Hair transplants are lengthy, complex procedures. This page reveals the essential information you must know about today's hair transplant procedures…
1. Who is suitable for a hair transplant? 2. How many of the transplanted grafts will grow hair? 3. How long will it take for new hair to grow? 4. Will it hurt?
1. Who is suitable for a hair transplant?
Age is a big factor with hair surgery.
Whilst the upper age limit is not so important (hair transplant centers have performed successful transplants on clients over 65) it is, however, very unusual for someone under the age of 21 to undertake this procedure.
That's because, at such an age, it's too early to know exactly what extent your hair loss is going to advance.
This means that, should you have treatment to add hair in an area that's thinning but not yet totally bald, you might continue to lose hair in that area after your operation. So, in perhaps a year's time, you might have lost your original hair leaving just the transplanted hair. This, of course, means that further surgeries (obviously at extra cost) will be needed.
Also, if your existing hair does continue to fall, and you do need one or more transplants, it might be difficult or impractical to collect enough hair tissue with which to do so. Furthermore, the scarring from additional operations might be impossible to cover up.
Hair transplants are only really suitable for those who already have severe hair loss, but still have enough healthy hair remaining at the back to successfully harvest sufficient grafts.
Of course, many people with severe hair loss will have accepted their hair loss by then - often it's the initial rapid loss of hair, and the traumatic experience that goes with it, that most people want to address.
2. How many of the transplanted grafts will grow hair?
This will largely be affected by the level of surgeon skill, but is also dependent upon other factors.
These include the recipient site incisions (slits) that are made for each graft. In all hair transplants, the aim is to create a close fit between the follicular graft (or unit) and the slit into which it is put. If done well, this will help the oxygenation and survival of the grafts and healing at the site of incision.
Factors affecting recipient site slits: depth, size and spacing
Slit depth - this is very important because a smaller depth of incision will minimize risk of injury to the blood vessels deeper down in the scalp, as well as reduce swelling after surgery and also help speed up the healing process. Smaller recipient sites also ensure that there is no visible scarring,
Slit size - when units are transplanted - a smaller slit size (e.g., 0.8 mm) might result in 70% of the transplanted hair successfully growing whereas a larger slit size (e.g., 1mm) could yield a growth rate of 90%.
Slits may be lateral (horizontal) or vertical. Lateral slits are superior because they align the hair more naturally (whereas in vertical slits, hair tends to fan out over the scalp surface instead of lying on top of each other).
Slit spacing - this is dependent upon:
Desired graft density (grafts are usually placed closer together at the front of the scalp and further apart at the crown).
Available donor supply.
Size of recipient area.
Also, if units are placed too close to each other (dense packing) there is a risk of inadequate blood supply and "popping" (i.e., grafts may fall out, dry out and suffer crush injury when re-inserted, resulting in poor hair growth).
3. How long will it take for new hair to grow?
The transplanted hair will initially fall out after several weeks due to the interruption in blood flow caused by the surgery. When new hair growth starts (3 to 6 months after surgery) it will initially be very fine and soft, but will grow coarser in time. Also, this new hair may start growing more curly (it straightens out after about a year) and appear darker than your normal hair color.
4. Will it hurt?
To some extent, yes.
Hair transplants are carried out using a local anaesthetic, which means you're wide awake throughout the whole process. General anaesthetic is not used in hair transplant operations. The multiple injections of local anaesthetic can cause some discomfort but the amount of pain experienced will vary between patients.
Often, the area of treatment is freeze-sprayed beforehand to reduce the pain from the injections, and the patient given a mild sedative to relax them before the procedure starts.
Up to 50% of patients could experience swelling of the forehead and face afterwards. In some cases this can be extremely noticeable so an immediate return to work is inappropriate.
Other hair transplant side effects can occur depending upon the type of procedure used (i.e., how invasive the hair surgery is). These can include:
Initial bleeding and itchiness (this usually lasts just a few days).
Pink shiny skin in the recipient area (this can last up to 2 months).
Some numbness (this can last 4 months).
Infection - this is rare but can occur (treatment is with antibiotics).
Small scabs in the recipient area (this can last up to 10 days) .
Scarring in the donor area.
During the first 24 hours, it's usual to bandage around the head. After that, any small scabs in the recipient area can be covered over using a hat or cap. Within 6 weeks, the recipient area should have completely healed.
A safe alternative to hair transplants
For me, hair transplants were out of the question - I believe that, with any problem, the best approach is to always try and find a simple solution first.
Hair transplants are anything but simple! They're extremely complicated, lengthy and expensive procedures.
Not only that but, for me personally, I've never felt comfortable with any treatment or product that wasn't natural (I firmly believe that a natural problem like androgenetic alopecia should also have a natural solution).
So I didn't use any hair loss products (such as minoxidil or finasteride) either, but still managed to regrow healthy scalp hair.
The way I managed to do this was by developing and using my own natural techniques to successfully overcome this condition.
To learn about these techniques and find out whether they can help you too, Click Here.
These techniques were developed from skull expansion (the real reason for androgenetic alopecia). Some people ask me how skull expansion can account for the apparent success of hair transplants. To find out, Click Here.
