Video of Dr Gho’s HST Technique
Hello Dr. Rassman,
I know you are skeptical of Dr. Gho and his claims, and you’ve criticized him before here on Baldingblog.
Now a well-known, reputable hairstylist, Grant from Toronto (known as “Scissorboy”) has been treated by Dr. Gho, with the “Hair Stem Cell Transplantation” technique (HST), and he’s released a comprehensive video about the experience, showing Dr. Gho and his assistants actually performing the procedure.
By the way, Grant did not have any kind of severe baldness, only slight frontal recession. But I think the video nonetheless shows, in quite astounding detail, exactly how the procedure works, and exactly what its potential is. And its potential is actually to redouble the number of hair follicles available.
I believe this is a revolutionary procedure based on some real science, and (unfortunately), it may come as such a shock to many hair transplant surgeons in the US, who have been pretty refractory to new ideas.
Please give us your honest and unbridled opinions of the claims and revelations made on this video: Link
Thank you, Dr. Rassman
I did report on Dr. Coen Gho in a previous post in a less-than-favorable light. My comments on him reflected what appears to be intellectual dishonesty. I have heard Dr. Gho speak publicly, and what he is doing is the classic FUE technique that I pioneered and published in the Dermatologic Surgery medical journal in 2002 (see here).
There is no doubt that the stem cells in the FUE grafted hair probably causes the growth, but his representations that this is anything more than a typical FUE procedure would be improper. I watched the video and saw what I and hundreds of good doctors have been doing for years. Dr. Gho performed an FUE procedure in the video, not a stem cell transplant.
Don’t get me wrong — I love new ideas, science, research, and invention… but in the end, I would like to see the results. Maybe a follow-up video in 6 months would be good, too.
Sorry doc, but the difference between his procedure and yours is that his does not deplete the donor. He has proven this over and over again both with patients and peer reviewed journal articles. He uses a smaller, wave tipped needle and a special storage solution to make this possible. I would suggest that you look into his procedure further before making blanket assumptions and accusations out of what appears to be professional jealousy? With respect.
Dr Rassman jealous ? If that was the case then he would not allow the user to post the video. I saw the video myself, and until I don’t see the full result, I don’t have anything to say.
So far in the video, only the theory of stem cells was explained. There was no proof how stem cell can advance hair restoration.
“his representations that this is anything more than a typical FUE procedure would be improper”. This sentence is improper. A typical FUE does not preserve the donor.
It is not preserving the donor, as you wish to believe. It may be making – theoretically – less holes in the back of the head. “Less” is not Preserving. It is FUE, which makes holes in your donor site to extract hair. Score this one for Dr Rasmann
And you are more “skilled in the art” than Dr Rassman?
The procedure is a variant of FUE and has little bearing to the
technology proposed for stem cell therapies.
Hi my name is Grant and I was the one in the ScissorBoy TV video where Dr Gho performed the stem cell procedure on me. I had the procedure just over 4 months ago now and I am very happy with the results. The new hair is growing in very nicely and many professional hairdressers have looked at it very closely and could not tell that I had any procedure done.
Regarding regrowth in the donor section where the grafts were taken I am open to having anyone on this board to use any microscope or other testing device on the donor section so you can look for regrowth. My understanding is that you would probably be able to see small white dots in places where the follicles were taken and if hair is growing out of them then you will have your proof.
Hello Scissorboy:
Why do you say that there will be small white dots where the follicles were taken? Afaik, Gho leaves no white dots due to the small needles used.
Thus, the microscope is of little use if you didn’t take “before” photos.
Seeing whether or not characteristic, hairless FUE dots exist on the back of ScissorBoy’s head will give us definitive proof of the effectiveness of this procedure.
Dr. Rassman, please follow-up with ScissorBoy.
ScissorBoy, thank you for coming forward. PLEASE find a doctor who is willing to take microscopic photos of your donor area. This would help the hair loss community immensely.
No, Shooter, no.
You won’t find those hairless FUE dots under the microscope, because:
-Gho uses smaller punches that don’t leave white dots.
-Scissorboy just got a 1200 graft FUE, harvested across a large donor area, probably as large as 150cm2. Thus, the harvest density was below 10 grafts/cm2. You won’t find significant depletion or gaps there.
HOW DOES HST DIFFER FROM FUE AND FM?
With FUE (Follicular Unit Extraction), the entire follicle is removed with a needle 0.75 to 1.0 mm in diameter (0.45-0.8 mm²). This size needle means a considerable chance of scarring, and the regrowth of the hairs removed is minimal. FM (Follicular Multiplication) attempts to remove only the upper portion of the follicle with a needle 0.7 mm in diameter (0.4 mm²). This greatly reduces the chance of scarring, but regrowth is limited. With HST? (Hair Stem Cell Transplantation), a longitudinal section of the follicle is removed with a needle 0.5 or 0.6 mm in diameter (0.2 – 0.3 mm²). This eliminates the risk of scarring, and the regrowth in the donor area is higher than with the other methods.
What a cheesy video! Who could take this seriously??
How is it intellectual dishonesty when he has scientific publications in peer reviewed dermatological journals documenting the technique? Yes they were funded by the institute he works at but so was much of the data we take for granted on finasteride through studies funded by Merck.