Category Archives: ISHRS

Damkerng Pathomvanich, ISHRS, Valerie Randall

ISHRS 22nd Annual Meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

3 Comments

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 2013 conference in San Francisco, the initial online outline of their program is excellent.

ISHRS 22nd annual meeting summary

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” (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.
ISHRS

ISHRS 21st Annual Meeting in San Francisco

Leave a comment
ISHRS -- International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery.
ISHRS — International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery.

ISHRS 21st Annual Meeting in San Francisco

The International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) is having its 21st annual meeting in San Francisco from October 23-27, 2013. Unlike some hair transplant and hair loss related associations that are operated by hair loss forum owners, the ISHRS has no connection with any private forum.

In my mind, this makes it the best association out there, albeit a bit large with almost 1,000 members. Their annual conferences have become superb in recent years, and I would probably go to this one if I was allowed entry.

The summary of this 21st meeting is excellently presented in the below page:

ISHRS 21st Annual Meeting Daily Review

In order of what interests me the most from the 100 plus scheduled presentations and workshops:

  1. I am especially interested in the 30-minute presentation on hair follicle cloning and regeneration by Dr. Colin Jahoda. Of particular noteworthiness to me, Dr. Nigam is a huge fan of Dr. Jahoda. It seems like out of all the hair loss researchers in the world, Dr. Nigam respects Dr. Jahoda the most.
  2. A 30-minute presentation on Extra-follicular Environmental Modulation of Hair Regeneration by Dr. Cheng-Ming Chuong (with moderation by the famous Ken Washenik).
  3. Dr. Jerry Cooley’s 12-minute presentation titled “Bioenhancements of Hair Transplantation”.
  4. Dr. Carlos Wesley’s 20-minute presentation on scarless follicle harvesting, which is presented as part of a section called “Beyond FUT and FUE”.
  5. “Is Low Level Laser Therapy Effective in Treating Androgenetic Alopecia? A Review of 5 Years Experience in Treating Hundreds of Patients with Male and Female Pattern
    Hair Loss” — 10-minute presentation by Dr. Shelly Friedman
  6. A 10-minute presentation by Dr. Nilofer Farjo summarizing highlights from the 7th World Congress for Hair Research.
  7. Dr. Wayne Hellstrom’s presentation title (“Post Finasteride Syndrome Update: Urologist’s Perspective”) is a bit scary to me, since I still take 5mg Proscar quarter tabs once every 2 days.  Hopefully, any side effects he has seen are largely in those who take higher doses.
  8. Dr. Christian Bisanga has an interesting 7-minute presentation on miniaturization in the donor area. For years, I have been skeptical about hair transplant surgeons’ claims that a hair restoration procedure is permanent. Meaning that any hair moved from the donor area at the back to the front of the scalp will remain permanent. I think this is a lie. Most severely balding people I see also have some thinning in the donor area, and many older people have absolutely no hair in the donor area. My grandfather was one such case, and I have been heading in that direction for a few years now. My donor hair and side of scalp/above-ear hair are clearly thinning. Donor hair is often not permanent, but admitting that can hurt a surgeon’s customer base significantly.

The majority of the presentations and workshops are quite interesting, but largely focus on hair transplantation techniques. FUE is becoming especially important based on the number of presentations covering that method. Dr. Robert True, in his introduction, states that “FUE has emerged, and in the minds of many, will soon replace FUT as the hair transplant procedure of choice.” Hard to believe that 10 or so years ago, almost no-one was doing FUE.