Michael Van Clarke – Most Wanted Business Thinker 2011 and recent Salon Smart speaker – has just returned from Dublin having spent a day in theatre with the talented Dr Maurice Collins, probably the world’s leading hair transplant surgeon. Want to know what he discovered? Read about his experience here…

Many clients have enquired about hair transplant procedures and I too have a few less hairs on top than in my youth, when my full swinging bob would attract ‘is he or isn’t he?’ comments as I strode along, a mickey take on the ’70s Harmony hairspray ads, for those old enough to remember. My brother Nicky was practising on my hair at the time and hadn’t yet moved onto full layers!

Anyway, my only understanding of hair transplants was the old dolly head plug version, which left a lot to be desired. I wanted to be updated on just how refined this process could now be.

The purpose-built centre in Dublin is state of the art and oozes a sense of caring and excellence. The underground car park with lift allows total anonymity for high profile clients. We started at 7.45am with a full boardroom briefing on the patient, who had flown in from Asia especially. The meeting involved a team of about 15 surgeons, nurses and technicians. It’s vital that everyone knows the exact programme, as with this sort of surgery you don’t get a second chance.

Everything is carried out under local anaesthetic. Maurice was previously a head and neck surgeon, and in the operating theatre a strip of scalp is removed from the back of the head between 1cm to 2cm high and 26cm across. This is the donor piece. This wound is closed with staples and stitching, and the patient moves to the TV room beside the labs where he can sit upright and relax.

The donor section of scalp is then taken to the lab where a team of highly skilled technicians working at banks of Nikon microscopes slice the flesh into single hair wide rows. Another group of technicians in the adjoining lab then separate these into the individual hair follicles.

The harvest is graded into single hair, double, triple and quadruple hair follicles. The average works out to about 2.2 hairs per follicle, so 100 follicles will yield about 220 hairs – 3,000 hairs is a fairly standard procedure. This is, of course, dependent on the thickness and quality of the donor hair at the back. Everything is recorded, counted and posted on the wall for everyone to see. It’s important to know the numbers.

Another surgeon has prepared three micro scalpels tailored to the depth of the scalp and in three thicknesses depending on follicle size. In the TV room, he then sets about making incisions into the scalp, taking care to adjust the angles so that the hairs lay in a natural direction. Only single hair follicles are placed around the hairline and some are scattered with a deliberate irregularity to mimic nature’s way.

A further team of technicians then begin planting the individual follicles one by one into the prepared holes. The full operation can take 10 hours and the patient must stay upright, so cannot go to bed, for 12 hours after leaving.

I sat in on two post-op consultations from the surgery and I was amazed to see how quickly the healing was taking place. One man was in his 30s, the other in his 70s.

I also attended a consultation with a female patient who had been taking Regaine to thicken her hair. I personally don’t like the idea of lifelong drug use but this is mild and externally applied. The results were dramatically different from earlier photographs I saw.

I know as a hairdresser the amazing difference hair makes to self-esteem and Maurice is a real artist who’s created an amazing centre. I feel comfortable now recommending clients to him.”

Couldn’t get a ticket for this year’s sell-out Salon Smart? You missed a belter! But fear not as we have a rather wonderful little taster here. We couldn’t squeeze it all in, but this mini-movie will show you what a fantastic line-up and crowd we had. Just make sure you have 28-29 April 2013 free in your diary!

http://www.creativeheadmag.com/salonsmart/salon-smart-2012-all-the-action/

Last night deputy editor Lauren and editorial assistant Charlotte put on their raving shoes and headed to the Theatre Royal in London to see what the Saks Art Team were up to, at the new West End dance show Revolution.

Starring former Pussycat Doll Kimberley Wyatt and Coyote Ugly actor Adam Garcia, the show brings together some of the UK’s biggest dance acts and puts them in the spotlight. The Saks Art Team, headed up by Alison Dace, was on hand to create the hair looks. The show sees two teams go to battle in a galaxy far, far away, so of course the theme for the hair was sci-fi meets Barberella. For Kimberly, Alison created three triangular scalp plaits at the front hairline to give an alien feel. Next came a plait headband to inject the Barberella-esque volume by using L’Oréal Volume Mousse and a Saks ‘Bounce It’ blow-dry. Mini crimpers were used at the roots for maximum root lifting-effect. Revolution takes place every Sunday at the Theatre Royal Haymarket from 6 May to 10 June. For more information visit trh.co.uk

With more than 400 shows across the four fashion capitals – although it’s expanding now to Shanghai and Tokyo – there’s a lot to digest each season. For a postmortem on the hair front, Runway editor Sarah headed to L’Oréal Professionnel’s A/W12 trends session, in association with Malcolm Edwards.

Poor Malcolm’s ears must be burning with all the talk about him at Creative HEAD this week. First there was his Vogue cover , and second was Sarah’s rambunctious account of yesterday’s trends session, in which Malcolm joked about shoplifting for hair accessories and how next season’s Full Bodied trend is for the lady who does it all – big hair, lipstick, painted eyes, nails, and a vajazzle! Good on you Malcolm, we can see that a lot better then the usual trend forecasts that somehow manage to link skyscrapers in Dubai to next season’s love of fringes.

Now, getting back to the hair trends. There were nine in total, including the Full Bodied – see Dsquared², Fringe Benefits – not the Dubai skyscraper kind, and Versace and Panel Back for the long, straight weft work at Versus, Issa, Rochas et al. There’s a lot to go into and rest assured we’ll do that in full. So keep you eyes peeled on In Session and of course, Runway.

We’re getting a little giddy in the office as more exciting details of the Most Wanted and The It List 2012 event on 3 September are confirmed – the venue? Check! But we’re not telling… not just yet anyway! So have you got your entry in yet? The clock is ticking – we have two weeks left before The It List deadline closes and three weeks until the Most Wanted deadline snaps shut!

If you’re 30 or under and have talent you need to shout about, enter The It List now! I love sifting through all the entries and seeing the amazing quality of our industry’s youth – always innovative, exciting and full of ambition!

Most Wanted always impresses, too – the mixture of creativity, business nous and full-on star wattage leaves me breathless. And this year again I have the tough task of deciding the Hair Icon with my fellow judges. Not that we know until the night who’ll scoop the prize; all of our score sheets are taken from us individually, so it’s as much of a surprise to us when that name is read out as it is to the audience! And that’s another highlight – the reactions! Those are some of my favourite images when it comes to choosing what to publish in the October issue of Creative HEAD – the arms aloft! The open mouths! The tears! Victory is always sweet… but how will you ever know unless you get those entries in? Come on readers – your Creative HEAD needs your stories of excellence!