Dr. Robert Glyn Jones
Institute of Hair Transplantation
Oakville, Ontario
Curriculum Vitae (Medical Resume)
Regrowth: First off, please give us some background about yourself and your practice. What is your medical background and how long have you been practicing?
Jones: I have been practicing for 18 years — 5 years doing hair transplants and 10 years in cosmetic surgery.
Regrowth: Do you prescribe Propecia to your patients and if so do you find its effects match the results of the clinical studies?
Jones: Yes I do prescribe Propecia and I find the results match those described in the studies.
Regrowth: What do you say to people who are concerned about the side effects of Propecia?
Jones: There is about a 2% incidence of impotence which is usually reversable if stopped.
Regrowth: Do you ever prescribe Propecia to women who are not planning to have children or past their child bearing years? If so, how effective has it been for them?
Jones: No, I don’t prescribe Propecia to women.
Regrowth: Have you heard reports from any patients on Propecia of excessive shedding of hair and what results do these patients generally end up having?
Jones: No, that’s not my experience from my patients.
Regrowth: Have you ever had patients using Propecia who it was effective for initially but then it lost its effectiveness?
Jones: No, my patients who have had good results on Propecia have maintained them.
Regrowth: Do you prescribe Proscar to your patients who want to get on Finasteride but want to save money by quartering Proscar pills?
Jones: Occasionally I will prescribe Proscar when I feel it is in the patient’s best interest if they ask.
Regrowth: What percentage of your patients using Propecia would you say experience side effects?
Jones: None so far.
Regrowth: Do you recommend Rogaine Extra Strength / Minoxidil 5% to your patients?
Jones: Occasionally, when I feel it might help them.
Regrowth: Do you find Minoxidil 5% provides additional results over Minoxidil 2%?
Jones: It’s hard to say — people’s results can be subjective and it’s hard to compare different patients.
Regrowth: How do you feel about higher strength Minoxidil formulas of up to 15% that can be obtained via a prescription through custom compounding pharmacies? Do you think they will provide additional results?
Jones: I haven’t used these yet and really have no way to evaluate them.
Regrowth: Have you prescribed Minoxidil 5% to many women and if so how effective was it?
Jones: No, I don’t usually recommend it to women.
Regrowth: Have you seen any or many women using Minoxidil (2% or 5%) who had the side effect of unwanted facial or body hair growth?
Jones: No, not in my experience.
Regrowth: What do you think of the claim of the woman who is suing Upjohn saying Minoxidil caused unwanted facial growth that didn’t go away after treatment was discontinued?
Jones: These claims are probably not true as far as I know.
Regrowth: Do you find patients using both Propecia and Minoxidil 5% have better results than patients using either alone?
Jones: It’s difficult to say since each individual responds differently.
Regrowth: What is the largest improvement you have seen in someone taking Propecia alone (on the Norwood scale)?
Jones: The greatest improvement I have seen is an improvement from a Norwood 4 to a Norwood 3.
Regrowth: What is the largest improvement you have seen in someone using Minoxidil 5% alone (on the Norwood scale)?
Jones: I have only seen minor improvement in individuals using Minoxidil 5% alone.
Regrowth: What is the largest improvement you have seen in someone using both Minoxidil 5% and Propecia (on the Norwood scale)?
Jones: Again, the greatest improvement was from a Norwood 4 to a Norwood 3.
Regrowth: Have you heard success stories with any other products available for hair loss, such as Tricomin, Folligen, Fabao, Kevis, etc? If so what results were reported?
Jones: No, not really.
Regrowth: What do you tell people for whom Minoxidil 5% and Proscar is ineffective who don’t wish to have transplants or use a hair system?
Jones: There is not much else that can be done and I recommend that they have to learn to live with being bald.
Regrowth: How long have you been performing transplants and how many do you estimate you have performed (patients and procedures)?
Jones: I’ve been performing for 5 years and I usually perform about 150 per year, so about 750.
Regrowth: Do you see many women for transplant operations, and is this number increasing?
Jones: Yes I do see many women who are interested in transplants, but no I’m not seeing more of them than in the past.
Regrowth: Are women more or less suited to transplants than men?
Jones: Every situation is different. I try to evaluate what is best for the individual patient.
Regrowth: We hear so many different terms for grafts from different practices. Which grafts do you perform and why. Do you transplant only follicular units?
Jones: In my transplants I only use micrografts and follicular units.
Regrowth: How many grafts or hairs do you transplant in one session?
Jones: Up to 5,000 hairs or 2,000 grafts on average.
Regrowth: Do you believe in the mega-sessions method of transplanting large numbers of hairs all in one session?
Jones: Yes, occasionally, when I believe it is appropriate for a particular patient.
Regrowth: How many transplant sessions does your average patient go through?
Jones: Most of my patients have 2 procedures.
Regrowth: Do you ever turn patients down who seem to have psychological problems regarding their hair loss? What percentage of patients are these?
Jones: Yes, we do end up turning down around 10-20%, usually younger patients.
Regrowth: Do you ever turn patients down just because their amount of loss is too extensive for them to get good results? What percentage of patients?
Jones: Yes, about 1-2% of patients are just not good candidates for transplantation.
Regrowth: Do you ever turn patients down who haven’t lost enough hair yet to know what their final amount of loss will be? What percentage of patients?
Jones: Yes, there are about 10% of our patients who we recommend wait.
Regrowth: How can a patient know when he has lost enough hair to make transplants worthwhile without worrying about further loss causing poor end results?
Jones: At about age 30-35 we are able to have a better picture of what can be done.
Regrowth: What general guidelines do you look for to tell if someone has enough hair left to have a transplant?
Jones: A lot depends on the patient’s hair color & texture. Some patients can get better coverage than others.
Regrowth: How painful are the shots to the scalp for local anesthetic?
Jones: We find in our practice that there is very little pain involved.
Regrowth: How long does it generally take incision scabs to go away?
Jones: Our patients usually lose their scabs in 10 days.
Regrowth: Several people have posted that transplant doctors have told them that transplants would not cause any existing hair to fall out and then it did. Do you warn patients of this and how frequent is it?
Jones: Yes, I tell them about telogen shock. I also get them to use Rogaine to help prevent it.
Regrowth: Do you recommend Propcia/Proscar and/or Minoxidil to transplant patients?
Jones: No, not usually
Regrowth: If someone uses Minoxidil and has a transplant session, how soon can they start using Minoxidil again after the surgery?
Jones: We recommend they wait 14 days before restarting Minoxidil.
Regrowth: Do you recommend any topical treatments such as Iamin or GraftCyte after surgery to promote healing of the grafts?
Jones: Not to our patients.
Regrowth: What do you do if a patient comes back to you and is unhappy with their transplant results?
Jones: On the rare occasion that a patient is unhappy, we repeat the procedure at a reduced cost.
Regrowth: What do you think of Laser hair transplantation? Why do you not perform them? What are the advantages and disadvantages? Is this just a gimmick to get people who think ‘if it’s lasers it must be superior’?
Jones: I tried it and didn’t like it. The only advantage is marketing.
Regrowth: What do you think of the idea of culturing unlimited amounts of hair for transplantation? When do you think this will be a reality?
Jones: Sounds great, but I don’t know when it will become a reality.
Regrowth: Do you perform scalp reductions and if so how many would you say you have performed?
Jones: No, I don’t feel with today’s techniques that there is a place for scalp reductions.
Curriculum Vitae
Dr. Robert Glyn Jones
- 1977 BSc. Medicine.
- 1979 Graduate-McMaster University Department of Medicine
- 1980 Internship McMaster University Hospital
- 1981-1989- Family Practice, Oakville, Ontario
- October 1989- Post Graduate Course – Harvard Medical School, Boston
Cosmetic Laser Surgery - December 1990- Post Graduate Course- Loyola Medical School, Chicago
Cosmetic Laser Surgery - 1990 to present- Hair Transplantation, Cosmetic Laser Surgery, Phlebology, sole owner of:
- Double frequency Q switched Yag laser for:
- Tatoo Removal
- Solar lentigo
- Coherent Ultra Pulse CO2 laser for:
- Laser assisted blepharoplasties
- Laser skin resurfacing
- Laser assisted uvula-palatoplasties (LAUP)
- Versapulse high energy laser for:
- PWS
- Telangiectasia
- Acne Rosacae
- Double frequency Q switched Yag laser for:
- Member of Ontario Medical Association
Member of College of Physicians & Surgeons of Canada
Member of the Canadian Society of Phlebology
Fellow of the American Society for Laser Medicine & Surgery
Member of the International Society of Cosmetic Laser Surgery
Member of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery
Privileges at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital - Attendance
- Annual Meeting of International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery
September 1995, Las Vegas, Nevada - Annual Meeting of International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery
September, 1996, Nashville, Tennessee
- Annual Meeting of International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery
- Post Graduate Training
- Dr. Walter Unger, Toronto, Ontario in Hair Restoration Surgery
July-August 1995 - Dr. James Arnold, San Francisco, USA in Hair Restoration Surgery
- Dr. Walter Unger, Toronto, Ontario in Hair Restoration Surgery
- Courses Attended
- Controversies in Cutaneous Laser Surgery, Harvard Medical School 1995
- Laser Hair Removal, February 1997
