I guess I just repeat myself a lot when talking about these meetings, but I have to say it every time: the ISHRS World Congress is always amazing for me! I just love it. You get to see your friends, hang out and talk about hair the whole time (but not just hair, of course). There are a lot of discussions, ideas and “pearls” floating around the whole time. It’s just a privilege and I’m so happy that I get to be part of it all!

This year was special for me. The congress was held in my home country - Portugal. And I got to be the go to guy (or one of them) for my friends to find cool places to visit and stuff to do. Actually, some are still visiting as I write this. There’s just this pride I take in sharing my culture and our way of life with people from around the world. I can’t get enough of it.

There’s of course, the “elephant in the room”, i.e., COVID-19.

Yes, this was a smaller meeting than usual due to a lot of us not being able to come, but also an awesome win for us since we were having trouble figuring out if we’d be able to do it when we first started discussing it. Fortunately everything went without a hitch and I’m happy to say that there were no reported incidents during the meeting. A lot of work went into planning and I’m delighted with the result.

Respecting safe distancing. It was a very big auditorium with lots of space.

I had the honor of being part of the scientific planning committee and sharing my thoughts and ideas, as well as offering my help and collaboration in what I could be of assistance. Of course, being a local and Portuguese native allowed me to get quick updates, especially about COVID-related rules and guidelines. But I must say that Melanie Stancampiano, the Programs Director did such a good job that that made me almost redundant. Haha

During out panel discussion. Left to right: Dr. Washenik, Dr. Nader, Dr. Zontos, Dr. Harris and myself.

Scientifically, this was a super interesting congress. Dr. Marie Schambach, Program Chair, did a stellar job and there were a lot of insightful moments with great interactions. She’s a great doctor who has brought a lot to the scientific community, thus she had set her own bar pretty high. And she totally nailed it! Congratulations to her.

I’ll talk more about the news in the scientific part of things in a later post.

As for me, I played a small part this year in the discussions as a panelist. They always feel too short when you’re up there and you always want to do more. But that’s how it goes. Time is of the essence and we need to keep the “show” on time. Needless to say that I’m super happy about the invitation and I hope I brought something useful to the discussions with my contribution.

The customary “poster” photo with myself, Dr. Pinto, Dr. Junior and Dr. Costa

And of course, it was fun! I spoke to many great people and I made new friends and acquaintances during these days. I really appreciate those of you who took the initiative of coming to introduce yourselves to me. I am honored that you enjoy my work and I hope I’ve offered something useful to you in our chats.

We also got to share some “quality time”, going for dinner and drinks. Being it “hittin’ the town” (;D), at the cocktail reception or the Gala Dinner. It’s so much fun! I sometimes almost have to pinch myself to believe that this is my life. And I’ve missed this. I’ve missed it a lot…

And now, I’m taking a couple days off to relax a bit. But I am super Pumped to get back into that O.R. and smash some amazing results for my patients! Got some amazing ideas out of this meeting (all written down of course) and you’ll be benefiting from those really soon.

Until next time,

PS: Oh, and look at how skillful these doctors are! :P As pointed out by Dr. Mejia, here’s a before and after: