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American Morning

Look Inside Spa For Hair Restoration

Aired August 08, 2002 - 09:55   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Folically challenged, as I am, and you have a few extra bucks, which I don't, you may want to consider a spa for hair restoration.

John Zarrella takes us to a place where they work on the inside of your head at the same time they're working on the outside.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a canary yellow Ferrari, Reinhardt Fischer pulls up to the posh Boca Raton resort. Fischer, an investment banker from London, has done well enough to pamper himself: a fruit salad lunch at the cabana overlooking the ocean, an afternoon immersion at the spa.

But Fischer's idea of a relaxation is a bit hair-raising. You see, Reinhardt's good time is a hair restoration vacation.

REINHARDT FISCHER, HAIR TRANSPLANT PATIENT: You come out of these things, you feel like brand new, you had like a car inspection: new oil, new gas. Here you are. It's great.

ZARRELLA: The idea is the brainchild of Boca doc Alan Bauman.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's the area of most concern right there, in the crown, that we need to finish off.

ZARRELLA: Bauman, a hair transplant specialist, found his patients, mostly well-heeled if not well-headed, wanted a total feel- good experience. For the starting price of about $4,000, one can be treated and transplanted at the same time.

DR. ALAN BAUMAN, BAUMAN MEDICAL GROUP: Now that I'm looking at it, I think I may be doing about 500 or so into the crown here.

ZARRELLA: Reinhardt is on his third transplant. This is what he looked like before the first two. In micrografting, Dr. Bauman removes a section of scalp and healthy hair from the back of Reinhardt's head.

FISCHER: As long as I can keep something natural and put a kind of spike of youth in it, and still grow old with dignity. That's what I intend. ZARRELLA: Surgical technicians separate out the hairs into what is called folicular units, while Bauman marks the sites where they will be transplanted into bald spots.

(on camera): Reinhardt, how you holding up?

FISCHER: I'm doing fine.

ZARRELLA: In this part of the procedure, Dr. Bauman and the surgical technicians will transplant the grafts. It'll take them about an hour and a half to two hours, to transplant 1, 000 grafts.

(voice-over): Forming a hairline and shaping a crown, Bauman says, is more artistry than surgery.

BAUMAN: I would say this procedure is 90 percent art. You need to have the paint brushes, you need to have the right tools, but you also have to have an aesthetic eye.

ZARRELLA: The surgery takes about four hours. What it comes down to for Reinhardt, if you really want to split hairs, is about $7 a graft to really feel good.

John Zarrella, CNN, Boca Raton, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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