What is hair transplant?:-
It is a surgical method by which the hair follicles are transplanted into the thinning hair area or bald area. Both males and females can benefit from hair transplant surgery. The process is generally performed under local anesthesia but can sometimes be done under general anesthesia too, depending on the patient’s case. It is a daycare procedure with no pain.
What are the causes? –
Common Causes of Hair Loss:-
a). Age – As we grow older our hair follicles deteriorate leading to hair loss.
b). Heredity – It is the most common cause for hair loss. People may suffer from male pattern baldness or female pattern baldness which occurs gradually and in a predictable way – receding hair line and bald patches in men and overall hair thinning in women.
c). Medical conditions – Steroids, birth control pills or medications for arthritis, high blood pressure, depression etc. contain chemicals which can cause temporary or permanent hair loss. Chemotherapy can also cause severe hair loss in people. It even occurs due to infection on your scalp.
d). Nutrition and diet – Nutritional deficiency and rapid weight loss can lead to hair fall. Lack of iron and protein is the main cause for hair loss as keratin which is a type of protein is an important component for formation of hair.
e). Lifestyle changes – Hair loss can occur due to hormonal imbalance and changes. This problem can arise due to menopause, child birth or improper diet. Even thyroid problems can affect the hormone levels leading to hair loss.
Procedures of hair transplant :-
Hair naturally grows in groupings of 1 to 4 hairs, current techniques harvest and transplant hair “follicular units” in their natural groupings. Thus modern hair transplantation can achieve a natural appearance by mimicking original hair orientation. This hair transplant procedure is called follicular unit transplantation(FUT). Donor hair can be harvested in two different ways: strip harvesting, and follicular unit extraction (FUE).
FUT method : it is done by removal of strip of skin containing hair from the back of scalp (Donor area), then the strip is dissected further into smaller grafts containing 1, 2 or 3 hair follicle, and then transplanted in to the recipient site (bald Area).
Drawback: leaves linear scar on the back of scalp (at site of removal of strip) which can be very much reduced by using trichophytic suture technique. More time for healing of the donor area. Some patients have complained of pain for many days in the donor area from where strip was removed but not in all case.
Advantage: can be useful when more number of hairs is required to fill the recipient area in case of advanced baldness with smaller donor area.
FUE Method: In FUE method individual hair follicle units (made up of 1, 2 or 3 hair) are removed with very tiny punches leaving very tiny scars at donor site which are difficult to visualize by naked eye.
Advantage: Rapid healing of donor site, stich less, less pain (virtually painless).
Drawback: not possible to cover larger area when density in donor area is low and patient wants to take hair only from scalp. More chance of follicle transection if surgeon is inexperience as instrument/punch is inserted blindly by imagine the direction of hair follicle, over harvesting leading to un even density in donor area.
What are it’s Pros and cons? :-
Pros :- As the hair transplantation technology has advanced significantly,people can decide from the traditional Follicular Unit Transplantation technique that happensby taking a strip of hair from the back of your head, separating the tissue into units and re-depositing again in the selected areas.
Cons :- The person who wants to undergo HT should be healthy condition.
What most of the people doesn’t know is,an average hair transplant personis required to be in perfect healthy condition.
When Can You Begin To See Real Effects of Hair Transplant?
You can notice new hair in a month after surgery. Though in the first month, the newly transplanted hair keeps falling and growing but you can observe a significant growth in other 5-6 months.
For complete results, the patient should wait for almost 12 months as this is the period which makes your newly transplanted hair follicles grow and look well. Once your hairs have reached the desired stage, you can opt for an appropriate hair cut.