Hair Transplant Surgery for Hair Restoration
Hair transplantation is an operation that takes hair from the back of the head and moves it to the area of hair loss. The fringe (back and sides) of hair on a balding scalp is known as donor dominant hair which is the hair that will continue to grow throughout the life of most men, never being affected by the androgens which cause male pattern baldness. The transplantation of this hair to a bald area does not change its ability to grow. Donor dominance is the scientific basis for the success of hair transplantation.
Candidates for hair transplant surgery are those individuals with hair loss that have sufficient donor hair from the fringe of the scalp to transplant to the balding area. Many women are also candidates for hair transplant surgery of the scalp as well as for eyebrow and eyelash reconstruction. Hair may also be transplanted to other body areas, such as facial hair.
Hair transplantation surgery has improved by leaps and bounds over the past decade. The days of the "plugs and corn rows" are gone and the age of single hair-, micro-, and mini- grafting has arrived. In fact, the unappealing look of the old plugs can now be corrected. The backbone of today's techniques is Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) in which each follicle is dissected under magnification and individually transplanted to the recipient area where it continues to grow. Variable small-sized hair grafts are also sometimes used. This approach along with new and improved instrumentation allows the hair transplantation surgeon to create a natural appearance appropriate for each individual patient.
The side-effects of hair transplantation surgery are relatively minor consisting of mild pain and some degree of temporary numbness after the operation, swelling which may move down to the eyes, and the formation of scabs over the grafts which take approximately one week to resolve. Serious problems of bleeding, scarring, and infection are rare. Modern hair transplantation surgery is comfortable, predictable, and the results are pleasing to most patients.
