Carrie Houssock, MD - Plastic Surgeon in Owings Mills, Maryland

Eva Sheie (00:03):
The purpose of this podcast is simple. We want you to get to know your doctor before meeting them in person because you're making a life-changing decision, and time is scarce. The more you can learn about who your doctor is before you meet them, the better that first meeting will be. There's no substitute for an in-person appointment, but we hope this comes close. I'm your host, Eva Sheie, and you're listening to Meet the Doctor. Today on Meet the Doctor, I am honored to introduce Carrie Houssock from the beautiful city of Baltimore? <laugh>

Dr. Houssock (00:42):
Yeah, yeah. Call it Baltimore County. Sure, sure. Maryland. Beautiful.

Eva Sheie (00:48):
Uh, welcome to the podcast. It's good to have you here.

Dr. Houssock (00:51):
Thank you so much for having me.

Eva Sheie (00:53):
Now, you're a plastic surgeon. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Dr. Houssock (00:58):
I am, I'm a plastic and re reconstructive surgeon. I am 100% aesthetics, um, at this stage in my career. And I originally am from a small town in Pennsylvania, and then, um, found myself in Philadelphia for medical school and had originally thought I would be a general surgeon and then kind of, you know, like a lot of people do just in general with careers, discovered that I really had a knack for the artistic side of, of aesthetics and plastic surgery. And then, um, was lucky enough to match in residency at Hopkins, which is how I am here today in, in Baltimore. So I just, you know, life-changing training in the city. And, um, met a, a really fantastic mentor who I ended up joining in practice privately in a private practice right out of residency and ended up buying from him after he transitioned into retirement. So that's where I am today. My own private practice here in Baltimore County. It's a single solo practice and medical aesthetics kind of spa MediSpa. That's what we do here.

Eva Sheie (02:08):
And is it just you or do you have other providers on your team?

Dr. Houssock (02:12):
I have myself, I'm the only surgeon in the practice currently, and then I have a mid-level nurse practitioner who does, uh, a significant amount of our non-surgical treatments in the medical spa. And then we have a nurse injector as well. So for the most part, it's the three of us and a couple of aestheticians.

Eva Sheie (02:30):
And all female practice too.

Dr. Houssock (02:31):
It is all female except for a one token nurse. We have a male nurse who runs my hair restoration practice. And, you know, you have to be a certain kind of individual to be able to handle the amount of females that are in this amazing group. And he is, he's like our brother, you know, it's really, really great. And he definitely brings, you know, a necessary part of life to an all female practice, for sure.

Eva Sheie (02:58):
Yeah, I bet He's a, a good counterbalance <laugh>. And that hair restoration part of your practice, I believe that was something you also inherited from your predecessor, is that right?

Dr. Houssock (03:10):
It was. And so it's so interesting because even though hair restoration is a huge part of plastic surgery and reconstruction, it's not a huge part of education. At least it wasn't during my residency. And so I, I discovered it when I met Dr. Vogel. And Dr. Vogel had been one of the like premier hair restoration specialists in the nation and really in the world. He's one of the founders. He was a past president, what's considered the I S H R S, which is the International Society of Hair Restoration. And so I really spent the first two years out of residency working here in the practice, but also almost as an additional mentorship, learning how to do hair restoration. So I really did inherit not only the practice, but really a, a specialty I would say.

Eva Sheie (03:54):
Do you see a lot of women for hair restoration too? Now?

Dr. Houssock (03:57):
I do. And I think that's probably the biggest transition to the hair restoration that we do at the practice now that it, it's me, is that of course we see a lot of males and generally speaking, hair restoration is, is thought about in the male realm, but there is a huge population of females who suffer from hair thinning and hair loss. And it's just really not talked about. And, and in some ways it's, it's more traumatic for and dramatic for women to lose their hair. But we all at some stage in our life are most commonly we do it, you know, during, we talk about it in pregnancy, we talk about it through menopause, but we don't really talk about how to manage it. And so in our practice, and it may very well be, you know, no coincidence that because I'm a female, we do see a significant amount of female patients as well.

Eva Sheie (04:46):
What kinds of weird things do you hear women who are losing their hair or doing to kind of hide it or camouflage it or cover it up before they realize that there's treatment for that?

Dr. Houssock (04:56):
I mean, the typical is our hair pieces and a lot of scarves. And so women will come in really good at camouflaging and have been doing it sometimes for decades and didn't even know that they had options. And they'll walk into our practice and sometimes you don't even know, you can't even notice that they have an issue until you get them in that room where they're more comfortable to show you their loss. There's so much out there that is also kind of hoped to work, whether it be supplementation or sprays you can use and all of that. And it's, it's great as a potential help, but none of it really is gonna fix the problem. And again, I think a lot of women who come into our practice just don't know that they have options.

Eva Sheie (05:37):
They don't, so what does actually fix it?

Dr. Houssock (05:41):
So it depends, right? So hair is so much more complex for the female population than it is for males. That's number one. And that's probably not a surprise. We're just a little bit more complex of beings in general. So our hair loss is complex like that too. And the big way that it is complex is how it's mal mu it's in a way multifactorial. So men in general, they have thinning from something called androgenic alopecia. It has to do with testosterone and dehydro testosterone and lucky for females, yeah, we get that too. But we also see a lot more effect from hormones. So our hormone changes, for instance, like we talk, like we do talk about with pregnancy and during, uh, premenopausal and during menopause, we're affected by that hormone change. And that is not something that men have to deal with. We also have a higher risk of what's called telogen effluvium, which is like a, a shock loss from stress. So whether it's a physical stress, being sick or mental stress. So it's a very long answer to say that women have treatments, but it, it is very much based on what would be the causes in this particular patient. And then based on that, a multifactorial treatment in order to compound it. And the good news is that if they are treated appropriately, a lot of females can see even better effect of their treatment than men. It just has to be diagnosed appropriately.

Eva Sheie (07:07):
Is it right, the way that I'm thinking about it is sort of like, uh, it's, you realize it's starting or it's happening to you and your first instinct is, I need to stop this from getting worse. And then later on there's sort of a, how can I get my hair back? Is that normal?

Dr. Houssock (07:25):
Yes, absolutely. So I think when someone comes to see a hair restoration specialist, their thought is right away just surgery. Like, I, I wanna have hair, I just wanna get hair back. But you're absolutely right in the sense that just like any other portion of medicine, there's the preventative portion of, of cessation stopping the loss, slowing down the loss, and then once it's under control and stabilize and maybe even imp improved medically, then we can dive into that surgical realm. My fear is that if a patient is not treated in that medical way first, and, and you do not have that cessation, or at least discover why they're losing if you proceed to transplant, and number one, the transplant may not even take depending on their disease process. And number two, they may, it may be successful, but they'll continue to lose. And so it's, there's no question there's a medical side to this, even though I'm ultimately a surgeon.

Eva Sheie (08:17):
And do you offer people the whole, the whole range of treatment no matter where they are, you're not sending them away?

Dr. Houssock (08:25):
We absolutely do. So we start very much the, the medical portion of it, and depending on the patient and their loss and how serious it is and how stable they are when they meet us, we oftentimes will put them on medications first and then see them back in a few months to make sure that they've stabilized. There are disease processes that are, think are beyond my specialty. And so in those instances, I will refer them to some of my dermatology colleagues. And, um, those instances are things that are more autoimmune based and, uh, certain things called something like scarring alopecia, where they need a, a better control of that medical portion before they can dive in with me. And so we'll determine that at a consultation. And if I do think that they need that, I will refer them.

Eva Sheie (09:07):
You just hit on another thing that everybody doesn't know, which is that dermatologists can treat hair loss and also nails. Like people just completely forget that derm is hair, nails, and skin.

Dr. Houssock (09:18):
Absolutely. And we get a lot of referrals from dermatology. You know, we work hand in hand. And so there are things that I can't provide that they are much highly specialized, much more than I I am, and vice versa, when it gets to a surgical point in someone's treatment, then they refer to us. So certainly I think I would never say that we would be interchangeable. I think we work in synergy.

Eva Sheie (09:41):
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Well said. Yeah. So hair is, is an unusual specialty among plastic to begin with. It's not ordinary for everyone to do hair. So that's special for you too. Also, as a female surgeon, what other kinds of patients are you seeing alongside hair? I know most surgeons will lean toward face or lean toward body, and we know you can do everything, but what else are you focused on?

Dr. Houssock (10:08):
Yeah, so before I answer that, just something about hair, which always shocked me is what you just said, which is that plastics is not typically considered when you think about hair restoration, but when you think about the aesthetics of the face and you ignore hair, it's almost like it just makes zero sense. But you're right, we just kind of blow it off. But when we think about the aesthetics of the face, the hairline and the hair is just as important as say the nose or the chin or the cheeks, which we consider so important for the face. So I, I think that's fascinating. And I'm not quite sure, and I can't even really dive into why that is, but, but you're right, it's kind of like a, a forgotten item. And the only reason I think it's really important to just kind of focus on that for a second is because one of the populations that I think have the biggest effect on their results for hair restoration is my transgender population. And that population, you can imagine that a, a male type hairline, which is that, you know, typical m shape with temporals like temples exposed, can be very dysphoric for a transgender patient who is really in their best way trying to be their best self. And so a transgender female can struggle a lot until that hairline has been softened and feminized. And that's when I really noticed how important the hairline is to the aesthetics of the face. So just wanted to mention that because I think it's really important.

Eva Sheie (11:33):
That's a really good call out. I think over the years we've also started to see the techniques from facial feminization surgery apply to female facial surgery.

Dr. Houssock (11:47):
Yeah.

Eva Sheie (11:48):
Is that a fair statement too?

Dr. Houssock (11:50):
Yes, I think so. I think it's, you know, we learn from each other, right? So it's kind of all intertwined. And I think sometimes in a moment we are so focused, like there are times in, in aesthetics where everyone's focusing, for instance, the buccal fat was such a big thing, <laugh>, and everybody's talking about buccal fat, and it's like, we've always had this, why is this all of a sudden a thing? But sometimes it just opens up other discussions, right? And other things that we notice. And now we are, we focus on, we were, we've were talking about the jawline forever. And I think all of a sudden now, I don't, you don't hear jawline as much as you used to. So some of it has to do with just what's popular at the moment maybe.

Eva Sheie (12:29):
Social media and celebrities certainly have an, an impact. And I think also the more hidden impact comes from industry. So when you have, you know, just thinking about hair again, we had Bosley for our entire lives pushing, pushing, pushing, pushing from the television side. So we don't maybe just inherently think the plastic surgeons do hair restoration, because that's what's how we were trained to think about it.

Dr. Houssock (12:56):
Yeah. Yeah. And, and so, so Bosley for instance,

Eva Sheie (12:59):
Or hair club for men, <laugh>,

Dr. Houssock (13:01):
Right? But all of those people are doctors, right? They are, they just, for whatever reason, it was, it is a lot of family medicine doctors, some dermatologists, but it's a surgery ultimately. And you're right that even in the realm of I S H R Ss that big group, it's the only group in the world that right now there's not an American Society of Hair Restoration. I wish there was, but there's not one yet. It's not a lot of plastic surgeons. I don't know if we just kind of are like, oh, we got bigger fish to fry <laugh> mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But it's, it's such an important part of aesthetics. So, so that is, that is about a third of my practice. The other two thirds is really about non-surgical facial and then breast and body surgery. So I am all over the body, but I do specialize specifically, I do a lot of breast and body surgery is probably my, my biggest passion besides the hair restoration portion of my practice. I would say the vast majority of my patient population are moms and weight loss patients. Um, those are two big populations within my rest and body practice.

Eva Sheie (14:06):
They both need a lot of help.

Dr. Houssock (14:08):
Yeah. And they need a, they need a lot of support. And it's not just physical support. There are patients who are coming to you very vulnerable and self-conscious. And I think it's our, yes, it's, it's an honor to be their surgeon, but it's also to me, it it's my job to create an environment where they can feel comfortable. They have to feel comfortable talking about things that they are most insecure about. And I think that is, we take that for granted every day that, that we are plastic surgeons. If, if you don't consider it that someone is walking into your practice and they're bearing their self in a way that they may not even bear themselves to their family members. And if you can't respect that and just be completely humbled by that, then I think we're missing our calling.

Eva Sheie (14:58):
In what ways have you built an environment in your practice to protect people who are coming to you in that state?

Dr. Houssock (15:06):
So we, as a practice, meaning the people that I have in my practice, we make sure that everyone who works within the realm of meeting you from the minute you walk in the door to taking you back to preparing you for surgery has compassion for what you're there for. And that means that we are non-discriminatory. We have regular discussions and meetings about making patients feel comfortable. And I know this sounds crazy, but I genuinely don't have to worry about it because if you were to meet the staff members in my practice, I don't know how I got this lucky, but we have created this group of individuals who absolutely, and I really don't understand it, love, love coming to work. And all I can tell you is that when I bought the practice, I wanted to love coming to work. So we've created an environment that I enjoy coming to work. And because of that, the staff that we have here melds and I've had patients tell us this time and time again that they can feel that. So if you walk into a environment and you're nervous, but you feel everyone around you is at ease and they're comfortable in their environment, it brings you there. And I think that's how we do it. From the minute you walk in the door.

Eva Sheie (16:24):
What other kinds of things do patients say to you about their experience coming to see you?

Dr. Houssock (16:31):
Uh, they always tell me about my staff. So for instance, after surgery, I call my patients the night after surgery, every patient gets a phone call to check in. And I am telling you that it is almost universal, that the first thing I'm told when they answer the phone is how lovely my staff was to them today. And it's interesting because you're under anesthesia, right? So what you remember is <laugh>, you know, limited.

Eva Sheie (16:56):
Not much.

Dr. Houssock (16:58):
<laugh>, But from the minute they walk in the door, they are put in a nice soft, cozy robe. Like they're at a spa, they're placed under a warm blanket, they're placed in a room. It's not cold like a, a typical hospital bed, surgery center. It's, it's comfortable. The lights are set up in a way that makes you feel a little bit at ease. And so I think they remember that portion. And then my recovery nurse, for instance, we call her a, a real life Disney princess. She has the most lovely soft voice <laugh>. She's so pleasant and she's doting. And even if they may not remember, 'cause sometimes they don't even remember her specifically. They remember how they feel, I think. And I think that that means everything because you could, you could have a surgery anywhere. Let's, to be honest with you, you wanna find the right surgeon. Yes. And you can have the operation as long as it's sterile and clean, you could have it anywhere. But there's something to be said for an environment, especially when it's a choice like in this world that, that I practice in. This is a choice that every single patient's making. I'm not not doing their gallbladder. This is something that they have chosen. And an environment I think is everything.

Eva Sheie (18:07):
Yes. Is there's some research. It's not that old actually around why, because patients can't determine quality from your credentials. Like they actually don't have the knowledge or the skill or the information they need to judge your credentials at all, or your skill. They don't know how to, they can't do that. They substitute with things that they can judge, you know, this both from surveying and from the paper I'm thinking of. And so they will hang on to things like, the office was a mess or, and then they'll translate that to surgical quality, which is totally unfair, but that's all they have.

Dr. Houssock (18:47):
But is it unfair? I think I remember we talked about this in general surgery even. You would do a liver, you know, a liver surgery and they, that patient would have a huge operation. And I remember a surgeon, and I wish I could remember who it was, who is probably when I started getting interested in plastic surgery, was so meticulous about their closure. And not only the closure, but the dressing. And I remember them saying, the only thing the patient can see is this dressing. So this has to be perfect because it doesn't matter how good we did inside, if this is a mess, they're going to assume that inside was as well. So it's our job to make sure that we from start to finish, make sure that it is that environment for them. It's not just about the or. I do think that there's this old school mentality of surgeons could come into the room and be rude and doesn't matter because they're this, they're really good. So it's okay 'cause they're really good. But I think that we're kind of, we're kind of going beyond that now. I think patients are getting smarter. And I do agree that it is still very complicated when you're looking at credentials. It's getting even more complicated now, more than ever the before. So you're right, we have to figure that out. But I don't know, I think some of it does translate as well. Some of that simple stuff does translate.

Eva Sheie (20:14):
I know that you survey all your patients. This is also, I know because I ran the survey company that you use for five years. Every patient gets a survey and you don't cherry pick whether they do or don't receive a survey. And sometimes their feedback might not necessarily be what you wanna hear, but the only way we know how patients are feeling or what their experience was like, is to ask. And I remembered why I was thinking about that. The key driver of choosing a surgeon is that actually surgeon made me feel comfortable. It wasn't surgeon was triple board certified. So

Dr. Houssock (20:48):
Interesting. Yeah.

Eva Sheie (20:50):
Being comfortable is both environmental and personal. And those, those things all combine together. They're all, there's some things we can overlook if all the other things are great, but there is a tipping point where too many things didn't go the right way. And we, that's how we lose people. So anyway, I love the data, love, I love asking people.

Dr. Houssock (21:12):
I love data too.

Eva Sheie (21:14):
It's easier to ask than guess how they felt.

Dr. Houssock (21:16):
Absolutely. And sometimes, I mean, we're all clouded by our own thoughts and judgments too. So you can't really know how someone is feeling that's that's you're not in their shoes. Even though you try. And I've, I'm a little bit lucky in the sense that I'm a female and you know, the vast majority I would say of my, at least my non hair population is female. So I can relate in that way. I am a mother, so my body has changed like a lot of my patients have. So there is some of that where you can be in their shoes, but you're still not in their shoes. And so knowing how their, you know, their, what their real opinions are, I do, I find it very valuable. I love feedback.

Eva Sheie (21:57):
Tell me about your kids.

Dr. Houssock (21:59):
I have one and only one. I say my patients are the rest of my kids. <laugh>. I'm a late bloomer. I had my, my son is, uh, 21 months now. So I had him just before I turned 40. And, uh, I wasn't planning on having children, I was just gonna be a professional. I spent my whole life pretty much to get to this moment with you, Eva <laugh> really, you know, I spent a, a lot of my life to train and, and prepare to be a plastic surgeon. So it wasn't really in my radar to, to be a mom. But I met my husband and he wanted to be a father, and I knew he would be a really good one. So we had our little boy and uh, it's amazing how you don't know what you don't have until you have it <laugh>. He is, he's the most special thing in the whole wide world. I I, I would've never known what I was missing. But, uh, no exciting.

Eva Sheie (22:48):
They're the most interesting people I know.

Dr. Houssock (22:51):
<laugh>, they're <laugh>. It's fascinating. You know, you can be a scientist. I've been a scientist. I've, through undergrad, medical school, residency training and understand the body. And it is still so fascinating to me to have watched what my body could do and then to watch my son's brain develop. Like, it's just, it's just shocking. It, I felt like unbelievable.

Eva Sheie (23:13):
I remember thinking I was gonna have to teach them everything and it was so shocking to me that they just learned stuff on their own.

Dr. Houssock (23:20):
Yeah. <laugh> all of a sudden like just doing stuff. It's just, I literally still think that they must, someone else must be teaching him <laugh>. Like I, I'm like, someone must have taught him that at daycare because I, how did he know how to do that? <laugh>,

Eva Sheie (23:36):
It's the best.

Dr. Houssock (23:38):
The best. I mean, and he's all, you know, really in my life, it's my patience and I go home and it's family. There's, there's very little and you figure it out, but there's, there's really a not a whole lot of me time. There's that limited amount that I do, I try to do in the morning to have my own workout time and then the rest of my life is, is my son and my, my patients. And I, I just would've never, never known, I would've never known that kind of love.

Eva Sheie (24:04):
I think one of the best things about being 40 when you're doing it is that you're not missing out on anything. No. <laugh>. Like, you don't feel like you're tearing yourself away from like some grand social life to have children. Not at all. That's what happens when you're in your twenties. Your your life ends.

Dr. Houssock (24:20):
Yeah. Apparently now, I guess I, I don't know what social life I guess was really ever like, because in, in your twenties you're in med school and then in your thirties you're in residency. But I would say yes, I had a lot of fun and my husband and I talk about that a lot that we, we were already at a stage in our life where we were slowing down. And so it was kind of a grateful thing almost like I have now, I have an excuse for not going out. Like, ah, it's, you know, Caleb's bedtime. It's where I would have preferred it.

Eva Sheie (24:49):
So is there anything else aside from your son that you'd like to do away from the office?

Dr. Houssock (24:54):
Yeah, so I, my only other real love besides my husband and my, my son is, uh, I love the Peloton. That thing is a game changer and it's not just getting on the bike. Like I love working out. I've always loved working out. I remember when I graduated from college, they said, your workout life is over. I was a college cheerleader, said, you're gonna medical school, you'll never work out. And I, throughout my entire training, I always just made sure that I had that time. And it's, no, it's not rocket science. Literally, you need to have that mental break, I mean, it made me successful to have that. So I still do that to this day and these days it's the Peloton, but it's, it's just the whole Have you, do you do it at all? Have you done the Peloton?

Eva Sheie (25:34):
I haven't. I was a spinner for many years. So I get the allure of it. I totally can get inside of it, but I don't, I'm in the laundry room right now, Dr. Houssock <laugh>. I, there is no room for a Peloton in this house.

Dr. Houssock (25:47):
<laugh>. I mean, you make it, you make it happen wherever you can. Right. It's crazy. But um, even just like, I just think that they're just so smart and it's, I'm barely even on the bike anymore. They have classes for, you know, I love working like lifting weights. So they have lifting weight classes, they have walking classes, whatever. It's such a genius thing because for a mom who doesn't have a lot of free time, I would love to go to a physical gym, but I can't. So it's so nice to get up at 5:00 AM and when I, I try at least to get up at 5:00 AM those days of like not needing sleep are over, but before my son wakes up, I get up and I get that time to myself and I think it just literally makes me a better person, makes me a better mom and it makes me a better surgeon if I take that little bit of time in the morning to do that for myself. So I almost feel like it's not negotiable. It's not really a, a vice, it's like a necessity.

Eva Sheie (26:39):
Yeah. This episode is brought to you by Peloton.

Dr. Houssock (26:42):
Yeah. I wish.

Eva Sheie (26:44):
No, we are not sponsored by Peloton <laugh> use promo code Eva for, uh, yeah,

Dr. Houssock (26:51):
Maybe we could get like a, a shout out on one of the rides or something. I don't know.

Eva Sheie (26:56):
And we'll try never say never.

Dr. Houssock (26:59):
<laugh>.

Eva Sheie (27:01):
Before we go, I'm curious if there's anything on the horizon for you that you're looking forward to either at work or somewhere else that's coming in the future.

Dr. Houssock (27:12):
Yeah, I think growth is good, right? So it's scary, but it's good. I think this practice has room for another practitioner at least. And, um, I haven't found them yet, but I, because I am so dedicated surgically to breast and body and, and then this, this niche of hair restoration, we do facial and I do facial surgery, but I would love to have a partner in crime eventually. So that's on the horizon for me when I find the right person. But they have to fit our vibe. And our vibe here is one of that I'm so, so very proud of. And so I'll be picky about it, but, um, that would be our next big step in this, you know, in our world here. And I'm, I'm hoping in the next couple years to find that right person.

Eva Sheie (27:51):
Oh, I look forward to seeing who that person turns out to be. Thank you for joining us today. If someone's listening and they wanna reach out, find out more about you, where would you point them to do that?

Dr. Houssock (28:04):
So I do the vast majority of my meeting my patients before they even arrive on social media. So I have an Instagram page, it's Dr. Carrie Houssock. So Dr. Carrie Houssock, I'm on there as Roz I can be. So you see my son, you see my family, you see my surgeries, you see me. I don't plan it. It is very off the cuff and I like it that way and my patients seem to like it that way. So follow me. If you really wanna know the real, the real me, that's probably the best place to follow along.

Eva Sheie (28:32):
I will put that link in the show notes. Make it easy to find.

Dr. Houssock (28:35):
Thank you so much, Eva.

Eva Sheie (28:37):
Thank you. It was so good to have you today.

Dr. Houssock (28:39):
Such a pleasure.

Eva Sheie (28:43):
If you are considering making an appointment or are on your way to meet this doctor, be sure to let them know you heard them on the Meet the Doctor podcast. Check the show notes for links including the doctor's website and Instagram to learn more. Are you a doctor or do you know a doctor who'd like to be on the Meet the Doctor podcast? Book your free recording session at Meet the Doctor podcast.com. Meet the Doctor is Made with Love in Austin, Texas and is a production of The Axis, T H E A X I S. io.