The Woods Technique

Is the Woods technique a viable option to consider for hair transplantation?

This technique is undocumented and has never been explained. This doctor has kept his process secret, including the yield and growth rate of the transplants. Woods has chosen to do his technique without any peer review and not publish it in recognized journals. By making his technique secret, he has succeeded in creating a mystique (a cult) that he has promoted on the internet to create hype.

I have had the opportunity to see a couple of his patients and the recipient sites are not as clean or as natural as ours (I believe he creates larger recipient site wounds). In addition, the scarring in the donor area is evident on his videos and on his patients. Doctors in Australia tell me of significant failures in his hands based upon patients that have come to them. Although bashing doctors is at times fashionable for competing doctors to try to gain a competitive edge, Woods has failed to fulfill his basic responsibilities with the Oath that doctors take when they are given their diploma to practice medicine and surgery. That failed responsibility (to share knowledge and educate patients and colleagues to improve the quality of medical care) increases my skepticism about his work. Creating secrecy does little more than to make a sect that confuses the public and people who may get sucked into marketing hype and then ask obvious questions, wanting to know facts. I have tried to find out what he does, if only for curiosity. For now, however, Woods chooses to do his thing under the cover of secrecy.

For more info on the New Hair Institute’s published FUE technique:

• Follicular Unit Extraction: Minimally Invasive Surgery for Hair Transplantation (Originally published in Dermatologic Surgery, 2002)
• Follicular Unit Extraction: The FOX Procedure
• The FOX Megasession