By Don Marston, Scarborough, Ontario
A MORNING-SHOW disk-jockey is telling jokes on the air while a strip of his scalp is being dissected on a nearby table. Against the sterile white surface and scalp-wielding rubber glove looks like a black caterpillar meeting an unfortunate end. Dr. Lawrence Fremont hands Jesse Dylan a mirror to inspect the harvested (or scalped) area on the back of his head.
"It looks like he's spelled something back there," Jesse quips into the microphone. "It says 'F... U... C...'
Jesse's partner, Gene Valaitis, butts in at the last second with a traffic report, and everyone in the room, including Dr. Fremont, is laughing.
Being the "Amazing Hair Doctor" to a half million morning-show listeners is all in a day's work for Dr. Fremont in the market driven field of hair transplantation. With the increasing competition from other doctors, the former family practitioner always has to be on the look-out for ways to promote his business.
And fortunately for Dr. Fremont, local celebrities are helping his cause. Rather than skulking to his office and going hiding for weeks, they are baldly going where no man has gone before, and broadcasting their procedures over the airwaves.
It started in 1993 when Jesse of Toronto's AM 640 ("The Hog") approached Dr. Fremont to do a live broadcast. Through the taped TV show 20/20 had shown a hair replacement, at that time there had never before been a live broadcast of a procedure. "When you're doing something like this, you're being judged, so you don't want to make any mistakes," says Dr. Fremont. "If your patient feints when he sees the needle, it could put you out of business."
In fact, the show went of without a hitch" "Our office was packed that morning," recalls Dr. Fremont. We had lots of people coming in and bringing Jesse presents, and many people called in to ask him questions." patient feints when he sees the needle, it could put you out of business."
Dr. Fremont's on-air exposure not only brought in more clients for the $2800, three-hour procedure, it started a bizarre competition among local radio stations to have their hosts receive on-air transplants.
Last spring, Jesse went in for a second on-air transplant session. "The Hog" made up promotional posters featuring "Gene and Jesse and the Amazing Hair Doctor-Live and Unplugged." This time, Dr. Fremont set up a large white tent outside his office building, and camera crews from Rogers Cable came in to film the event.
Local talk radio station CFRB saw the tent and approached Dr. Fremont to do a show featuring their own host, Henry Shannon. "I had been using Henry Shannon for some time," says Dr. Fremont. "He's been on the radio for 25 years and has a lot of credibility. He's talked about his hair transplant, and a lot of people came in as a result of the ads he did."
Seizing the opportunity, Dr. Fremont did back-to-back shows from the tent, featuring CFRB's Henry Shannon and John Oakley one evening, and Gene and Jesse the next morning. "I stayed at the office all night," he says.
Just as the well of balding DJs was appearing to run dry, the sporting world came through for Dr. Fremont: Baseball and hockey strikes last fall left sports radio station "The Fan" bereft of on-air material. Taking the ball and running with it, Dr. Fremont approached The Fan to do an on air transplant of then Quebec Nordiques general manager Sherwood 'Sherry' Bassin. "I'd gone to Russia with him in 1983 because I was the team doctor with the Canadian Juniors at that time. And I said to him, 'You know, you need a transplant: Let's get you on the show and maybe The Fan will cover it.'"
Cover it they did, providing The Fan an alternative to re-broadcasting old baseball games, and providing Dr. Fremont the publicity that seems the lifeblood of his business. Recently Dr. Fremont has received calls from Buffalo, New York radio station to do another live show. Says Dr. Fremont" "The last time I did an interview after a Rogers Cable show, they asked me 'What next?' and I said, 'Maybe Letterman.'"
Dr. Fremont is quick to correct the notion that he is getting all this publicity for free. "In order to keep the momentum going, once the shows have been on, we've bought air time. People want to see what the results are, because it takes three months from the hair to start to grow."
In fact, advertising expenses can run $20,000 to $30,000 in a particular month-an essential difference between providing user-paid, non-essential services and working for a provincial insurance plan.
"Most Doctors aren't interested in promotion and advertising, because they're dealing with a geographical area that's very small. But my services extend beyond these small borders. It's not a 25-mile radius or a 500-mile radius. It's thousand's of miles."
His Savvy business side
BEYOND THE FUN side of the Amazing Hair Doctor is a savvy entrepreneur who has built a global business. In 1987, Dr. Fremont opened the first and only hair replacement clinic in Israel, which was an immediate success. "Baldness is common in Israel because its genetic," says Dr. Fremont."At one time Israel was surrounded by enemies. We now have friendlier neighbors and they're signing peace treaties, but in the past you were cut of by the mediteran9ian on the one side and all of your enemies on the other side. It's a genetic pool that breeds baldness, so it was a very good area to market."
After training two Israeli doctors to run the Tel Aviv office, Dr. Fremont used Israel as a jumping off point for starting up European clinics. Since the late 1980's, he has opened clinics in Brussels, Budapest, Vienna, Manchester and Hong Kong, under the name Hair and Faces International.
Dr. Fremont prefers to train physicians at foreign offices, and sell them a license to use his company name. "It is very hard to run a business by remote control. I'd rather be able to sell the license, and then I know I have a bit of control over the quality. If they're not delivering the quality I want, I can yank their license."
Looking into the future, Dr. Fremont is excited about more clinics opening in the Middle East. "When I was in Israel last February, I spoke to a Jordanian and an Egyptian who, along with an Israeli, want to take this into the Middle East."
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