Hair Replacement

After centuries of speculation as to what specifically causes hair loss, studies now show that it probably can be attributed to a combination of factors, including natural aging, hormonal changes and a family history of baldness.

What Is Hair Replacement / Transplanting?
Hair transplantation is an advanced surgical technique that relocates your own hair to areas where hair loss has occurred. Performed in the comfort and privacy of our offices, this procedure produces new hair growth in the affected areas with a completely natural appearance.

Why Choose Hair Replacement procedures?
Unfortunately, over-the-counter hair and scalp tonics cannot reverse or prevent it; and hair-growth drugs, such as minoxidil, produce very limited results at the expense of lifetime usage. Other options, such as hair weaves, can be unnatural looking, expensive to maintain, and put the wearer at risk of infection and scarring. With the help of one or more surgical techniques on existing hair and scalp, however, you can acquire a permanent, natural-looking hairline that will improve the way you look and feel about yourself. Hair loss can also be caused by burns or trauma, in which case hair replacement surgery is considered a reconstructive treatment, and may be covered by health insurance.

Who is a good candidate?
The best results from surgery are typically seen in men over the age of 35, who have noticeable hair loss on top, but a healthy growth of course gray or light-colored hair at the sides and back of the scalp.

The Procedure
Hair replacement can involve one or a combination of techniques. The treatment plan that is best for you will depend on the extent of baldness, amount of hair growth available at donor sites, and personal preference.

Hair Grafting
The most advanced and commonly performed method for replacing hair takes 2-1/2 to 4 hours, depending on the extent of transplantation, and is performed on an outpatient basis under IV sedation. During surgery, a strip of hair-bearing scalp, typically measuring 4 or 5 inches long and 1 to 1-1/2 inches wide, is removed from a donor site. The strip is cut into a combination of minigrafts (comprised of 3 to 4 hairs each) and micrografts (comprised of 1 or 2 hairs each) which are then reinserted into thinning and bald areas behind the front hairline. Several surgical sessions are typically necessary to achieve a good result.

Alternative Approaches
Hair replacement can also be performed through manipulation of a large flap of scalp. In one method, a section of bald scalp, typically measuring up to 7 inches long and 2 inches wide, is simply cut out; after which the two remaining sides are brought together and sutured. In patients whose scalp is too tight to achieve this, however, tissue expanders must be implanted beneath the skin and inflated with saline solution over several weeks to sufficiently stretch the area beforehand.

In another approach, a similar-size strip of hair-bearing scalp to the side or back of the head is cut, but left attached to the scalp at one end. This flap is then rotated to the front of the head and sutured into the area where the same size of bald scalp has been removed.

Recovery
How you feel after surgery depends largely on the type and extent of hair replacement surgery performed. In general, however, most patients report varying degrees of aching of the head and mild swelling, which is typically well-tolerated with cold compresses and pain medication. Surface sutures are removed in approximately 7 days following hair grafting, and in about 10 days with either of the flap procedures. Sensitivity and numbness around the incision areas is common, and may last from a few weeks to several months.

Unlike the outcome from scalp reduction and scalp flap surgery which is visible at the time the bandages are removed, final results of hair grafting are not immediate. The grafted hairs fall out two to three weeks after surgery. Then, in about three months, new and permanent hair growth begins.