Article on piloscopy...

[Premium]

I imagine that pilofocus would need to be approved by each country's regulatory agency, plus doctor's training, so it will take a while until it is available in Brazil.

[Wnt]

Dr Wesley, will Pilofocus be available in Brazil this year?

Thank you in advance

[Javert]

From what I gathered in the last interview between Dr. Wesley and Spencer, I think the testing has been postponed further as they are completely changing the instrument for the purpose of increasing the speed of extraction as well as the accuracy. This, I'm sure, is vital to consistent donor regeneration as the study that Dr. Wesley posted stated this, and from some of the information we have gathered from Dr. Garder, it supports this as well.

I hope, as all of you do, that we can get this treatment soon and I wish Dr. Wesley the best in his further studies. It would be great if we do see good regeneration.

👍

[Premium]

I feel that there was not much info about timelines in Spencer's program. It seems like the modification should have been resolved before December and the trial was due to be started by then as Artista informed. Also patients who have contacted the clinic received automatic email responses saying that Pilofocus will be approved in a few months. It is quite exciting and frustrating at the same time. Hope that Billena or Artista can weigh in.

[FearTheLoss]

Hi Artista,
Did you have the chance to verify or participate in the last phase testing of pilofocus? We are in the dark now as to what happened with that last trial

From what I gathered in the last interview between Dr. Wesley and Spencer, I think the testing has been postponed further as they are completely changing the instrument for the purpose of increasing the speed of extraction as well as the accuracy. This, I'm sure, is vital to consistent donor regeneration as the study that Dr. Wesley posted stated this, and from some of the information we have gathered from Dr. Garder, it supports this as well.

I hope, as all of you do, that we can get this treatment soon and I wish Dr. Wesley the best in his further studies. It would be great if we do see good regeneration.

[Premium]

Wait a sec' Hellouser ,
There was NEVER an absolute date set for the new and improved Pilofocus' method, so your statement that
"Pilofocus has been delayed by AT LEAST a year..." is not correct at all.
I can understand that some forum members felt as you did, but honestly, there was NEVER a release date set.
Look back on all of the conversations made by me, Spencer and Dr Wesley.
It was mentioned that phase testing might POSSIBLY be finished at some point but it was only speculation.
Since then Dr Wesley had decided to 'fine-tune' his endoscopic tools...and he did.
If I heard Spencer correctly during the Live show, Dr Wesley has now restarted the phase testing..I will verify that soon.

Hi Artista,
Did you have the chance to verify or participate in the last phase testing of pilofocus? We are in the dark now as to what happened with that last trial

[Javert]

So are there tubes on the actual device or no? I'm so confused.

[FearTheLoss]

I think Billena said in another thread that Dr. Wesley would be updating us all within a week or so. I can't wait to hear his progress. I'm trying to hold off on my next HT until pilofocus is released, so I hope that's by 2016.

[Premium]

To those requesting an update on Pilofocus, here is an article recently published in "The Verge". While both informative and somewhat provocative, the story contains a few points that require clarification:

1) The patient quoted with a large, red donor scar is not actually a surgical patient of mine, but rather a patient with whom I had a consultation as he sought treatment for his cosmetically-unacceptable surgical scar that he received after having undergone surgery with a different surgeon at a different location.

2) Amongst the many interviews I granted to the journalist, one took place immediately following a very in-depth consultation during which I counseled a severely-depressed teenager. Although his hair loss was his stated source of depression, I also worked to find him a psychiatrist that has helped him through his clinical depression. This is a rare instance and certainly does not reflect the majority of the healthy and confident patients with whom I meet. I was, therefore, disappointed in the otherwise well-written article when I felt that this unique psychiatric referral was presented as my preferred treatment for many. It falsely portrays our medical issue of hair loss as frivolous when, in reality, I feel so strongly about its importance that I have dedicated my professional career to treating it.

Hi Dr Wesley, how did the New Orleans presentation go?

[Recidive]

Dr Wesley, this is exciting. Could you give us an update?

Billena, the cutting edge section is more appropriate for your posts on pilofocus

[Premium]

https://www.baldtruthtalk.com/showthread.php?18341-Dr.-Wesley-Invited-as-Speaker-at-2015-American-Academy-of-Cosmetic-Surgery-Conferenc&p=194757

Billena, Dr Wesley's representative, says that Dr Wesley will post in the forum this or next week to update on the status of pilofocus.

I think it would be better to ask questions to Billena rather than to Artista, as he works along with Dr Wesley.

[Wnt]

This. So much this. I cancelled a scheduled HT (and forfeited my deposit) because the idea of having a strip of scalp hacked out freaked me out.

Having a strip of scalp hacked out sucks, and it is something that it is there every single day of your life. Good decision.

I hope that a single incision is enough with pilofocus.

[baldymcgee]

I would take a bunch of small incisions on the back of my head over having a strip of scalp hacked out any day of the week.

This. So much this. I cancelled a scheduled HT (and forfeited my deposit) because the idea of having a strip of scalp hacked out freaked me out.

[RGPHILPA]

what? that device looks ridiculuos. it has nothing to do with a flexible endoscope tube anymore. it looks totally stiff. no chance that you can extract the hairs of the whole scalp with only one little scar. you have to make many more cuts into the scalp to harvest grafts from different spots (if i understand that correctly from the pictures).
this is getting even more dissapointing than i have ever thought. maybe i'm too quick with my assumption, but it absolutely looks not good.
on the other side, if this system really can achieve consistent donor regeneration with acell, then dr. wesley will be a hero. but the chance for that is lower than 0.001% in my opinion.

I would take a bunch of small incisions on the back of my head over having a strip of scalp hacked out any day of the week.

The main concern I have with this device is graft survival. It appears to use some type of suction to pull the grafts out of from the skin and into the device for storage. Of course we need more information, but, that seems like it could be quite traumatic to the grafts. I will be very curious to see what type of results he can achieve in the recipient.

Regarding the recipient area, it appears that this technique will not have advantages over traditional strip/fue. So, results on top of the head will be limited by how much density the blood supply can support - pretty much the same as we have now. Maybe Dr. Wesley could chime in on whether this is the case or not...

As for regeneration - I'm not getting my hopes up for that unicorn. It seems his regeneration claims are based on a similar claim that Dr. Cole makes in regard to the use of Acell. I've not seen any significant evidence these claims are what they make them out to be and definitely have not seen a statistically valid study of the effect. My guess would be that regeneration is hopeful wishing by Dr Wesley based on him intending to use Acell (or whatever) underneath the scalp. Sadly, it's probably very much secondary to the main benefit of no strip or fue scars.

None the less, it's good to see progress being made in the field. Dr. Wesley deserves our respect for that.

[FearTheLoss]

Artista,

Do you know if Dr. Wesley plans to update his website with these slides? I'm sure everyone is very interested to see them.