While it might seem insane that an NYC sanitation worker was performing late night hair transplants back in the 90’s in New York, what's happening in the field today is just as shocking. FUE hair transplant surgery is a far more demanding procedure than the type of strips being performed in the late 90s, and now there are even less qualified labor technicians performing the entirety of these procedures, all under the “watchful” eyes of the physicians who own these cosmetic surgery mills.

Spencer Kobren:  Hey. You're on the air. Who's this and where are you calling from?

Dante: Hello?

Spencer Kobren: Hello.

Dante: Hi. How are you, gentlemen?

Spencer Kobren: We're okay. How are you? What's your name and where are you calling from?

Dante:  My name's Dante, calling from New Jersey.

Spencer Kobren: Hey, Dante. Welcome to the show. What's happening?

Joe Tillman:  How are you Dante? 

Dante: Thank you. Yeah. I've been listening to all the shows for, I went back a couple years. I have an interesting story, similar I think the caller that you had last week. I'm older. 60 years old. I've had seven hair transplants. The first three I've had were with two doctors that at least one them you've mentioned many times on your show, had offices, I started in '92 with the hair transplants that office is in Manhattan and Long Island.

Spencer Kobren: So, you're talking about the old Long Island Medical, with Dr. Gary Hitzig 

Dante: Exactly. The funny thing is that the technicians on my first two transplants were the two guys that got pinched out for doing the-

Spencer Kobren: The garbage man.

Dante: Yeah. Actually, they did a good job. My hair grew. I had a good hairline back them because I had hair but I was starting to lose it. I had see-through hair. It was almost a full head of hair, but you could see right through the hair line. It wasn't-

Spencer Kobren: I go to tell you, for the time, that particular garbage had good hands.

Dante: He was good. I got growth out of those two guys, but what they did was, they made me come back. Everyone ... because you would see almost the same guys ... they did three transplants on me in twelve months. They were doing like this, "Come back in three months. We'll see what's growing a little bit."

Spencer Kobren: Now, were you doing it during the day or were these the late night specials that they were doing?

Dante: My wife would not let me ... She was a nurse ... She wouldn't let me. I told her what they said to me. During the second session, they said, "Listen. If you want to come out to Long Island, Rockville Center, at midnight, we'll give you a great price. I really didn't want to do it. I said it to her, and she said, "There's no way you're doing that," so I never did that.

Spencer Kobren: But think about that. It's actually unbelievable, man. This guy worked for the New York Sanitation Department. He's moonlighting, at least according to the article that I read, what I know, moonlighting as a hair transplant technician. I'm assuming that Dr. Hitzig had no idea this was happening at 12 midnight because why would he want to lose business?

Dante: Right. He didn't know.

Spencer Kobren: But think about that. It's unreal. These guys were performing surgery at midnight for cash.

Joe Tillman: And people were actually okay with it. They're like, "Yeah, sure. I'll come in after hours, in the middle of the night."

Spencer Kobren: Dude. Chaunce Hayden from the Howard Stern show had work done with this particular garbage men, at least according to him.

Dante: He did the special. So, my first three hair transplants-

Spencer Kobren: I don't know if he got the special, because I think everything was done for free because Gary Higzig or Long Island Medical was a sponsor of the Howard Stern show. So, Howard Stern, unwittingly, sent a lot of lambs to the slaughter back in the day.