Most hair transplant commercials tout their surgeons as being 'certified.' But what does certified mean? Why is a 'certified hair transplant surgeon' important to you?
Hair transplant surgeons are certified by an organization called the American Board of Hair Restoration Surgery, or ABHRS for short. Formed in 1996, the ABRHS was meant to meet the demand for some kind of self-regulating certification process in the industry as well as advisement from the Federal Trade Commission.
Before 1996, a hair transplant patient looking for a certified doctor would have been hard pressed to find any definitive designation with which to choose from. Many doctors were good, some were not, and much of a patient's research involved word-of-mouth-an important but sometimes unreliable benchmark for quality hair restoration work.
With 5 examinations required before admittance, the ABHRS is the only statistically validated organization devoted entirely to hair restoration surgery. Being 'certified' as a hair transplant surgeon by the ABHRS is such a mark of distinction that hair restoration practices in Europe asked the ABHRS to create a European chapter.
One way to find out if your hair transplant will be done by a certified surgeon is to go the ABHRS website. You can contact a representative and they can tell you whether your prospective surgeon is a member.
Hair restoration surgery is a difficult process. Small mistakes such as wasted hair follicles or faulty graft implantation can leave the patient with an artificial-looking scalp and worse of all no recourse for future hair procedures.
That's why it's important to do your homework first---so you won't pay for it later. And when you finally get down to it, make sure that you've done all the necessary preparations for hair replacement surgery.