Dr Bernstein Said He Isn’t a Good Transplant Candidate

Dr. Rassman,

On Dr. Bernstein’s blog, he mentions that one of the reasons why he has not received a hair transplant is because he is not a good candidate. My question for you relates to that comment and is two parts. First, what would make Dr. Bernstein not a good candidate, and second, at what age can you tell whether a patient will become a bad candidate? For example, we know now that Dr. Bernstein was destined to turn into a bad candidate, but would a miniaturization study have shown evidence of that at age 25?

Thank you for a great blog!

The good transplant candidates have enough supply to meet demand. In Dr. Bernstein’s case, my best memory of his donor density is that it is low. So from a pure numbers point of view, he is not the best hair transplant candidate.

On the other hand, he told me many years ago that hair was important to him when he was young and single, but the techniques that were available at that time were terrible and deforming. For that reason, he never offered hair transplantation service in his practice until he joined forces with me and realized that the quality of the modern hair transplant met his standard; however, his focus on hair was not one of his priorities as he got older.

For those unaware of who we’re discussing, Dr. Robert Bernstein is a world class surgeon based in New York. You can find him at BernsteinMedical.com.