ISHRS Hosts Live Surgery Workshop in Bucharest, Romania, November 7-9, 2025, focusing on hair repair
CHICAGO, Oct. 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — According to a recent member survey conducted by the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS), the impact of black-market hair transplant clinics continues to reverberate around the world – with more clinics opening and more complications for the countless victims of these unscrupulous practices.
Case in point: earlier this month, Dubai police arrested a man running an illegal hair transplant clinic from an apartment.
“These fraudulent, illicit hair transplant clinics operate under the guise of an established medical practice, luring unsuspecting patients with false or misleading advertising, rock-bottom prices and tempting travel packages,” said Conradin von Albertini, MD, FISHRS, president of the ISHRS. “The results can be devastating, leaving victims with little recourse for the oftentimes permanent damage imposed by those who are not authorized to perform this highly skilled surgery.”
The ISHRS receives numerous emails from young men who have fallen victim. In late-September 2025, the ISHRS received the following message from a man in the United Kingdom, “Hi, I got a botched hair transplant and my donor area has been over harvested badly. I am in a deep shock loss. How long do I need to wait and get repair surgery? I didn’t know that people who are pretending to be fake surgeon are doing this and snatching people’s life.” He went on to explain that he now has low self-esteem and is feeling suicidal.
To combat this alarming trend, the ISHRS is hosting its fifth annual “World Hair Transplant Repair Day” on November 11, 2025 (11/11). This worldwide event is part of the ISHRS’s Fight the FIGHT (an acronym for Fight the Fraudulent, Illicit, and Global Hair Transplants) global consumer awareness campaign designed to educate and help people who have been victims of this widespread practice.
Consequences of hair transplants performed illegally can include permanent visible scarring, infection, thin patches of hair, bald spots, and over-harvested donor areas that can be very difficult to correct. In cases where damage can be fixed, patients will often require more than one corrective procedure.
In an effort to help victims of black-market hair transplant clinics around the world, the ISHRS encourages people in need of corrective surgeries to connect individually with participating volunteer ISHRS physicians through the campaign’s website, HairTransplantRepairDay.org, for a chance to receive a pro bono corrective hair transplant procedure. Since its launch in 2020, the number of ISHRS participating physician members has increased to dozens of members in all corners of the world.
Dr. von Albertini noted that the latest ISHRS member survey found that in 2024, 59% of ISHRS members reported that there are black-market hair transplant clinics in their cities – up from 51% in 2021. In addition, ISHRS members reported that the average percentage of repair cases due to a previous black-market hair transplant in 2024 was 10%, up from 6% in 2021.
As part of the ISHRS’s commitment to educating the public about the real dangers of these black-market hair transplant clinics, the Fight the FIGHT website offers numerous educational materials in 10 languages, including patient educational live streams from various countries in different languages that patients can access as archived replays to educate themselves on how to avoid being a victim of a black-market hair transplant. In addition, numerous patient case studies document victims’ real-world experience in the hands of fraudulent, illicit hair transplant clinics and the lasting ramifications of their deforming surgeries.
“Giving people the tools to make educated decisions about the health of their hair is the cornerstone of the Fight the FIGHT campaign and has helped countless hair loss patients make educated, informed decisions about who is qualified to perform hair transplants,” said Paul T. Rose, MD, JD, FISHRS, chair of the ISHRS Fight the FIGHT Subcommittee. “Our goal is to continue to raise awareness of the widespread problem of black-market hair transplant clinics and spare hair loss patients the pain and devastation inflicted by these fraudulent practices that often require multiple corrective procedures.”
The ISHRS is committed to patient safety and continually strives for the best outcomes for all patients, offering members superior education and training to improve their techniques. To ensure patients have the information needed to make informed decisions about who performs their hair restoration surgery, the ISHRS urges potential patients to understand the difference between what procedures only a surgeon should perform vs. the procedures that technicians can only perform.
Only the surgeon should:
- Perform medical history & examinations to assure graft success
- Rule out hair diseases that could affect hair growth & failure
- Draw the hairline
- Make incisions in recipient area (blades, needles, implanters)
- Make incisions in the donor area (scoring grafts)
- Place grafts with sharp implanters
Technicians can only:
- Pull grafts scored by the surgeon
- Load sharp implanters and deliver to the surgeon
- Place grafts either with forceps or with dull implanters (after surgeon makes all incisions)
Dr. Rose added that each country has its own laws and regulations pertaining to the pulling and placement of grafts by technicians. In some countries, technicians are not allowed to perform these procedures, and their actions can be viewed as illegal and lead to criminal charges.
For more information or to take part in this worldwide educational campaign and event, contact fightthefight@ishrs.org and visit www.HairTransplantRepairDay.org.
#HairTransplantRepairDay
ISHRS Live Surgery Workshop Spotlights Intricacies of Hair Repair Surgery
Hair restoration surgeons interested in honing their skills in complex repair cases due to black-market hair transplants or as a result of injury to the scalp or face are encouraged to attend the ISHRS’s Masterclass in Hair Reconstructive Surgery in Bucharest, Romania, November 7-9, 2025.
Hosted by ISHRS members Felix Popescu, MD, PhD, chair, and Marco Barusco, MD, FISHRS, co-chair, this three-day live surgery workshop is designed for seasoned and newer practitioners alike interested in the latest advances and surgical techniques to correct hair transplantation results impacted by operators of fraudulent, illicit hair transplant clinics or as a result of injury or trauma.
“From optimizing the placement of anesthesia to managing patient expectations, repairing difficult cases is a multi-step process that requires a delicate balance of skill and science,” said Dr. Barusco. “Attendees will observe multiple live surgeries and have the opportunity to interact with faculty and patients to further enhance their understanding of complex repair cases.”
For more information on this ISHRS live surgery workshop, interested attendees can reach out to the workshop chairs at contact@ishrs-bucharest.com.
About the ISHRS
The International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) is a global non-profit medical association and the leading authority on hair loss treatment and restoration with 1,200 members throughout 80 countries worldwide. Above all, the ISHRS is dedicated to achieving excellence in patient outcomes by promoting the highest standards of medical practice, medical ethics, and research in the medical hair restoration industry. The ISHRS also provides continuing medical education to physicians specializing in hair transplant surgery and is committed to delivering the latest information on medical and surgical treatments to consumers suffering from hair loss, and most commonly from androgenetic alopecia – male pattern baldness and female pattern hair loss. It was founded in 1993 as the first international society to promote continuing quality improvement and education for professionals in the field of hair restoration surgery. For more information and to locate a physician, visit www.ishrs.org.
About the Survey
Conducted by Relevant Research Consulting of Evanston, IL, USA, the ISHRS 2025 Practice Census is a compilation of information provided solely by participating physicians. The information published in this survey was developed from actual historical information and does not include any projected information. The margin of error for the sample is within plus or minus 5.4 percent at the 95 percent confidence level. For a full reprint of the ISHRS 2025 Practice Census Report, visit Hair Restoration Statistics.
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