Transgender Hair Restoration

An associate of mine contacts me from Chicago and says, “On your next trip here I would like you to meet a new patient I’m working with, because I would feel comfortable if you could consult with me on this special patient.” My next trip to Chicago was in a few weeks, so we set up a consultation for me to meet my associate’s patient. So I’m in his office and this very nice sophisticated gentlemen comes to see us about a hair transplant. We begin to discuss his family background and what his goals are regarding coverage density and donor. It is at that point that I find out in a very straight forward discussion that this patient has committed to becoming a woman on the outside to match the woman he is on the inside. Although he knows that a wig is certainly an option for him, he would really prefer to be able to have his own hair back, with as much density as we could provide him, so he could color and style his hair to suit his needs. That was approximately fifteen months ago when, let’s call him Nick came to see us and he was just beginning his transformation to Nicki.

Way before anyone was talking about Caitlyn Jenner

He was in the midst of performing many services to help his transformation become a reality, including helping him eliminate his beard, get his complexion smooth and tight, liposuction to help sculpture his/her body to start to look much more feminine, and a long term plan to help create her own natural hair growing on her head for the rest of her life. The most important part of the hair transition was making sure she had enough donor to cover the horseshoe hair loss Nicki was suffering from. Donor area hair is like a gold mine, once you are able to get all the gold out of the mine, all that’s left is a worthless cave. In Nicki’s case we had to start in the back and work our way forward. She was going to have a forehead reconstruction to reshape her brow, raise her eyebrows, and remove the wrinkles in that area. This was also going to give us an opportunity to create a female hairline for her on the 2nd hair procedure, and at the same time we would be able to completely cosmetically cover the scar left from the brow surgery which went across the top of her head nearly ear to ear. As we try to stress for all our patients long term planning is imperative.

As pre-planned the donor was able to connect the front to the back

Nicki came in with a warm excited positive attitude for her 2nd procedure, and we were so happy and honored that she had put her trust in our hands to help make her dream a reality. We also realized that this could be an entirely new group of patients for us to work with and assist them in completing a total transition. Men and women alike want their own natural growing hair as opposed to wearing a wig. As many of my patients tell me just waking up and walking into the bathroom and seeing hair is so great… their hair may be a mess but at least it is their hair and it is there. We just completed Nicki’s 2nd procedure and we will have to wait around 6 months to see how the results come out, but if it is anything like the first procedure she is going to love it and we will all be so proud and pleased.

Transgender people have a new and unique client for Hair Restoration

Nicki may need a 3rd and final procedure once everything is grown in just to cover whatever areas need more density, but this should be a much smaller surgery, and we still have donor to work with since this was a part of the long term plan. One may not agree with Nick’s need to break out of his shell and begin a new fresh life, but you must agree that as long as she is not harming anyone she has every right to do it. That being said I am a Doctor first, and I respect and appreciate what people like Nicki and Kaitlin Jenner feel that their new found freedom and look has brought to them physically and emotionally. The truth be told, the exterior is secondary compared to what it has given Nicki and others I have treated. They have a new found confidence, a warmth and caring they project from the inside out. This is truly an extension of self they have found and are now sharing with the world. We at Physicians Hair Restoration are so proud to be able to help in the process of changing these caterpillars into the butterflies they always knew they could be. For me, hair restoration surgery is about helping people feel better about themselves. It is exciting to me to be a physician who can offer assistance to a person who was trying to find peace within themselves.