Sy Sperling was a TV commercial sensation who long promoted his business with his famous tagline, "Remember, I'm not only the Hair Club president, but I'm also a client"—and he always showed a photo of himself pre-hair transplant surgery.
Sperling founded Hair Club in 1976 and he has since faded into commercial lore.
But Chris Varona can relate.
Varona, 41, who lives in Andersonville, is a hair-transplant surgeon for Ziering—and also a client. He had hair-transplant surgery about 10 years ago. Ironically, Varona also is a former surgeon for the Hair Club For Men in the Chicago area.
Varona works in Ziering's Chicago office primarily, but also spends time working in Southern California, Manhattan and Atlanta.
"I think people often equate youth and beauty with hair," or lack thereof, he said. "Once I had the transplant, I didn't think about [fading youth] anymore. It was a significant [move] for me, as it is for a lot of people.
"For me, there wasn't a second thought; I knew that I was losing my hair and knew that it changed the proportions of my face in a way that I didn't like, so there was only one option."
His whole hairline had disappeared, he said.
Varona's hair transplant surgery was a one-day process, as is normal.
"[The surgery] is very detail-oriented, so we can get really nice, natural results," he said.
Varona, who is openly gay and one of three doctors at Ziering, is originally from Milwaukee and has lived in Chicago for the past 16 years. He is partnered to Eduardo Silva.
Varona graduated from DePaul University.
"I wanted to do something surgical because I knew I was very good with my hands, and wanted to do one of two things and do them well. I feel more confident when I know something from the ground up and I knew that I wanted [to do] something artistic," said Varona, who started losing his hair in his mid-20s and then, during his residency program, started doing rotations in hair transplantation.
Varona was hooked.
"You want to match the expectations of what we can do with what the patient wants, and if those two don't fit, we guide as honestly as we can," the doctor said during a casual interview that was, at times, advanced when Varona talked in detail about the industry and procedures.
In Chicago, Varona said about 70 percent of the customers are male, perhaps a bit more men in California. The average age is late 30s or early 40s. Some as young as 19 and as old as mid-80s, he said.
Hair transplant is an elective surgery, so rarely covered by insurance.
"The first thing is, to figure out what [a client's] goals are and then try to figure out what would make someone happy—and if we can do enough of a change to make them happy," he said.
Varona admitted that he cannot do anything for up to 20 percent of the potential customers—because they came to him too late, with too much hair loss already. So, he stressed, "come in early because it takes about 50 percent of your hair to fall out to even notice it's thinning. Don't ignore it—you'll be happier later on, whether or not you do surgery."
The transplant is done with real hair, he said. "We just move it from one place to another."
Varona said he has a large LGBT clientele, often through word of mouth.
Within the LGBT community, Varona often sees customers who want to experiment with their hair styles, he said.
