Friends, family, patients and colleagues often comment on my holistic approach to hair loss - a problem which affects around 70 per cent of men and 50 per cent of women.

I believe this holistic approach was shaped early in my career.

Within a few years after finishing my residency at Royal Hobart Hospital I went to work as a country doctor in remote mining communities in the north of Western Australia.

This invaluable medical role saw me delivering babies, performing routine surgeries and delivering vaccination programs to families in remote communities.

The privilege of caring for and earning the trust of people in this region gave me experiences and insights which have very much shaped my approach to my chosen field of hair restoration - a field I have dedicated 20 years of my professional life to.

Throughout my 30-plus career in medicine I’ve learned how empowering it can be for patients to get a swift diagnosis and the right information about a condition that concerns them.

I am a passionate advocate for greater public awareness on hair loss issues.

Obtaining knowledge begins with going to the correct authority to source that information.

In the case of hair loss the best source of information is a medical practitioner specialising in this field.

Hair loss is a medical problem and requires a medical diagnosis.

I have seen so many men who have wasted thousands of dollars on inappropriate so-called “miracle cures” simply because they didn’t get a correct diagnosis or the right medical information in the first place.

Consumer advocacy has formed a significant component of my roles as the former President of the Australasian Society of Hair Restoration Surgery and as program chair for the first ever international conference of hair restoration physicians hosted in Sydney in August 2005.

My initial interest in hair transplantation was awakened in the early 1980s and I travelled to the United States to study under leading physicians in the field.

Soon after, I began to think about how hair transplantation could be more successful if it mimicked nature.

My life-long involvement with horses gave me an insight into the hair direction in the flanks of horses.

The lesson gained is that as with horses, human hair also flows in curved directions rather than the straight lines that was used in hair transplantation up until a decade ago.

Since the early 1990s I have dedicated a major part of my professional activities to researching, developing and refining undetectable hair restoration techniques which are based on mimicking nature.

This has led to developing hair transplants which are so natural in appearance that only the expert can tell a transplant has been performed.

My achievements saw me becoming the first Australian and first woman to receive the highest honour in the field when I was awarded the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) Platinum Follicle Award in New York in October 2003.

This has attracted widespread media interest both internationally and in Australia and I regularly address conferences in Europe and North America.

My mission now is to continue to raise consumer awareness so that hair loss patients do their research into the company or physician they are dealing with and ensure they receive the first class hair restoration treatment now available.

Some physician members of the ISHRS have worked tirelessly towards achieving the gold standard hair restoration results now available.

It is unnecessary for any hair loss patient to end up with an obvious looking transplant.