In this article you will find all the information you need to know about hair transplantation.
Hair Transplant Surgery
Hair transplant surgery is a growing trend. However, there are still numerous people who do not know how hair transplant surgery is done. The following information will explain the hair transplant surgery and answer some questions.
During hair transplant surgery, hair is taken from the back of the head and moved to the area of hair loss. The fringe of hair on a balding scalp is known as donor dominant hair. The transplantation of this hair to a bald area does not modify its ability to grow. Candidates for a hair transplant surgery are those people with hair loss that have enough donor hair from the fringe of the scalp to transplant to the balding area.
1. Every man looses hair. There is not much that can be done to stop this process. There are topical and oral drugs that can be taken to slow the hair loss process, but if they are stopped, the process resumes. An individual can use cover ups such as toupees or hair weaves, but they do not look very natural. The hair transplant surgery uses hair from the body (usually the back of the head) that is not supposed to fall out to replace the missing hair.
2. The very first step involved in a hair transplant surgery is for the doctor to draw a replacement hairline for the patient. Then the scalp is numbed and the donor hairs are shaved. Once this is done, the skin that the donor hairs are attached to is removed from the head.
3. The scalp then gets sutured or stapled together and the donor hairs are given to technicians. The technicians remove every individual hair follicle and place them into a saline solution where they will await transplant. Meanwhile, the doctor is busy cutting small incisions into the front of the head within the hairline that was drawn earlier. There needs to be a separate incision for each follicle that is to be transplanted. There can be 2,000 follicles per transplant.
4. Once the doctor has all of the cuts made, it is time to put in every hair follicle. This is done on an individual basis, very carefully, to make sure that the follicles are inserted in the right direction allowing the hair to grow straight. The doctor then examines the work that has been done, when the desired outcome has been obtained, the hair transplant surgery is completed.
5. In about a week or so, the incisions have started to heal, the scabs have fallen off. However, it will take up to a year for real hair growth to appear. In order to avoid an additional hair transplant surgery, it is recommended that the patient use a drug such as Propecia. The repeated use of this drug will help to reduce the necessity for another hair transplant surgery.
Permanent Hair Transplant Procedures
There are several excellent permanent hair transplant procedures available to mull over.
Hair grafts (Follicular Micrografts) are a terrific option for the reason that they allow natural looking hair to grow after the recovery from the surgery is finished. Thanks to this procedure, the implanted hair will follow the pattern of your original hair. Every hair follicle grows in a group of 4 units. This hair transplant procedure is one of the best because it will not leave you with a bizarre look from the naked scalp to parts covered with thick hair.
Follicular Unit Extraction uses a strip of hair extracted from a donor’s body. The strip has approximately 1 millimeter of hair that projects from the surface. There are also microscopic blood vessels and hair follicles. The tissues are divided and organized into units that are transplanted into a natural looking pattern. These follicular units will grow naturally once the recovery period is completed.
Mini-Micro Grafting is another procedure that produces good results. In this case, only a few hairs are included in the follicular hair graft units. This method is usually used only as a technique of replacing previously transplanted hairs in dense areas of the hairline.
Punch Grafts is somewhat old procedure (from the 1980’s) during which circular pieces of donor hair are taken and then inserted into the parts of the scalp where hair is missing. This is a very reliable method of permanent hair transplantation that is typically used in a combination with another type of hair transplanting. However, the downside of the procedure is that it takes time for the hair to grow from the transplanted spot.
Slit Grafts method uses as many as 10 follicles that are inserted in specific parts of the scalp. They are blended into parts where the hair grows thick. Follicles are placed from the middle to the back of the scalp. However, most of them are being placed at the crown.
Strip Grafts contain up to 40 hair follicles. They are normally used together with Slit Grafts to create a full and natural looking head of hair.
Which Hair Transplant Methods You Should Avoid
Hair transplant as a way of treating hair loss has been around for a long time. Sadly, a select few hair transplant clinics still utilize methods that are outdated and can cause anguish, scarring and bad results. Here is some hair transplant methods that you should avoid at all cost.
Round / square grafts – this method will leave patients with a scalp that resembles that of a plastic doll. This method takes a number of smallish grafts with a hole-punch tool and transplants them to the affected area. The result is a pluggy look that doesn’t look natural and only becomes even more ridiculous with time.
Line grafts – this method involves moving a short strip of donor hair from the side or back of the head, then transplanting the whole strip into a trench that is surgically cut into the getting area of the scalp. The final result is a line of hair that does not looks natural.
Flap system – during this procedure, a flap of skin with its tissue, hair strands and follicles is moved from the side or even back of the head to the front hairline by cutting it on 3 sides and stitching it to the bald area. This might produce severe problems including excessive scarring, infection, disfigurement in the forehead area and hair can grow in the wrong direction.
Scalp reduction – in this process the bald area at the crown is cut away and the edges surrounding the wound are pulled together and sewn at the middle. This system causes a lot of problems including hideous scarring, accelerated hair loss and infection.
About Follicular Unit Extraction
Follicular unit extraction includes the removal of small groups of hair follicles (typically between 1 and 4) from the donor site and their reinsertion into the receptor site. This hair transplant procedure allows equal distribution of hair in the balding area of the scalp and creates more natural-looking results. Actually, once the receptor site has totally healed, it is not possible to notice that any sort of hair transplant procedure has taken place.
The differences between Follicular Unit Extraction and the older methods of transplantation are remarkable.
1. The Follicular Unit Extraction procedure is faster and less painful than any other hair restoration technique. Follicular Unit Extraction is carried out with a punch-like scalpel that cuts the skin around the follicle. This makes easy the removal of about 1 to 4 follicles from the donor area at the same time. In addition, the advanced method of follicular perforation allows the doctor to make a shallow punch on the surrounding tissue, ensuring that the graft be released from the tissue with minimum traction. The extracted follicles (called grafts) are then inserted into small slits that have been cut in the recipient area. These slits don’t need suturing, heal rapidly, and are totally undetectable once the new hair begins to grow in about 7 to 10 days.
2. Follicular Unit Extraction is useful because the recovery process is much quicker and less painful. Usually, the grafts become completely secure in about 8 days after surgery and the surgical wound in the donor area typically heals within one to two weeks. In general, normal activity may be resumed 1 to 2 weeks after the procedure.
3. Every hair loss sufferer is candidate for Follicular Unit Extraction. In the past, there were numerous criteria that every candidate had to meet to be suitable for a hair transplant. Such criteria included the age of patient, color and texture of hair, skin complexion, amount of donor hair available, and future hair loss predictions. With Follicular Unit Extraction such criteria are not much of a concern.
4. The rate of complication during the Follicular Unit Extraction procedure is lower than with other hair transplantation methods. In a study of over 150 patients treated with FUE, researchers found that patients suffered only from weak discomfort from sitting still for several hours at a time. Also, only 4 out of the 150 patients experienced donor area shock. However, all patients made full recoveries within 5 weeks.
5. Follicular Unit Extraction patients recover without noticeable scars in the donor or recipient area. FUE does not leave ugly, unbearable scars on the head. Instead, the tiny slits that are cut in the recipient area are easily hidden by new hair. The finishing result of Follicular Unit Extraction in all patients is that of a seamless, natural, healthy-looking head of hair.
FUE Hair Transplant with NeoGraft
FUE (Follicular-Unit Extraction) hair transplant is a minimally-invasive microsurgical procedure that has been available for a few years, but until now has been too time-consuming and expensive for many people.
A medical device, designed in Europe, which can considerably improve hair transplant surgery for male and female patients, is now available in the U.S.
The FDA-approved NeoGraft automates the surgical removal of individual hair follicles, one at a time, eliminating the need for doctors to remove a large strip from the back of the scalp.
“FUE has been an extremely effective surgical procedure that allows for the precise, artistic placement of new hair follicles to recreate a full and natural-looking hairline, while reducing recovery time and eliminating the tell-tale linear scar associated with traditional hair transplants,” said Alan J. Bauman, M.D., a board-certified hair restoration surgeon and one of the first U.S. doctors to perform hair transplantation with NeoGraft.
The key benefits of FUE hair transplant surgery performed with NeoGraft are:
- Least invasive hair transplant available
- No ‘tell-tale’ linear scar where the donor hair is harvested
- Shorter, more comfortable recovery
- No stitches to be removed
- Less activity restrictions after surgery
- Very short haircuts are possible after surgery
- Transplants roughly twice as many hair grafts in a single surgery as the previous manually-performed FUE surgery in the same amount of time.
- Cuts the cost of treatment by as much as half as it reduces the need for additional surgeries
For more information about FUE hair transplant surgery using the new NeoGraft device, visit www.baumanmedical.com.
Robotic Hair Transplant Surgery
A hair transplant carried out by a robot is less painful and gives a more natural look than those performed by surgeons, according to a US firm.
Restoration Robotics of Mountain View has created a robot that can pluck and move individual hair follicles on the head.
In addition, the robot performs the procedure twice as fast as surgeons, with less scarring for the patient. Standard hair transplants usually take eight to ten hours.
Instead of removing a strip of scalp, the robot plucks healthy hair follicles individually, using suction through a 1-mm needle – about 1000 an hour. This process is guided by cameras and 3D imaging software. After this, the robot implants the follicles into the scalp. The whole process lasts only five hours.
The robot has another huge benefit – it can design the hairline on a computer giving the transplanted hair a more natural look. The machine will undergo clinical trials by the end of the year.
Laser Hair Transplant
What is a laser hair transplant? The role of lasers is to create the holes or slits for the grafts to be inserted into. Until lasers are engaged in other main components of the transplant, such as harvesting, graft dissection, or placing, laser hair transplant should be replaced with a term laser site creation to more precisely explain its present role in the rocedure.
The claim that laser hair transplant is a painless process is misleading. The lasers create a hole by simply vaporizing tissue. Because of this, the laser is extremely painful unless local anesthesia is administered. So, it is not the laser that is painless. The pain-free environment is set up by the anesthesia.
The preparation of hair grafts is identical in both conventional and laser hair transplant. The difference is that laser hair transplantation uses a machine that shoots a beam of high energy light burning in the scalp, while cold steel is used to make slits conventionally. The hair grafts are then transplanted into the slits manually.
Disadvantages of laser hair transplant:
- The laser beam burns tissues, damages existing hairs and seals blood vessels around the transplant areas.
- The yield of growing hairs on the laser hair transplanted side is visibly lower.
- Longer post-op crusting time.
- Delay in hair growth.
How Much Does Hair Transplant Cost?
If you are considering a hair transplant, one of the most important things you’ll want to ask is:
What’s the cost of a hair transplant?
When you’re reviewing hair transplant costs you’ll find that prices vary across the board. The cost of a transplant depends on factors like the surgeon you choose, location of the clinic, extent of hair loss, how many grafts are needed to achieve the look you want and what type of procedure you select. Some hair surgeons charge per graft and other will assess your needs and give a flat fee cost.
While you won’t know for sure what kind of cost you’re looking at until you’ve interviewed several surgeons, here are some things to keep in mind:
1) Make sure you get at least 3 quotes (or more). You might be surprised at the variation in prices. You’ll also get a good idea of what each surgeon can do for you and what they each recommend for your situation. (Again, you may be surprised at the variation in opinions!)
2) Never decide on a hair transplant doctor based on cost alone (i.e. because he’s so much lower than anybody else). This is one area where you don’t want to take a chance.
3) Average costs for a hair transplant vary however many are dependent on the type of surgery you decide to do (for example, the cost per graft of the FUSS method is generally cheaper than the cost per graft of the FUE method.) They are also dependent on the number of grafts you have to achieve the hair density you want.
4) Repair work (where you’ve had a previous surgery done but were not happy with it) will sometimes cost more depending on your situation (which is one reason why you don’t want to take a chance – see #2 above). Repair work may include scar repair (i.e. from a previous surgery) and/or hairline or density repair.
5) If you’ve done your research, interviews and comparisons and are satisfied with your choice of hair transplant surgeon – ask the surgeon if he will cut you a deal on the cost.
The average cost for a hair transplant can be between $2,500 and $9,000. Hair grafts on average usually cost between $3 and $8, with $5 to $6 being the average cost.
If the surgeon knows that you are looking around, they are sometimes more than willing to give you a discount. You never know unless you ask.
Many physicians are now offering very reasonable financing options to make more the surgery affordable for you. This is a viable alternative to paying the whole cost up front. Ask your surgeon if he offers this option.
Hair transplant clinics typically offer free consultation and quotations so you will know how much you must pay. Clinics in California generally charge more on average than clinics in Texas. Then again, Canada and Mexico offer cheaper hair transplant.
How to Cut Down Hair Transplant Surgery Cost
Want to get a hair transplant but the cost of surgery is too high for you, especially amidst the economy meltdown?
Many long term hair loss sufferers think that hair transplant is beyond their grasp.
However, there is a way to get cheap hair transplantation. Travel abroad!!
For example, the cost of hair transplant in Thailand is just above $2 per graft! You can have hair replacement surgery done in a 5 star hospital by a Thai national doctor trained and certified in the U.S.A.
U.S based clinics charge about $5 – $7 per graft. So, by having hair transplantation done outside America, you will be able to slash at least 2/3 of the price.
The only downside is that you cannot enjoy the U.S. protection for legal recourse if the surgery goes wrong.
But it’s good to know that there is an extremely small percentage of infection complications! For example, the Thailand Bumrungrad International Hospital, the largest private hospital in Southeast Asia, has only 0.29% of infection complications.
People claim that their service is on par with American hospitals if not better.
Besides Thailand, other countries (India and Argentina) are also attracting American hair transplant customers with quality hair restoration technology and skilled doctors.
Source: www.Hair-Replacement-Surgery.net
How To Choose Best Hair Transplant Doctors
It is very important that you choose the best hair transplant doctors. One of the proven ways to find the best hair transplant doctors is to select physicians who are board certified by the American Board of Medical Specialties.
In order to choose the best hair transplant doctors you need to ask them certain questions:
- Are the desired results I described realistic?
- Where is the procedure performed and how long will it take?
- Would some other procedures work better for me?
- What kind of anesthesia they use during the procedure and how much does it cost?
- What experience they have in performing this procedure?
- What percentages of patients have had serious complications?
- Will they repeat or correct procedures if something goes wrong? If the procedure must be repeated or corrected, will I be charged again?
- May I see “before and after” photos of recent patients?
- May I have the names and contact information for several recent hair transplant patients?
- Could I watch the exact procedure I am considering before I decide to have it done?
- Who will be assisting during the procedure and what are their qualifications?
- Have they ever had a malpractice insurance coverage denied, revoked, suspended?
- Do they offer patient financing?
These questions will surely help you find the best hair transplant doctors.
After Hair Transplant
After hair transplant is done, during the first two or three days, there could be some discomfort in both the area that hair was taken from as well as the area of the transplant. Mild headache, swelling and bruising around the eyes are normal.
Bandages are typically applied after the hair transplant procedure and should be left in place overnight. The sutures are taken away about ten days after the operation. It is usual for medical staff to shampoo the hair the first time after the procedure. Doctor will provide you instructions regarding hair grooming during your recovery. Some scabbing generally happens in both areas, and should fade away within 8-10 days. Some numbness could also take place, and can last for up to 2-3 months.
There is a minor risk of the /grafts coming out, so you have to avoid energetic or strenuous exercise until scabs have totally healed. Many people are able to return to their ordinary routine the day after the procedure.
Around 2 days after hair transplant, the hair from the graft will start to fall out, and hair re-growth might be thinner for several months. This is normal, and is caused by the short period of diminished blood supply that happens during the procedure.
Throughout the first month and a half, little or no new hair will grow in. But, 3 months after hair transplant, new hair will start to sprout in the grafts. After additional three months, the procedure could be repeated to fill in spaces between the grafts.
Hair Transplant Repair
Lots of men and women spend thousands of dollars for a hair transplant that just didn’t come about the way they thought it would. This means an additional cost with hair transplant repair.
Often times it’s difficult to decide whether to go back to the same surgeon to have the hair transplant repair done free of charge or to go to another one instead.
The very first step is to have a consultation with a surgeon and get answers to all your questions. You should ask what happens if the hair transplant doesn’t turn out the way it should. Will the surgeon assume the cost of the hair transplant repair?
It is wise to read as much as you can about the hair transplant procedure and what to expect. Look at pictures of hair transplant problems and understand the modern methods used. The majority of the mistakes that led to a hair transplant repair are caused by outdated methods.
From time to time there may be scarring or patients complain about the pain they feel. Surgeons that specialize in hair transplant repair also do scar revision work.
Be careful choosing your hair transplant specialist and you’ll never need a hair transplant repair.
Hope for Bad Hair Transplant
Is it possible to restore bad hair transplant? Yes. The solution is the Body Hair Transplantation method.
It gives people another chance to restore bad hair transplants damaged by traditional techniques in the hair restoration field.
Dr. Sanusi Umar, a Los Angeles cosmetic surgeon and board-certified dermatologist, offers the Body Hair Transplant (BHT). He is known for his repair of some of the worst outcomes of hair transplant surgery.
The BHT involves the transplantation of scalp and non-scalp body and beard hair to balding areas of the head.
Therefore, even severely bald individuals with extremely poor hair surgery outcomes and a depletion of traditional scalp donor hair can achieve a cosmetically acceptable restoration.
According to Dr Umar, not everyone is a good candidate for BHT. Some people do not have the appropriate amount of body hair, while others have unsuitable body hair characteristics.
For more information, visit http://www.dermhairclinic.com.
Side Effects of a Hair Transplant
Are there any complications or risks with the hair transplant procedure?
Complications are generally minor when a hair transplant is performed by a qualified surgeon with experience in performing this type of surgery.
However, no matter how good your surgery is you might suffer side effects of a hair transplant procedure.
The good news is that hair transplant side effects are typically minimal and can be easily treated with medications.
Possible side effects include:
- Headaches (caused by the tugging and manipulation of the scalp)
- Small amount of bleeding
- Numbness or scalp tenderness (resolves in 2 to three months)
- Temporary thinning of pre-existing hair
- Swelling around the forehead and the eye area (lasts 2 to 5 days)
- An itchy scalp after the surgery (regular shampooing will help)
- Small scabs may form (they will disappear in one week)
- Infections (extremely rare)
- Scarring
- Cysts
- Hiccoughs (go away in a couple of days)
Female Hair Transplant
Female hair transplant is an option in the treatment of a variety of hair loss conditions. Women more and more learn that they can benefit from the newer techniques in surgical hair restoration.
Female hair transplant is not merely the same procedure as performed in men. A number of precautions must be taken to minimize hair loss in the recipient region, which seems to occur much more frequently in women.
Precautions include using local anesthetics that do not contain epinephrine, minimizing the number of recipient site incisions and using larger grafts so as to achieve a maximal increase in hairs per graft placed.
Patients with moderate to advanced hair loss patterns are advised on the probable need for second and perhaps additional procedures. Even in cases where reasonable density was achieved after one procedure, the progressive nature of pattern hair loss typically makes necessary the performance of an additional procedure in the future.
During female hair transplant, the treatment of hairline distortion from prior cosmetic surgery uses smaller follicular unit grafts than the larger grafts for treating female pattern hair loss.
The most difficult area to restore is the lost sideburn. However, when properly performed, patient satisfaction with what was otherwise a successful facelift procedure can be restored.
Small number of women has the type of hair loss that would make them good candidates, and that is because the majority of women have what is called diffuse hair loss. Meaning that women have an overall thinning in all areas of the head, including the sides and back, these are the areas that act as donor sites in men.
It is from these sites that the hair is removed for hair transplantation to other areas of the head. In men, the donor sites are called stable sites, which mean that the hair and follicles in those areas are not affected by the DHT that shrinks follicles elsewhere on the head.
In female pattern baldness, however, these donor areas are generally unstable. They are thinning, just like the other areas of the head. The donor areas in women are affected by follicle-killing DHT. That means that if you take away hair and accompanying follicles from these donor areas in women and transplants them to other areas; it’s just going to fall out. Every doctor who would try to transplant hair from an unstable donor site is unethical and just trying to take economic advantage of the patient.
Laser Hair Therapy + Hair Transplantation – What are Results?
Can laser hair therapy significantly affect results obtained through hair transplantation? The three–year study by Samson Hair Restoration has the answer.
People who participated in the study had a hair transplant procedure and then had laser hair therapy 2 – 3 times per week, for 20 minutes per session. Low level laser therapy, also known as “cool laser” therapy, was used for up to 12 months.
It was discovered that laser hair therapy clearly speeds regrowth of transplanted hair, improves the texture of newly growing transplanted hair, and helps retain native hair.
On average, transplanted hair follicles start to grow new hair at about 3 months following the procedure. Patients in the study saw new growth beginning significantly earlier, some as soon as 30 days following their procedures.
Overall, low level laser hair therapy is beneficial to patients who undergo a hair transplant procedure. At a minimum the therapy will help them see results sooner.
