86 T H E B O C A R AT O N O B S E RV E R

M AY 2 0 1 3 87

For most men, having a full head of hair is what makes them feel

confi dent, handsome and, well, sexy.Good hair is a reason why thou-

sands of women swoon over hunky Hollywood actors like Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise and it’s kind of like your right arm, you just as-sume it will always be there.

But what if it isn’t?According to the American Hair

Loss Association, by the age of 50, approximately 85 percent of men will suffer from male pattern bald-ness and, for some men it starts sooner rather than later. And while some men can pull off the shaved-head look, for others, even in their 20s, baseball caps, cowboy hats or sunglasses on their heads become everyday accessories as they try to shield their balding pates.

Fortunately the days of resorting to terrible toupees and poorly done plugs have disappeared, as today’s modern technology offers delicate hair transplant surgeries from doctors so precise they’re certain no one can detect the surgery even happened.

Sound iffy?Meet Steve, a Palm Beach County

man in his 30s who had hair trans-plantation six months ago.

He already feels like a different person with his new head of hair and if you saw him today, he promises no

one would be able to tell he was once on the verge of baldness.

“I don’t feel like I’m the most superfi cial person in the world, but it just bothers you when you’re a guy and you start losing hair,” says Steve. “I had no confi dence at all. It messes with you mentally. Now I already feel more confi dent. It was 100 percent worth it.”

NO MORE HAT HEAD

Steve wouldn’t use his last name for this piece because that’s how secretive his surgery was. No one—not even his family—knew he had it done and he wants to keep it that way.

“It’s embarrassing,” he says. “It’s so natural looking that you can’t

“I don’t feel like I’m the most superfi cial person in the world, but it just bothers you when you’re a guy and you start losing hair. I had no confi dence at all.”– Steve, hair transplant patient

even tell. I would not have had it done otherwise.”

He started noticing hair loss in his early 20s. His hair was thinning on the top of his head and by the time his late 20s rolled around, he took to wearing a hat more often than not.

Modern Technology Is Making Baldness A Thing Of The Past

APPARENTHAIR

they’re good candidates for each. His offi ce welcomes an estimated 1,000 new patients a year because they know Dr. Bauman realizes the importance of hair.

“It’s one of those things that make us look good and feel good,” Dr.

“I walked around with a baseball cap on my head for seven years,” he says. “I wore a hat all the damn time which gets annoying.”

He shaved his head to see if he could pull off the bald look but he hated it. And he wouldn’t even consider Donald Trump’s infamous comb-over style.

“I wasn’t going to be a person who would do a comb-over,” he says, laughing.

One day Steve heard about a new hair transplant surgery on a local radio station and he made an appointment with Dr. Alan J. Bau-man to learn more about it.

Steve knew he wanted to try it not long after he walked through the door.

Dr. Bauman of Bauman Medi-cal Group in Boca Raton gives men a new lease on life just as he did Steve, by offering options from topical creams to laser therapy to hair transplant surgery, as long as

BY DIANNA SMITH

88 T H E B O C A R AT O N O B S E RV E R

Bauman says. “You know what a bad hair day looks like? Someone who has hair loss is having a bad hair life.”

He adds, “One out of every fi ve guys sitting around a table at a bar has hair loss.”

There’s a negative stigma to seeking treatment for hair loss, he says, because some associate it with old-style solu-tions such as hair plugs, and potential patients believe the work they would get done would look just as unnatural.

But today that’s not the case.Treatments range from topical

medication such as Rogaine to oral medication like Propecia.

Rogaine, which is the brand name

But progress for most hair treat-ments is slow because a hair follicle grows just a third of a millimeter a day.

Patients who choose hair trans-plantations usually have to wait an entire year to see the full result. With hair transplants, Dr. Bauman and physicians who specialize in this fi eld harvest living and growing hair fol-licles and redistribute them into bald-ing areas without leaving any mark.

These doctors act as artists, im-planting single pieces of hair to form a design that matches the frame of the face. The angle of each hairline is

different than the one next to it and, as you could imagine, it’s a tedious surgery that requires lots of time and follow-up appointments.

Dr. Glenn Charles, a hair trans-plant and restoration specialist with an offi ce in Boca Raton, sees patients ages 18 to 85 and has per-formed hair transplantation on a man who was almost 90 years old.

“He was in very good shape and still cared about what he looked like,” Dr. Charles says. “People come to us because (hair loss) is bothering them, lowering their self-confi dence. To be able to eliminate that issue for them is a nice reward for us.”

He encourages people who choose to be proactive in stopping their hair loss, but cautions them not to get

sucked in by numerous infomercials promising to eliminate baldness.

Do your homework, research doc-tors and read forums online, he says.

And be ready to fork over some cash. Hair transplants can cost anywhere between $5,000 and $20,000 and it’s considered cos-metic so health insurance doesn’t pay for it. But for many, as Steve insists, it’s worth every penny.

And here’s why.“It’s like turning the clock back

for them,” Dr. Bauman says. “And with the technology available now, (doctors) should make it where people don’t know you had a hair transplant. I want to make it where the barber can’t even fi nd your scar. That’s my goal.”

“It’s one of those things that make us look good and feel good. You know what a bad hair day looks like? Someone who has hair loss is having a bad hair life.” – Dr. Alan J. Bauman, Boca Raton

for Minoxidil, was the fi rst Federal Drug Administration-approved medi-cation for the treatment of hair loss. It’s a cream that’s applied directly to the scalp, and can be purchased without a doctor’s note. Steve tried Rogaine but oddly, he says, it seemed to make the hair on his arms thicker and darker. But the hair on his head, not so much.

He’s currently taking Propecia, also known as Finasteride, which is the fi rst pill known to treat hair loss, and it’s also FDA-approved.

Propecia requires a doctor’s pre-scription and it’s what the American Hair Loss Association recommends as the fi rst line of attack for preventing hair loss. Though Steve has already had hair transplant surgery, he takes Propecia as a way to prevent himself from having to need more hair trans-plantations in the years to come.

The most common noninvasive hair-loss treatment is laser therapy, where a laser cap is used on the scalp to get the follicles to produce better quality hair and over time, Dr. Bauman says, it works.

Dr. Alan J. Bauman

MAY 2013

THE MEN’S

ISSUE

CAMMANTHE

MIAMI DOLPHINS’ DEFENSIVE END CAMERON WAKE IS ONE OF THE NICEST GUYS IN FOOTBALL. EXCEPT WHEN HE’S ON THE FIELD.

FASHIONABLY FIERCE

Calyann Barnett Sets Men’s Trends (Just

Ask Dwyane Wade)

THEY WILL SURVIVE

Meet Five Local Preppers

BACK ON TRACKGet Up To Speed With Indy Driver

Helio Castroneves

NATURE CALLS

Outdoor Trips To Satisfy Your

Inner Adventurer

HAIR APPARENT

Cutting-Edge Treatments

For Baldness

96 T h e B o c a R aT o n o B s e Rv e R

Pr filesMedical

S p e c i a l a d v e r t i S i n g S e c t i o n

After more than 10 years, Boca resident

Dr. alan Bauman and his full-time sur-

gical team have become synonymous

with advanced techniques, consistent re-

sults and the highest-quality patient care

in the field of hair restoration. as a surgi-

cally trained M.D. and one of only approx-

imately 100 board-certified hair restoration

physicians in the world, Dr. Bauman’s repu-

tation has made Bauman Medical Group

a national and international ‘destination

location’ for hair-loss sufferers from all cor-

ners of the globe and those of us lucky

enough to call south Florida our home.

never a follower, Dr. Bauman has helped

pioneer and train other physicians in deli-

cate eyebrow and eyelash transplants,

minimally invasive ‘no-scalpel/no-stitch’

hair transplants and other advanced tech-

niques. at his facility, he provides non-in-

vasive FDa-approved hair-loss treatments

and artistic hairline transplants, including

early show, cnn, MsnBc, Fox news, nBc’s

Dateline and others. Dr. Bauman’s proce-

dures have also been featured in such

prestigious publications as newsweek,

The new York Times, vogue, W Magazine,

healthy aging, as well as internationally

in Il Terreno (Milan), on the BBc network

(London) and others. Dr. Bauman is a Dip-

lomate of the esteemed american Board

of hair Restoration surgery, a member of

the american academy of cosmetic sur-

gery and is recommended by the ameri-

can hair Loss association.

hair transplant repairs and touch-ups. The

recent expansion of his state-of-the-art,

5,000-square-foot facility and expert staff

includes treatment areas for non-surgical

fat-reduction (the revolutionary Zerona™

laser), non-surgical facial rejuvenation

(Botox® and injectables) and more.

Dr. Bauman is a medical advisor to Men’s

health magazine and a frequent medi-

cal guest on nBc’s The Today show. na-

tionally known, he has also appeared on

aBc’s Good Morning america, the cBs

hair apparentdr. alan Bauman provides quality hair restoration

Bauman Medical Group is located at 6861 S.W. 18th St., Suite 102 Boca Raton, FL 33433. For more information, call

561-394-0024 or visit baumanmedical.com

“ Dr. Bauman and his full-time surgical team have become synonymous with advanced tech-niques, consistent results and the highest-quality patient care in the field of hair restoration.”

alan Bauman, M.d.