The book is comprehensive in discussion of all aspects of HRS. They begin with the all-important topics of patient evaluation, preoperative planning, and pre-, intra-, and postoperative care. The authors outline underlying principles and practical tips in design elements for the hairline, temples, and crown.

The authors have focused their surgical approach on follicular unit excision (FUE), which has emerged as a dominant, if not preferred, technique of harvesting grafts for transplantation. They present a thorough discussion of details in the techniques required to excise high quality grafts, to extract the grafts and handle them while out of the body and during placement to achieve optimal outcomes.

There is a special emphasis in this book on the importance of minimizing time out of the body for the grafts. The authors’ approach is to perform graft removal and placement simultaneously, which they call “direct hair transplantation (DHT).” This is an excellent approach. HRS surgeons who remove the grafts in-toto before they start to place are faced with special challenges in survival of grafts held out of body over extended time. These doctors have to resort to expensive designed cold storage solutions and systems in order to optimize graft survival. The DHT approach side-steps this necessity. The DHT technique is similar in concept to the approach of the direct hair implantation (DHI) from Greece. However, to the best of my knowledge the DHI technique has not been described in such academic detail as in this book.

As a bonus, the authors have added chapters on beard harvesting and transplantation, eyebrow transplantation, eyelash reconstruction, as well as the unique aspects of treating women with hair loss. In addition, they present a well-conceived and executed approach to the difficult cases of those requiring corrective surgery and to the causes, prevention, and management of surgical complications.

In the final chapter, they give well thought through practical advice on how to start and manage a hair transplant practice.

I have been a hair restoration surgeon for over 25 years and as a clinician I know how hard it is to work on professional papers and textbooks in the midst of keeping up with a busy practice. But Drs Pradeep Sethi, Arika Bansal, Abhinav Kumar, and Sarita Sanke deserve high praise for their accomplishment in writing this guide. Who better than clinical practitioners to create a step-by-step guide that is indeed practical and useful to other doctors including beginners and experienced surgeons. My congratulations to the authors and my welcome to you fortunate readers.

In the meantime, the teacher in me found junior doctors who wanted to learn from us the way we do the procedure. Teaching helps in learning more. We thought it is important to put the well-documented self-explanatory pictures in a book format with systematic step-by-step explanations. (This book is primarily pictures, but having enough explanations). We have tried to compile chapters relevant to the practical procedure that is done in the theater. There is more focus upon hairline design as we believe that hairline is the gateway into the face of the person and it has to be a designer's job. Also, there is a focus upon DHT (direct hair transplantation)—a modified FUE (follicular unit excision) technique where grafts are planted simultaneously with extraction which enhances the survival chances of the grafts by reducing the time outside body for the grafts, thus reduces the chances of damage by mechanical trauma, desiccation and infection. Another highlight of the book would be the graft implantation in the pre-made slits by implanters. The implanters ensure that the grafts are not damaged during plantation. It is very important in the hands of the not very experienced technicians who do placement of the grafts. The precision and control required by the small muscles of the hand is high, lest a little bit of extra pressure while handling the grafts and placing them can damage the grafts. Here the loaded grafts in the implanters are to be unloaded in the pre-made slits, which are made in right depth, density and angle by the primary surgeon, who controls the whole procedure. Also, we have added the chapter of evaluation of cases of hair transplantation as it is a very important aspect of hair transplantation. With the rise of female hair transplantation cases, it was also important to highlight the important practical points. Advanced grades of baldness needed special mention because it is usually difficult for neophyte as well as veteran surgeons to provide the adequate density required to cover grade 6–7 baldness cases. Due to inadequate training and whatsoever many patients get botched up jobs and we are encountering a lot of patients with a demand for “re do”. So, there is a chapter upon corrective hair transplantation.

The meaning of the above shloka is “ O Goddess Saraswati, your treasure is unique in nature. It increases when it is freely spent and gets destroyed if it is hoarded (and not shared with others)”.

The underlying idea in this message is that more the knowledge is shared, the more it tends to broaden and improve the basis of the concept of this knowledge as and when shared, leading to opening of new vistas of knowledge. If knowledge is kept by a person to himself, it perishes and is wasted and lost forever. This has been and observed many a times over time. (I had first read this Sanskrit verse on a plaque that was hanging on the entrance wall of our library of my MBBS medical college. I always remember this verse when I intend to write, speak or publish any important paper on any subject).

One of my latest work is this book I have co-authored Step by Step Hair transplantation. It is about my wondrous journey for me as an individual, my delights, my pains and struggle all have been a massive learning and to be honest I loved every bit of it. I have learnt and unlearnt a lot over this time. As the saying goes ‘One who thinks that he has devoured all the knowledge there is in this universe, he brings death unto himself’ and so I believe learning is an everyday affair.

These past two years of my life that I have dedicated to completion of this book and it would not have been possible without the help of many people. My heartfelt gratitude to each and everyone involved in the book no matter how minuscule their role has been.

I would like to specially mention my whole surgical team Drs Arika Bansal, Shishir, Abhinav Kumar and Priyadarshini Das who have consistently worked hard along with me and absorbed my “perfectionist” episodes. My ever reliable OT technicians Ravi Kumar, Manoranjan Sethi, Giridhari Sethi, Adarsha Sahoo, Kharabela Samal, Rakshyakar Behera to name a few. To my zealous and conscientious group of counsellors; Nelson, Shikha, Vrushali, and Alkesh who play a key role regarding patient associations.

To my efficient technical staff, Debashish and Rajesh who made sure I had every picture or video that I needed which have been collected over the years. Thanks to all my fellow doctors and colleagues; Robert True, Robert Haber, Nicole Rogers, Anil Kumar Garg, Bessam Farjo, Chiara Insalaco, Michael Baik, Arvind Poswal, Piero Tesauro, Manas Chatterjee, Raghunath Reddy and Rajesh Kumar who have provided critical inputs to me whenever they were required.

I am deeply indebted to my patients without whom not only would this book, but I myself as a surgeon would be incomplete. I would like to mention the names of Ashish Joneja and Rahul Raichand who as patients helped me to know more about the psychology of hair loss patients and the expectations of them from the doctor. Mrs (Dr) Dalmiya helped me a lot understanding the details of the female hairline aesthetics.

A loud mention of two senior doctors; Dr Kiran Godse and Dr Kabeer Sardana, they both pressed me hard with affection to write down my experiences of the subject that I am so passionate about. Without their constant pressure this book would not have seen the daylight! The name Step by Step Hair Transplantation was suggested by Dr Kabeer Sardana in one flight from Delhi to Dehradun.

Special gratitude to the team at M/s Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers (P) Ltd, New Delhi, India; Shri Jitendar P Vij (Group Chairman), Mr Ankit Vij (Managing Director), Ms Chetna Malhotra Vohra (Associate Director—Content Strategy), Ms Prerna Bajaj (Development Editor) and Subrato Adhikari (Commissioning Editor) who were wonderful supports to me and a pleasure to work with.

No credit is enough for my co-authors Dr Arika Bansal, Dr Abhinav Kumar, Dr Sarita Sanke who have also given their sweat and blood in this book and made it happen. There is a special mention needed for the hard work and sacrifices of Abhinav Kumar who shaped the dream of this book into reality. Dr Priyadarshini Das, who just joined us recently helped us in fine tuning the copy and many miscellaneous aspects. She is an amazing creative writer with scientific approach.

Lastly I am forever grateful to my loving family for their undying support; my late father (I inherited the passion for work from him), my mother Sashi Sethi, my wife Arika Bansal, and my high spirited sons Arkin and Aryaveer. With a heavy heart I also take this opportunity to state that I have not always been there for my family when consumed by this journey. I hope they have it in them to forgive me.

I have attempted to bring out to the readers, my unbiased knowledge and observations in this book to help and introspect the ever evolving field of Hair Transplant Science.