Setting Up Your Office and Practice: Exclusively Hair Transplants versus Combined Practice

96 Setting Up Your Office and Practice: Exclusively Hair Transplants versus Combined Practice

Samuel M. Lam

Summary

This chapter cannot outline all the details necessary to succeed as a hair surgeon. Instead, the objective is to focus on some of the most important principles necessary to create a successful and sustainable hair restoration practice. First, the physician must be exposed to the field enough and mentored appropriately to gain a deep passion for hair surgery, for without it success will be elusive. Second, a lifelong commitment to education gained through reading textbooks and journals, attending conferences, observing, and sharing with esteemed colleagues will help strengthen the foundation for current and ongoing success. Third, ethical hair surgery in which the surgeon is in command of the procedure rather than in a position of merely delegating the procedures to technicians. Fourth, this chapter covers leadership, which is a critical element to establishing a strong office culture that in turn facilitates a profitable practice. Finally, the heart of the chapter delves into the mechanics of how to successfully combine hair surgery with either an existing cosmetic practice or vice versa, or alternatively running a practice dedicated exclusively to hair surgery.

Keywords: setting up practice combined practice leadership ethics passion education marketing referrals internet

Key Points

•Make education a lifelong activity. Try to attend annual International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) meetings, visit fellow surgeons, converse with colleagues, and read current journals to stay abreast of the constant changes in the hair restoration field.

•Learn how to lead better. The author recommends books by John Maxwell on the subject. Leadership begins at the top; if the leadership is poor, the entire organization will suffer and will not endure.

•Do not make hair surgery a stepchild of your other business. Dedicate time, effort, training, staffing, and money toward building a successful hair practice. Merely listing hair restoration on a menu of services will not draw patients seriously interested in hair restoration. The surgeon must create separate websites, brochures, and a marketing plan for a hair restoration practice to be successful today.

96.1 Introduction

Beginning a career in the cosmetic field whether exclusively in hair restoration surgery or in combination with other cosmetic surgical and/or nonsurgical offerings entails a lot of thought, hard work, and planning. This chapter will offer some practical pearls of how to structure a practice including tangible steps. To be clear, the author’s bias at the outset is a background in head-and-neck surgery with fellowship training in facial plastic surgery and hair restoration: facial plastic surgery was the primary practice and hair restoration was added slowly over several years. Nevertheless, many of the principles outlined in this chapter will be universal in nature and applicable to anyone desiring to pursue a career in the elective, cosmetic field.

96.2 Principles

96.2.1 Passion

The author has been running a nonprofit hair transplant training course in St. Louis, MO, United States, for almost a decade, and the single most important character necessary to be a successful hair restoration surgeon is passion. This requires mentoring. A physician starting in the field of hair restoration should find a mentor or attend a course that can inspire a love of the field. If the desire to enter the field stems from only financial incentives, the surgery will seem boring, the work will remain suboptimal, and ultimately this will result in a failed hair restoration practice. We spend too many hours each day at work and if it is not fun and interesting, we will die a little inside and the practice will suffer. Hair restoration is truly creative, challenging, rewarding, and fun. Hopefully, reading through this very large book will inspire the reader as to how fascinating the field of hair surgery is and if not, find an ethical, passionate, and knowledgeable peer who can shape your thinking, your heart, and your worldview.

96.2.2 Education

Before worrying about the business structure of starting a hair practice, please make sure, as mentioned earlier, that you actually might love doing hair surgery. The prospective hair restoration surgeon should get exposure in the discipline by taking a course and watching a colleague. Continue to learn, as skills are developing.1

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