ISHRS is hosting a Live Surgery Workshop in Bucharest, Romania, November 7-9, 2025, focusing on hair repair
CHICAGO, October 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — According to a recent member survey Conducted by the International Society for 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.
International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery
Case in point: earlier this month, Dubai police arrested a man running an illegal hair transplant clinic from an apartment.
“These fraudulent, illegal hair transplant clinics operate under the guise of an established medical practice, luring unsuspecting patients with false or misleading advertisements, low prices and enticing travel packages,” said Conradin von Albertini, MD, FISHRS, president of ISHRS. “The results can be devastating, leaving victims with little recourse for the often permanent damage inflicted by those who are not authorized to perform this highly skilled surgery.”
ISHRS receives many emails from young men who have been victimized. At the end of September 2025, ISHRS received the following message from a man in the UK: “Hi, I had a bad hair transplant and my donor area is badly cut. I’m in deep shock loss. How long should I wait and have reconstructive surgery? I didn’t know people pretending to be fake surgeons make their lives.” She went on to explain that she now has low self-esteem and is feeling suicidal.
To combat this alarming trend, ISHRS is hosting the fifth annual “World Hair Transplant Repair Day” on November 11, 2025 (11/11). This global event is part of ISHRS’ global consumer awareness campaign Fight the FIGHT (an acronym for Fight the Fraudulent, Illicit, and Global Hair Transplants) designed to educate and help people who have fallen victim to this widespread practice.
Consequences of hair transplants performed illegally can include permanent visible scarring, infection, thin patches of hair, bald spots and overharvested donor areas that can be very difficult to correct. In cases where the damage can be repaired, patients often need more than one corrective procedure.
In an effort to help victims of black market hair transplant clinics around the world, ISHRS is encouraging people in need of corrective surgery to connect individually with participating ISHRS volunteer doctors through the campaign website. HairTransplantRepairDay.orgfor a chance to receive a pro bono corrective hair transplant procedure. Since its inception in 2020, the number of physician members participating in ISHRS has grown to dozens of members in all corners of the world.
Dr. von Albertini noted that the most recent survey of ISHRS members found that in 2024, 59% of ISHRS members reported that there were black market hair transplant clinics in their cities – up from 51% in 2021. Additionally, ISHRS members reported that the average recovery rate due to a previous black market hair transplant was 6% 1 in 2024, up from 20% 1 in 2024.
As part of ISHRS’ commitment to educate 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 live patient education streams; from different countries in different languages that patients can access as archived replays to educate themselves on how to avoid becoming a victim of black market hair transplants. In addition, numerous patient case studies document the real-life experience of victims at the hands of fraudulent, illegal hair transplant clinics and the lasting consequences of their disfiguring surgeries.
“Giving people the tools to make educated decisions about their hair health is a cornerstone of the Fight the FIGHT campaign and has helped countless hair loss patients make informed, informed decisions about who is a good candidate for hair transplants,” said Paul T. Rose, MD, JD, FISHRS, ISHRS Fight the FIGHT subcommittee chair. “Our goal is to continue to raise awareness of the widespread problem of black market hair transplant clinics and to spare hair loss patients the pain and devastation caused by these fraudulent practices that often require multiple corrective procedures.”
ISHRS is committed to patient safety and continually strives for the best outcomes for all patients by offering members superior education and training to improve their techniques. To ensure that patients have the information necessary to make informed decisions about who will perform their hair restoration surgery, ISHRS urges potential patients to understand the difference between procedures that only a surgeon must perform versus procedures that only technicians can perform.
Only the surgeon must:
Perform medical history and tests to ensure the success of the transplant
Rule out hair diseases that could affect hair growth and failure
Draw the hairline
Make incisions in the host area (blades, needles, implants)
Make incisions in the donor area (grading grafts)
Place cuttings with sharp implants
Technicians can only:
Pull grafts graded by the surgeon
Place sharp implants and hand it to the surgeon
Place the grafts with either forceps or blunt implants (after the surgeon makes all the incisions)
Dr. Rose added that each country has its own laws and regulations regarding the removal and placement of grafts by technicians. In some countries, technicians are not allowed to perform these procedures and their actions may be considered illegal and lead to criminal charges.
The ISHRS Live Surgery Lab demonstrates the intricacies of hair restoration surgery Hair restoration surgeons interested in improving their skills in complex restoration cases due to black market hair transplants or as a result of scalp or facial trauma are encouraged to attend ISHRS’s Masterclass in Reconstructive Hair Surgery in Bucharest, Romania, 7-9 November 2025.
Hosted by ISHRS members Felix Popescu, MD, PhD, and Marco Barusco, MD, FISHRS, co-chair.
“From optimizing anesthesia placement to managing patient expectations, fixing difficult cases is a multi-step process that requires a delicate balance of skill and science,” said Dr. Barusco. “Attendees will witness multiple surgical procedures live and have the opportunity to interact with faculty and patients to further enhance their understanding of complex repair cases.”
For more information about this ISHRS live surgery workshop, interested participants can contact the workshop chairs at contact@ishrs-bucharest.com.
About 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 in 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. ISHRS also provides continuing medical education to physicians specializing in hair transplant surgery and is committed to providing the latest information on medical and surgical treatments to consumers suffering from hair loss and most commonly androgenetic alopecia – male pattern baldness and female pattern baldness. It was founded in 1993 as the first international company to promote continuous quality improvement and professional training in the field of hair restoration surgery. For more information and to locate a doctor, visit www.ishrs.org.
About the Research Conducted by Relevant Research Consulting of Evanston, IL, USA, the ISHRS 2025 Practice Inventory is a collection of information provided solely by participating physicians. The information published in this survey was developed from actual historical information and does not include any forecasted 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 Census Practice Report, visit Hair Restoration Statistics.
The International Society for Hair Restoration Surgery is hosting its fifth annual “World Hair Transplant Repair Day” on 11.11 to raise awareness of the dangers of black market hair transplant clinics around the world.
