ISHRS Hair Transplant Congress Concludes in San Francisco

20th November 2013

The International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) held its 21st Annual Scientific Meeting in San Francisco last month at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. As usual, the Farjo Hair Institute was very well represented, and as it turned out we were extremely busy!

Our party consisted of Dr Nilofer Farjo, Dr Bessam Farjo, Dr Greg Williams and Dr Jose Lorenzo, as well as surgery manager, Sara Roberts RN, surgery technician, Heather Stretch and business relations manager, Jason Saks.

Dr Nilofer Farjo was invited to speak at the pre-congress Advanced course on the subject of Basic Hair Anatomy and Biology. She was also asked by the program chair to lecture on the highlights from the 7th World Congress for Hair Research which took place in Edinburgh in May. This ISHRS meeting also represented the 3rd and last year she attends as the Co-Editor of the ISHRS’s Hair Transplant Forum journal. To this purpose, she was honoured at the Gala Dinner by this year’s ISHRS President, Dr Carlos Puig, who presented her with a beautiful glass memento in appreciation of her work.

Dr Bessam Farjo started his activities by attending the Board of Governors meeting ahead of the congress. On the morning of the first day, Dr Farjo chaired the newcomers welcome breakfast hosting first time attendees. On congress day 2, Dr Bessam started the morning as workshop faculty lecturing on strategies for corrective hair surgery. Later that morning, he was the session moderator for one of the highlights of the entire conference. This was the Norwood Lecture, by invited speaker Prof Colin Jahoda who we collaborate with at Durham University. Prof Jahoda lectured on his latest publication about the success of 3D cell models in regenerating human hair follicles. This received tremendous publicity at the time as a potential way forward in treating baldness.

Dr Bessam Farjo continued with his busy schedule at lunchtime on day 2 when he was the program chair and social media lecturer for a symposium on ‘marketing your clinical practice’ involving speakers from around the world. Later that evening, both Drs Farjo were VIP guests of Restoration Robotics, makers of the ARTAS FUE harvesting robot which was introduced at the Farjo Hair Institute in Manchester in recent months

Not to be outdone by his better half, Dr Bessam also received an acknowledgement plaque at the Gala Dinner! The President presented him with a thank you award for his work with the newcomers, and then was called up to share a celebratory drink on stage with 10 other colleagues, the Everlasting Eleven! The only doctors out of the 1000 or so ISHRS members who have attended every Annual Scientific meeting since the first one in 1993.

Both Drs Farjo also sat the American Board of Hair Restoration Surgery (ABHRS) re-certification exam whilst there as it has been 10 years since they took it the first time. Happy to report they passed with flying colours!

Finally, Drs Farjo were amongst only a small selection of members bestowed the title of Fellow of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery following fulfilment of education and contribution to the field criteria.

The other stand out talks from this event included:

• A new device, The Piloscope, is being trialled that can extract grafts (FUE) from the inside similar to laparoscopy. This can offer harvesting of the grafts without the scars of any description. More on this in the next few years
• Low Level Laser Therapy gaining momentum as more doctors offer supporting data of its effectiveness alongside Minoxidil and Finasteride
• With new devices such as the ARTAS Robot, larger FUE sessions are becoming more common

More Photos on our Farjo Facebook Page.