Valerie Randall (UK), titled “Is a Glaucoma Drug the Next Treatment for Hair Loss? ”  This of course pertains to the FDA approved drug Bimatoprost, a prostamide/prostaglandin F2α analog that was initially used to stop the progression of glaucoma (and was later also found to grow eyelash hair and has since been sold for that purpose under the brand name Latisse). (My note: this is quite possible going to be the next big thing in terms of hair loss drugs, and I will have to write a post on it soon).
2. Dr. Rodney Sinclair (Australia)’s lecture titled “Androgenetic Alopecia: New Insights into the Role of the Arrector Pili Muscle in Hair Biology.“
3. Dr. Desmond Tobin (UK)’s lecture on  “The Aging Scalp and its Hallmark Gray Hair.”
4. Dr. Thomas Dawson (Singapore — Proctor & Gamble)’s lecture on “Female Aging & Care for Your Hair – Making the Most of What You Have.”  (My note:  what a depressing and discouraging title!).

There are a huge number of interesting presentations related to hair transplantation this time.  In fact the brochure mentions that they received record interest in this regard.  Among the ones I like include:

• Four unique presentations (all from renowned hair transplant surgeons) related to storage medium for hair grafts.
• Four presentations on PRP.
• Various presentations and group sessions on devices and proprietary techniques, many of which I had never heard of before (but are in all likelihood just minor variations in existing tools and in FUT and FUT).
• Various presentations and group session dedicated to ethnic groups and hair transplantation (e.g., African hair, Chinese hair, Japanese hair, East Asian hair).
• Dr. Bradley Wolf’s presentation on the genomics comparison of hair follicles from FUT, FUE and plucks.
• Dr. Sharon Keene’s presentation on LLLT.
• Dr. John Cole’s discussion group on FUE megasessions.
• Dr. Robert True’s discussion group on beard FUE.
• Dr. Arvind Poswal’s discussion group on chest hair FUE.
• Dr. Ken Washenik and Dr. Rodney Sinclair’s discussion group on understanding cell multiplication and future therapies.
• Dr. Jerry Cooley’s discussion group on bioenhancements in hair transplantation.
• Dr. Robert Bernstein’s presentation on robotic (My note: probably ARTAS) recipient site creation.
• Dr. James Harris’ presentation on the follicular distribution in 176 robot assisted FUE patient cases.