Making the Decision to Have Hair Transplant Surgery

Having hair transplant surgery is a big step. The decision does not come easily to most people. There are many aspects of your life that are affected by your choice to have or not to have the procedure done. There are several questions to ask yourself.

1. Do I think about my hair all the time?

If you cannot think of anything but how your balding head looks, it is a good indication that you need to do something. This kind of thinking can distract you from enjoying the good things in life. It can also mean that you are not fully focused on the activity you are engaged in at the time. This could go so far as being dangerous.

2. Have I lost confidence at work because of my hair loss?

It is possible to become so attentive to your balding problems that you feel that others look down on you at work. If you can maintain your self confidence, that will probably not be the case at all. However, if you feel inferior when you are dealing with new customers or clients, you will likely not do well at your job. A hair transplant procedure could help your career.

3. How do I feel about my hair in social situations?

If you are constantly thinking about your hair loss when you are with friends or colleagues, your social life will suffer. You will find it hard to carry on conversations with others on an equal level if your baldness is an issue. Hair transplant surgery can help you get back in the loop.

4. Do I spend too much time at the mirror?

This is an interesting question, because one would think that looking in the mirror would be more a problem of people who have already had hair transplant surgery. Actually, quite the opposite is true. When people are concerned about balding, they spend much time looking into a mirror to double-check and re-comb their hair to make it look like it covers more of their heads.

5. Do I feel comfortable around the opposite sex?

People who have serious balding issues often feel as if members of the opposite sex look at them with contempt. These people do not strike up conversations with the opposite sex or seek them out. It is only with drastic measures, such as counseling, that these people can get past their timidity. Hair transplant surgery can give them more confidence as well.

6. Will having hair transplant surgery change anything?

You have to look long and hard at your life to answer this question. You have to determine whether the baldness is really the problem or not. The issues may be too deep for a cosmetic procedure to fix. In this case, you will have to decide if the hair transplant surgery will be worth it. On the other hand, the surgery might be just that extra something that gives you the incentive to learn to deal with your problems.

More information @ Hair Transplant Network

Other Resources

• John Travolta Goes From Balding to Full Head of Hair in Two Days | Textile Global – Textile and Fashion News
• Tiara Comb | Susan Godfrey Wedding Accessories
• A Guide To Balding Men’s Hairstyles | Hair Care Guide

Are Women Good Candidates for Hair Transplant Surgery?

Balding is not just a men’s problem; women often lose hair as they get older as well.

You might wonder, if that is the case, why more women do not have hair transplant surgery. You may be surprised to know that many women are not good candidates.

Women usually have a different type of hair loss than men. Male pattern baldness uncovers parts of the top of the head.

However, the sides and back of the head are usually covered with healthy balding-resistant hair follicles. Men with this pattern of balding will have donor hair that survives the hair transplant process and flourishes long afterward. That is because a naturally-occurring enzyme in the body combines with testosterone to create a chemical called DHT.

This chemical is responsible for the hair loss on the tops of men’s heads when they have male pattern baldness. However, it does not affect the back and sides of their hair in most cases. These areas have healthy hair follicles and make excellent donor sites for hair transplant surgery.

These are called stable sites because they remain unchanged over time rather than shrinking like the hair follicles affected by DHT do. Female pattern baldness is different. In most cases, they do not have large areas of stable balding-resistant hair follicles.

The sides and back of their hair tends to thin just as the front and top of the head do. The DHT affects all the areas of their hair. Any hair follicles that are affected by DHT will simply fall out if they are moved by hair transplant procedures. Moving them from one place to another does not affect the basic nature of the hair follicle.

Also, women do not have the problem of receding hairlines in most cases. Their hair is lost in a more diffuse manner, thinning uniformly all over the head. It is not so much where their hair is that is the problem, but how much they have. Hair transplant surgery will not correct this problem. It is best used to move hair from one place to another.

There is a very small percentage – about 5% of all women with baldness problems – who are good candidates for hair transplant surgery. The thing that all these women have in common is that they all have healthy areas of hair follicles that can be used as donor sites.

For example, women with mechanical or traction Alopecia have lost their hair because they have scratched their head for a long period of time, they have used tight rollers or their hair has been pulled or stretched in any manner. These women almost always have an area of their hair that is unaffected. If they do, they can have hair transplant procedures.

Some women have cosmetic surgery and suffer hair loss around the incision sites. In these cases, hair transplant surgery can help. Other women actually have a pattern of hair loss that is similar to male pattern baldness. These women are able to have the surgery, too.

Finally, women who have suffered trauma from accidents or burns are good candidates for hair transplant procedures. If you are a woman with balding problems, is worth the time to consult with a doctor to find out if you are one of the women who can benefit from hair transplant surgery.

More information @ Hair Transplant Network

Other Resources

• Reasons for Turning Down A Hair Transplant
• The Argument of No Authority « One-Sided Conversations
• male pattern baldness treatment | Hot News

Is Hair Transplant Painful?

Many people who think about having hair transplant surgery wonder if the procedure is painful.

Often people have sensitive scalps and the thought of someone making cuts there seems hard to think about for these people.

There is disagreement as to whether hair transplant surgery is painful, though. Some say that hair transplant surgery is similar to a visit to the dentist.

This does not seem like a description of something that is pain-free. It certainly does not seem like a relaxing experience. Yet some feel that there is that degree of pain involved.

The injections of the local anesthetic into the scalp before hair transplant procedures are definitely painful to some degree. Anyone who has had a tooth pulled knows that, if the tooth is deadened properly, it is not the tooth-pulling that hurts. It is the needle going in with medication to numb the tooth that is the real agony.

Of course, to follow the dental analogy, after the numbing wears off there is plenty of pain where the tooth was before. With hair transplant surgery, there is pain after the surgery as well.

Swelling is normal after hair transplant surgery and can even keep you away from work.Your skull may feel very unusual for weeks.

However, the pain of hair transplant cannot actually be compared to a tooth extraction.

Hair transplant pain is decidedly less sharp and some do not even feel it as pain at all. Many people simply feel it as an uncomfortable feeling. If they do feel any pain, it is of a degree that can be taken care of with a few doses of Tylenol.

On the other hand, some people who have had hair transplant procedures done do not feel that there is any pain involved at all. They tolerate the injections of the local anesthetic well.

They are not bothered at all by the procedure. In fact they often watch television or read magazines, being awake and alert the whole time.

Hair transplant surgery is surely less painful than it was in earlier times when larger sections of scalp were excised. This involved more cutting to take out the donor hair and more cutting to insert the donor hair into the recipient site.

Hair transplant surgery was a very painful procedure in the past. Not all doctors today have given up on older methods. This is one reason why you should ask a lot of questions when you look for a hair transplant surgeon.

Up-to-date techniques for hair transplant use only the follicular unit and not a large amount of surrounding tissue for the donor grafts. This cuts down considerably on the amount of pain experienced.

The procedure is minimally invasive now, so that no more of the scalp is disturbed than is necessary.

Finally, having a hair transplant with an experienced and skilled surgeon is an important key to having a less painful surgery.

A doctor who knows the best way to do the procedure will cause you less pain an produce a better result for you into the bargain.

More information @ Hair Transplant Network

How to Find a Good Hair Transplant Surgeon

There is no law in the US that requires a doctor to have any special credentials to perform hair transplant surgery, other than basic licensing as a physician.

This leaves many potential candidates for the surgery in the dark. It is difficult to know the difference between a good hair transplant surgeon and an inexperienced one.

If you know someone who has had hair transplant surgery, you have at least one person to whom you can go for advice. You will know from looking at their hair whether the job was done well. You can ask the person whether you were treated professionally.

That person will also know how much the total cost was, and if there were any hidden fees. You might not know anyone who has had a hair transplant procedure. In this case, you might go to the telephone directory.

This is just a starting point. Many of the doctors who advertise there are simply trying to start up a practice in the field. They may have little or no experience. This is just a way to get names that you can check out.

When you contact a hair restoration surgeon, ask to see a portfolio of patients’ photos before and after hair transplant surgery. You should be suspicious if you are shown less than a dozen or so sets of pictures.

This may mean the doctor does not have much experience to brag about. The pictures should be of good quality so that you can really see what kind of job was done.

Next, ask for names and phone numbers of patients the surgeon has treated. A doctor who has done many successful hair transplant procedures will have a list of people willing to talk about their experience. You can call each one and ask about how the procedure went for them.

Be aware that not all hair transplant doctors are scrupulous businesspeople. Many will try to fool you into believing they are more experienced than they are. Sometimes, they will try to make you believe they do better work than they do. They will show you pictures that are not true examples of their own work. They might show you photos that they have taken using lighting tricks to make the hair look thicker and healthier than it is.

It is often hard to spot such tricks, but knowing that some surgeons do them will help you to watch out for them.

You will get some good advice if you go to certain associations for assistance. The International Alliance of Hair Restoration Surgeons will give you information on surgeons that are affiliated with them.

The American Academy of Dermatology is another fine institution that has data on hair transplant surgeons.

The American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery is known for supporting good cosmetic surgery, which hair transplant procedures are.

Finally, the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery deals exclusively with these types of procedures.

It can be quite difficult to find the right surgeon to do your hair transplant procedure. Do not give up. There are plenty of skilled surgeons who can perform these operations well. You just need to take the time you need to find them.

More information @ Hair Transplant Network

Facts about Hair Transplant Procedures

It is getting more common for people to get hair transplant procedures as the methods keep improving.

It is just less obvious than in earlier times when everyone could spot a person with bad hair plugs. Yet, there are still a few facts about hair transplant surgery that are not widely known:

1. A large percentage of men have balding issues.

In fact, 50% of American men that are 50 years old or older are dealing with some amount of hair loss. Hair problems in today’s society beg to be conquered. Some do it by shaving their heads completely. Others take the exact opposite route and have hair transplant surgery. Those who accept their baldness may have a healthy psyche, but they are slightly out of step with the rest of the world.

2. The procedure is permanent.

If you decide you do not like the results, it is not as simple as taking off a wig to change your hair. You would have to go through many surgeries and your head may never look the same. This is why you should never accept any doctor’s offer to do a few hair grafts and see how you like it before doing a full hair transplant surgery. Once you start, you are committed.

3. You need several days of rest afterward hair transplant surgery.

Since the operation is so easy to endure, you might think that you can jump up and go right back to your regular activities. It is just your scalp after all, not muscle or bone. The truth is that you have many small wounds and you need to protect them.

4. Hair transplant can be a time-consuming commitment.

Treatment can often last one to two years. Mega-sessions where thousands of grafts are done in one sitting help to shorten the overall time. However, the length of these sessions is often grueling.

5. Hair transplant surgery may be combined with other procedures.

If you do not have enough hair, you cannot have a normal hair transplant surgery. However, there are other surgeries that can be used in conjunction with hair transplant to achieve similar results. The difference is that these procedures are generally more painful.

6. The grafts may not survive.

Few surgeons will divulge to you the fact that hair grafts do not always survive after hair transplant surgery. The hope is that only a few will be lost and the overall result will not suffer. The reality is that is what usually happens.

7. Hair transplant treatments do not cost as much as you think.

For example, you might reasonably spend $12,000 on a hair transplant. If you got it done at age 30 and died at age 70, you would have the transplant 40 years. That would average out to $300 per year, or $25 per month.

Many of the supposedly low cost treatments for hair loss cost much more than $25 per month. You would actually save by getting the hair transplant surgery done in the first place.

More information @ Hair Transplant Network

How Will Your Hair Look After Hair Transplant Surgery

Before you have hair transplant surgery, you might want to know how it will turn out.

The truth is that every head of hair is different from all others and you cannot know exactly how it will turn out. However, with a few facts at your disposal, you can get an advance idea of how your hair will look.

1. The more hairs per graft that are used in your hair transplant, the less natural your hair will look.

Many doctors still use grafts that contain up to eight hairs. These do not look as conspicuous as the hair plugs of earlier decades, but they do not look as natural as they can, either. Try to find a doctor that uses grafts that contain one to four hair follicles. These smaller grafts, also called follicular unit grafts, are ideal in restoring a receding hairline. If your doctor uses the follicular unit grafts for your hairline, it will look much more natural than with the larger plug-like grafts. This is important because your hair transplant will be noticeable if the hairline is not done well.

2. Your hair transplant site will be fuller if you have higher density in your donor sites.

The density is based upon the number of hair follicles you have in each section of your scalp. If you have a high number of hair follicles per square centimeter than most people, more grafts can be done, so your hair will look fuller.

3. Your scalp laxity will also affect the fullness of your resulting hair transplant site.

This refers to the flexibility of your scalp. How loose your scalp is helps to decide how many grafts can be done just as hair density does.

4. Coarse hair will cover more area.

When your hair transplant is done, the surgeon will be able to use fewer hair follicles per graft if your hair is coarse. That is because coarse hair provides more coverage. However, finer hair will tend to look more natural, if thinner.

5. Straight hair does not cover scalp like curly hair does.

If you have straight hair, you can be sure that your hair transplant surgery will be a challenge to your doctor. Curly hair appears to provide even more coverage than it actually does because it stands up from the head.

6. The way your hair color compares to your skin color will have an effect on the look of your hair transplant.

If you have a hair color that is similar to the color of your skin, you are in luck. Your scalp will not betray any lack of coverage that happens to be present. If, on the other hand, your hair and skin color contrast distinctly hair follicles show up more. If there is even the slightest lack of coverage, it will be evident. Just imagine a very light-skinned person with jet-black hair. This person’s hair follicles will stand out in a very obvious way.

No one ever knows how hair transplant surgery will turn out until they see the results. All of the basic problems can be dealt with if a skilled surgeon is involved. However, knowing the possibilities will make it easier for you to know what questions to ask.

More information @ Hair Transplant Network

How Hair Is Inserted in Hair Transplant Surgery

Hair transplant surgery begins, after anesthesia is applied, with removing donor tissue.

Follicular units are then extracted from the tissue using a stereomicroscope. This is all done by skilled nurses and technicians.

The insertion of the hair into the receptor sites comes later. Once the follicular units for the hair transplant are dissected out of the donor tissue, technicians set them aside in a saline solution.

The temperature must be ideal or the small grafts will not survive the procedure. This is done very carefully in order to ensure a good result.

The surgeon will make tiny incisions into the scalp where the hair transplant grafts are to go. These are called the receptor sites. They are made with a very thin surgical needle.

The surgeon must have an eye for detail to properly set the receptor sites. He must also be very artistic to achieve a natural look, especially at the hairline. The direction the hair grows, both on the front of the head and at the crown, are very important, too.

The doctor must make the condition of the newly placed hair look like the patient’s own natural scalp hair. The angle that the hair is put in determines how much it will stand up from the head.

Once the surgeon has made all the hair transplant incisions that lay out the design he has created, the specially trained surgical team steps in. They use his plan to accomplish his goals, and in turn the goals of the patient.

The groundwork is done for them by the surgeon when he does his incisions. The surgical team takes care to get every hair transplant graft into the receptor sites as they have been laid out.

They waste no time, though, because the small grafts are vulnerable when their follicles are outside of the skin. The goal is to get the grafts in as quickly as possible while staying true to the design.

Next, the doctor looks over the hair transplant for quality control. He may take a good deal of time tweaking the placement of grafts before he is satisfied that they are all set properly into their receptor sites in a pleasing fashion.

When he gives the ok, the surgical technicians again take over the patient’s care.

The grafts will be more permanently set into place when the technicians dry them by blowing a cool blow dryer across them. This makes them adhere in their place so that no bandages are necessary.

The patient will be asked to bring, or will be given, a baseball cap for the ride home from the hair transplant procedure.

The doctor will want to see how the grafts are doing the day following the hair transplant. The patient will go in for a check-up so that any problems can be corrected quickly. If that is not possible, at least plans can be made to correct them at a future time.

The doctor will have done his job with the hair transplant procedure at this point. All that remains is periodic checkups.

If the hair loss is extensive, there may be more procedures, but all the hair transplant surgeries will be done with the same amount of care.

More information @ Hair Transplant Network

How Are Follicular Units Used in Hair Transplant Surgery?

Certain doctors have been aware of follicular units for a long time now, but the knowledge only recently made its way into hair transplant methods. Now these ideas are being used in hair restoration every day.

To understand how follicular units have affected hair transplant surgery practices, it is necessary to first understand what a follicular unit is.

A follicular unit is a single entity that is made up of several parts. All these parts are necessary to the whole. The first part, and the one most people getting hair transplant surgery are interested in, is the hairs.

There should be one to four full hair follicles in the unit and one or two fine hairs as well. There are sebaceous glands in the follicular unit which produce oil.

The follicular unit is a living unit with muscle, nerves and blood vessels that are all tiny enough to fit into this small package. The unit is set off by a band of collagen that holds it together.

If you look under a microscope at a scalp, you can see follicular units growing in just this way. The idea of bringing this information into hair transplant procedures led to innovative surgical methods.

Rather than just moving around individual hair follicles, surgeons actually moved a unit which contained everything the hair needed to keep growing. The results were ground-breaking.

One way surgeons used to move the donor follicular units to the balding areas was by single strip harvesting. This is done by moving small strips of tissue containing follicular units. This method keeps the units intact and ready to transplant.

Earlier methods such as mini-grafting and micro-grafting broke up the follicular units.

As a part of the hair transplant process with Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT), a new microscope technique was used. It is called stereomicroscopic dissection. This means that the follicular units are carefully taken out of the donor tissue and kept individually intact.

When doctors use hair transplant procedures with FUT, they do not have to use quite as large of a donor site. The follicular units are small and they can be separated from tissue that has no hair, under the microscope.

That way, only the tissue that grows hair is transplanted. It is a much more efficient procedure in that way.

Follicular units placed during hair transplant procedures are put into tiny holes the size of needles. The insertion sites heal quickly, and they leave no marks.

This makes for a much more comfortable recovery and better results. FUT hair transplant procedures can make a big difference in the number of times a patient will have to go back for more treatments.

More grafts can be done at one session, so that the patient has to go back fewer times. This is more convenient to patients.

Hair transplant done using follicular unit procedures is becoming more and more the norm. Possibly this is because it puts hair into the scalp in the same arrangement as it grows there naturally. This represents a leap forward in hair transplant technology.

More information @ Hair Transplant Network

How Many Hair Transplant Grafts Do You Need?

When you shop for a hair transplant surgeon, you will find that different doctors give widely varying estimates of the number of grafts you will need.

This can make you very uncertain about the wisdom of even getting a hair transplant.

It helps to have a fair idea of what to expect. Unfortunately, there are hair transplant surgeons who do not take their position of respect seriously.

Some doctors are even transplanting donor hair into areas where the patient still has hair. Perhaps this is easier than placing it where it rightfully belongs – on the balding spots.

For whatever reason, some hair transplant patients are not getting the number of grafts on their balding areas as they are billed. This is testified by certain doctors who have seen the results. The density of hair on these patients’ heads is not commensurate with the number of grafts they supposedly got.

The best hope a patient has of getting what he pays for in a hair transplant is to learn to calculate the number of grafts he needs to cover his balding area. If the surgeon he sees is not in that ballpark, it may be wiser to look for another surgeon.

If however, the surgeon estimates a similar number, just make sure all the grafts go onto the balding parts of your scalp.

To calculate the number of grafts you need for hair transplant surgery, there are several factors to take into account.

The thickness of the hair shaft makes a difference. Whether the hair is curly or straight determines if the hair will lie flat or stand up, creating more fullness.

Another important factor for hair transplant is the color of the hair in contrast to the color of the skin. For a light-skinned man with light-colored hair, or a dark-skinned man with dark colored hair, it takes a certain amount of hair to cover the baldness. However, a light-skinned man with very dark hair will need much more hair to provide the same amount of coverage.

You should figure that the average number of hair transplant grafts needed to cover a balding area is 25% of the original hair that was there. You can move up or down from this figure according to your other factors such as thickness, curliness, or color.

Then, you can use this number to figure up the grafts needed. Based on the fact that the average Caucasian male has a density of 2 hairs per millimeter, it can be assumed that the average density of hair is 1250 hairs per square inch.

Figuring at an average of 2 hairs per follicular unit, it would take 625 follicular units per square inch. To get 25% of that, you would need 156 follicular units per square inch. All that remains is to measure your balding area and multiply the number of square inches by 156.

When you know what number of grafts to expect during your hair transplant surgery, you will be a savvy consumer. It does not hurt one bit go into the process with an idea of your own about how the treatment should go.

More information @ Hair Transplant Network

How You Can Avoid Dishonest Hair Transplant Doctors

It is easy to assume that any doctor will do everything in his power to do right by you.

However, it would be naïve to think that there are no hair transplant doctors that are dishonestly trying to use you to make money and nothing more. There are a few things to take into consideration:

1. Watch out for high pressure tactics.

One example is when a promotion is run guaranteeing a special price if you schedule your procedure by a certain date. Most reputable doctors charge a fair price for the hair transplant surgery and so do not need to discount it.

Another example is when you go in and the doctor or other people in his office will not take no for an answer. Any good doctor knows the decision is yours to make.

2. Try not to use a doctor who starts you off with a salesman or other person who has nothing to do with the health occupations.

You need a person with good training to show you all you need to make your mind up about the surgery. You do not need a person whose only agenda is to sell you on getting hair transplant procedures done.

3. You should start to get concerned if your doctor has no specific good stories to tell about hair transplant surgery they have done.

You need to see before and after photos. You need a way to contact former patients. If at all possible, you need to be able to visit with patients the doctor has treated so they can show you the results in person. You are not asking too much – it is a major commitment you are making.

4. If your doctor says to try a few hair transplant grafts and then decide, run.

This is never a good idea. Once you start having the grafts done, you are committing to a full set of procedures. Otherwise, your hair will end up looking out of balance.

5. Do not get involved with a doctor who does not listen.

A good doctor knows how important the hair transplant is to you. He will listen to your questions about hair transplant and provide intelligent answers. He will also try to find out what your goals are to see if they are realistic.

6. Keep it realistic.

If the doctor says the hair transplant will cost an exorbitant amount of time or money, be wary. You should have a basic idea of the going rates before you make this decision. On the other hand, if the doctor talks about how little it will cost and how quick and easy it will be, be suspicious of that too. The answer should lie somewhere in the middle.

7. Not all hair transplant stories are good ones.

If the doctor you consult with claims that his are, you cannot trust what he says. Virtually every doctor has some procedure that has gone wrong to some degree. A good doctor will admit this and provide a plan to avoid it.

There are hair transplant stories that would make most people think twice about having the surgery. However, it is not a good representation of the fine work that most hair restoration surgeons are doing. Just make sure you find one of those good surgeons.

Tips for choosing a hair transplant surgeon – sponsored by:

• Does the physician take a holistic approach to hair restoration? Your physician should help you evaluate all your options, surgical and non surgical.
• Has the clinic made the investment in time and resources to do large sessions of micro follicular unit hair transplantation? Doing outstanding work requires a staff dedicated and trained to use high-powered magnification with the capability of producing at least 2,000 carefully trimmed grafts per surgical session.
• Choose a hair restoration clinic that is patient focused rather than commercially focused. Some clinics emphasize revenue, speed and volume rather than dedicating the time and individual care needed to produce optimal results.
• Is hair restoration the primary focus of their practice? Outstanding results require a physician and a full staff who perform hair restoration surgery on a regular basis. Doing hair restoration as a sideline, along with other cosmetic procedures, may hinder their ability to do large sessions of highly refined follicular unit transplantation.
• How many patients has this physician produced excellent results for? Like any skill, experience over time is critical to acquiring the skill and judgment required to produce excellent results.
• Can the physician provide at least a dozen sets of detailed patient before and after photographs? Do they also have patients who are willing to speak with you and meet with you in person?
• What is the physician’s reputation on hair loss related discussion forums? To learn what patients are saying about hair transplant physicians and hair loss treatments visit the Hair Restoration Forum.

More information @ Hair Transplant Network

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