Having attended many of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) annual meetings over the years, I’ve long known that Dr. Robert Haber is highly respected by his physician colleagues.

In 1995 he was recognized for his innovative techniques with an “Award of Excellence” by the ISHRS. In 2001 he was awarded the Archimedes Prize by the Italian Society of Hair Restoration and the Michelangelo Award in 2002. He also served as the President of the ISHRS from 2002 to 2003.

But seeing him and his staff in action confirmed that he “walks the talk” in all aspects of his hair restoration surgery from A to Z.

The issue of how hair bearing tissue is removed from the donor area has been a particularly hot topic on the Internet the past few years. Patients have been concerned about minimizing scarring in the donor area, while maximizing the amount of hair follicles that are successfully transplanted.

Dr. Haber is very much at the cutting edge of addressing these issues so that patient’s get the optimal amount grafts from a given amount of limited donor tissue, while minimizing the visibility of any donor scar. In fact, his new device, the “donor spreader”, which virtually eliminates any transection (severing) of hair follicles in the donor area during donor removal, was a big sensation when it was introduced at the annual ISHRS meeting in Australia in August of 2005.

Dr. Haber’s new “Donor Spreader” – making Donor Harvesting Transection Free.

The donor spreader enables a surgeon to remove a single donor strip from the patient’s donor area without transecting the follicles along the edges of the donor strip. This single strip of hair bearing donor tissue is then carefully “slivered” (trimmed) under microscopes into smaller sections, which are then trimmed into 1, 2, 3 and 4 hair follicular unit grafts.

While many leading hair transplant surgeons have the skill to cut along the edge of the donor strip and carefully remove a single donor strip with minimal transection of the follicles along the single blade incision, the donor spreader makes this process easier and more assured.

This single bladed donor removal and dissection process, when skillfully performed, makes the harvesting and trimming of donor tissue into follicular unit grafts virtually transection free. Thus a patient can know with confidence that every follicle that is harvested from their limited supply of bald resistant hair follicles in the donor area is going to be carefully preserved and transplanted.

Such careful attention to maximizing a patient’s limited bald resistant donor tissue is the hallmark of physicians who really care about the patient’s long term well being. Such care is often not taken by clinic’s who use “multibladed” knifes to quickly remove and trim the donor area in one step without carefully avoiding transecting and damaging the precious donor follicles. Such multibladed knifes and other patient unfriendly means of donor removal, while expedient for the clinic, are silent killers of hundreds of thousands of precious bald resistant hair follicles each year.

In my opinion, Dr. Haber’s new donor spreader is an outstanding and innovative tool that will save hundreds of thousands of precious follicles in thousands of patients as leading physicians incorporate it into their practices. I really commend him for making the donor harvesting process virtually transection free!

Making the Donor Scar Virtually Invisible

Dr. Haber also uses a relatively new technique for closing the donor area called “Trichophytic” closure, which can often make the donor scar virtually undetectable to the naked eye.

This technique, also referred to as the “ledge” technique, was also detailed on this forum by Dr. Paul Rose who has championed this technique along with Dr. Mario Marzola of Australia.

The “Trichophytic” closure enables the top and bottom lips of the open donor area to be joined together with a slight overlap so that the hair follicles in the lower lip grow up and out through the upper lip thus making the donor scar virtually invisible to the naked eye. To enable the upper and lower lips of the donor area to overlap in a smooth and level manner the top and bottom lips are trimmed and beveled so that they join together flush.

Such a high level of care in the harvesting and closing of the donor area is producing optimal hair yield for his patients, while minimizing visible donor scarring so that it will not be an issue for a patient.

Given his interest in minimizing the chance of cosmetically significant donor scarring, Dr. Haber likes to limit his typical surgical session to under 2,500 grafts in order to avoid over taxing the donor area.

Microscopically Prepared Follicular Unit Grafts and Minimally Invasive Incisions

Dr. Haber’s technicians take great care to preserve the naturally occurring follicular units, while trimming them into 1, 2, 3 and 4 hair grafts. These grafts are then placed into very tiny graft incisions that are carefully oriented and angled by Dr. Haber.

Like other leading hair transplant surgeons, Dr. Haber is sensitive to the varying angles and directions in which hair grows depending on where it is located. By following the natural direction and angulations of hairs in a given area, Dr. Haber is able to recreate a natural flow and direction for the new hair.

Patient Focused Care Produces Optimal Results

Dr. Haber and his staff also typically focus on one patient for the day. Such individual attention enables them to take the time and care needed at each step of the process to give the patient optimal yield and growth, rapid healing and very natural results.

Such quality work, although not widely known or recognized online, has earned Dr. Haber and his clinic a strong local reputation in Ohio. In my opinion, Dr. Haber and his staff are real gems in the rough who quietly and consistently produce excellent state of the art results at very fair prices.

Pat.... no, tell us what you really think. -ha

I'm glad to see that you went and visited Dr. Haber... my choice.

I was afraid to talk about him too much because I'm less and four months into it and really can't walk-the-talk yet, so I've been patiently waiting.

I can tell you for a fact my scar is completely unnoticable to me and I know where it is... last month Dr. haber had a hard time finding it, which was impressive. I think I wrote about that. I don't remember what you called the technique but it does work.

Just waiting, rather impatiently for a great result and he'll have my full endorsement. He is a funny guy and relaxing to be around. So, I made a good choice after all ~zerro

One more thing, I have been rather disappointed about only recieving 1600+ graphs because everyone else is getting huge sessions all at once. I need two, now. Can you elaborate more on why he chooses to do smaller sessions. thanx

Zerro,

Congratulations on a wise choice. When I see physicians like Dr. Haber who quietly do great work with no fan fare, I'm struck by how little recognition they get online. All too often a few highly visible clinics get the bulk of the attention, while some real gems go quietly unnoticed.

So it’s great to see one of his satisfied but typically quiet patients sharing their experience.

As for session sizes, in my opinion the right size is the one that is optimal for the patient in the LONG run - not the size that is most convenient for the clinic.

We all want to restore our hair as fast and full as possible. But ultimately all surgeons can only safely remove a certain amount of donor tissue in one session and achieve the virtually undetectable donor scar you got.

The huge over the 3,000 graft sessions have gotten the "big headlines" on the forums. But many patients don't realize that these graft counts are often an apples to oranges comparison. Many of these mega mega sessions are really "sub follicular unit" grafts in which naturally occurring 3 and 4 hair grafts have been trimmed into 1 and 2 hair grafts.

Such sub follicular unit grafting generates impressive counts (and billings for the clinic) but ultimately it is the amount of hair that successfully grow in the donor area that matters.

Personally I think that mega sessions of true "follicular units" (not sub follicular unit grafts) should range between 2,500 to 3,500 in order to minimize the risk of visible donor scarring and to maximize the successful growth of the transplanted hairs.

I'm a big believer in ultra refined minimally invasive grafting that enables dense packing and rapid healing. But I believe that if patients want virtually undetectable donor scars and optimal growth in their recipient area they are wise to read between the lines of these "headline grabbing" sub follicular super sessions and be sensible.

In the long run they will get more hairs on top where they need them, without paying the price of a noticeable scar.

Keep us all posted on your results.

Best wishes, Pat