Gone are the days of hair transplant patients who advertise their hair loss by the very fact that the surgery left neatly tilled rows of new hair across the top of their heads, like a freshly planted garden. The world of hair transplant surgery has come a long way, much in part to pioneers in the industry like the one I sat down with recently. Almost never is it possible to tell who has had the procedure, making it a challenge for this doctor and entrepreneur to grow his business, because there’s virtually no word-of-mouth advertising. Yet, he has somehow built a massive empire, becoming the go-to clinic for hair loss procedures for men and women in New England.
His name is Dr. Robert Leonard and he has built a hair transplant empire, which stretches from Rhode Island to Massachusetts to New Hampshire, and soon Maine. There are more than 80 million American men and women who experience hair loss. The epidemic is an important one, says Dr. Leonard, not because it creates health issues, but rather because hair loss can affect the way people see themselves, and in turn, how they interact with the world. It is for this reason that Dr. Leonard feels that he’s not just in the business of restoring hair, but rather, he’s in the business of restoring confidence.
Dr. Leonard grew up in Arlington, Massachusetts and received his undergraduate degree from University of New Hampshire. He went on to earn his medical degree at University of New England and then on to intern at Pinellas Park, Florida and then went to Toledo, Ohio where he completed his residency. From there, he went on to complete a hair transplant surgery preceptorship at the Chambers Hair Institute under the late Dr. C. P. Chambers, whom he had met while interning in Florida.
In 1989, Dr. Leonard ventured out on his own path, opening his first hair transplant surgical facility in Providence, RI, which he has since expanded into 7 offices throughout New England in the last 27 years. I recently sat down with Dr. Leonard to find out what it takes to build a business in a field where your raving fans rarely share their results with the world, and what it means to be a pioneer in an industry that has seen massive shifts in technology and solutions over the past three decades. Here are Dr. Leonard’s three keys to creating permanent success in business:
Find Your Ambassadors: In the field of hair transplant, it’s not always easy to find ambassadors. Dr. Leonard and his team have performed thousands of transplants, yet the subject is so taboo for many that they would never tell anyone about their positive experiences. That being said, Dr. Leonard says that he’s been extremely lucky to have gained traction with several celebrity athletes who have been more than vocal about the positive results they’ve had with their hair loss treatments, such as professional football players, Sebastian Vollmer, Rob Ninkovich, and Wes Welker. Some ambassadors agree to share their stories in private with good friends and family who are also struggling with hair loss, while others are much more vocal, sharing their stories on Dr. Leonard’s website and social media. Dr. Leonard is also not shy about being his own best advocate as he is the first to tell anyone thinking about treatment that his thick, shiny, head of hair is a result of a hair transplant procedure at the hands of his own team. In addition to marketing ambassadors, Dr. Leonard has also created a family of team members who are undying advocates of the work they do, including his mom, Marsha, who is the queen ambassador of hair transplant who helps run the administrative support side of the business, his wife, Dr. Kathryne Leonard who has fully supported the growth of the firm, and his protégé Dr. Matthew Lopresti who now handles the consultations and procedures at several of Dr. Leonard’s offices. Finally, his surgical assistants and office team provide an extremely positive experience for all of their patients. Dr. Leonard says it’s impossible to build a world class business without ambassadors and in this vein, he says that much of his own success has come down to building the perfect group of ambassadors on his team, within his customer base, and amongst his family members.
Accommodate, Accommodate, Accommodate: Coming in for a consultation is the first step every patient must take when it comes to addressing hair loss. Dr. Leonard says that this is a monumental step, if only because hair loss tends to be one of those things that people keep putting off for as long as they can. Dr. Leonard believes that the earlier patients come to see him, the more he can offer to do preventatively, offering topical therapies, oral medications, and laser treatments that significantly reduce the rate of hair loss. Dr. Leonard says that he and his team go out of their way to make it easy for patients to visit. First, there are 7 locations across New England, so most of them can find a convenient location to visit. Second, the team will meet in the evening or off hours so that patients can come at a time that works for them. Dr. Leonard says that since he started in the business twenty-nine years ago, hair restoration has become much less taboo, and so meeting patients at the back door of his office is no longer necessary. Even so, Dr. Leonard says that he has built a reputation of going out of his way to make the consultation, the procedure, and the recovery as stress-free as possible. The lesson here for any entrepreneur is simple; if you want to attract customers, accommodate them.
Always Innovate: Dr. Leonard has served as a leader in a number of respected organizations, including President of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS), Chairman of the ISHRS’s Bylaws and Ethics Committee, Chairman of the ISHRS’s Media Committee, Trustee of the University of New England, and Trustee of the American Board of Hair Restoration Surgery, to name just a few. Dr. Leonard says that for him, leadership and innovation are synonymous. He says that there have been massive innovations within the field since he began. In the early days, hair transplant was a more painful surgery with excessive recuperation time after, and the result was a noticeable planted line of hair follicles across the patient’s head. Dr. Leonard says that it is all very different today. Today, during the hair transplant procedure, the patients sit in a plush, comfortable chair designed specifically for hair transplants. During the session, patients are able to watch movies or television, and are typically not able to feel anything other than a pressure sensation. A local anesthetic is applied to the donor area of the scalp. One way to harvest is as follows: a strip of skin is harvested for hair replacement, and at the end of the procedure, the area is removed and sutured together healing in a line that is the width of a pencil line. This line is covered completely by that day. Under magnification, the follicular units from the donor strip are dissected out and individual grafts are created. A second way to harvest the grafts is through Follicular Unit Extraction Technique ( FUE) whereby, after the donor area is trimmed and numbed, the grafts are created by making tiny holes using the ARTAS Robotic Device or by other instruments. The second part of the procedure is the transplant. Using extreme precision, each graft is placed into the balding areas of the scalp, creating an aesthetically pleasing end result of naturally thicker hair. In addition to actual hair transplant procedures, Dr. Leonard says that many patients come to him just to stop the rate of hair loss, and in such instances, he has several other simple treatment options, which garner the results that patients need. Dr. Leonard says that he stays heavily involved with many of the leading hair transplant organizations because he insists that his team always be on the cutting edge of new developments in the industry, and by staying involved, he’s always one of the first to know when something new is coming down the pike.
His first residency more than 30 years ago was as an OB/GYN. He thought, what better way to impact the world than to deliver babies and to help foster healthy families. The hours were long and unpredictable, and he soon realized he would have to sacrifice his own family time to achieve that dream. Then, a stroke of fate lead him in a different direction through his preceptorship with Dr. Chambers. It was while working with Dr. Chambers that he realized, he wasn’t just restoring hair for people, he was restoring their confidence, subtly but powerfully changing the life of every client he met. The rest is history. Today he’s the leading hair restoration specialist in New England and he’s still changing lives permanently, one head at a time.