Restoring hair after hair loss

There are many adverts in magazines claiming wonderful cures and fixes to hair loss or thinning hair – but usually most of these will be a waste of money. At the very most they will just be improving circulation to the head and hair area, so what hair is left will at least be healthy hair!

For those people who really can’t live without hair, then there is always the surgical route by way of hair implants – remember Elton John all those years ago!

It’s a little more costly than all those lotions and potions, and a lot more dramatic, but for some this is the only way to go.

Dermatological surgeons are the best people to consult with regards to these kinds of procedures, as they will be taking into account of the reasons behind the hair loss, the severity of it, and also work out the natural hair line etc., together with working out patient expectations, situation and lifestyle.

This procedure has been in place since the 1950’s and has moved forward and improved considerably. Smaller plug grafts are used with microsurgery, thereby making transplants a much more realistic solution to a new head of hair.

The process of hair transplanting is literally the relocating of permanent hair from the lower back and sides of the head, being transplanted into areas of thinning and balding along the top and towards the front of the head, when, after a short period of time, they will grow and continue to do so for a lifetime.

The old method of plug grafting used to transfer and re-locate ‘plugs’ of about twelve hair roots. Nowadays mini-grafts are used – which are somewhat smaller than the old plugs. These help to create a more natural hair line and nicer looking appearance. By using the combination of mini and micro grafts, it is possible to obtain exceptional results that are hard for anyone to detect that hair has been grafted.

During the old plug grafting procedure, as many as 600 grafts could be removed from any one patient, although it is recommended that only 50 grafts should be taken in any one treatment session. An instrument called a trephine is used which has a circular cutting edge and the grafts it can take vary from 2mm to about 5mm in diameter. Nowadays though, the donor tissue is removed with a knife that produces long thin strips, although it would seem that single-strip harvesting now appears to be the superior method.

All these procedures are done under a local anaesthetic, with the scalp being anaesthetized and then a strip of scalp is then removed – about ½” to 1″ wide and about 4-5″ long. This is then divided up into individual grafts – micro continuing one or two shafts – and mini containing three to eight shafts per graft. These grafts are then implanted into tiny punctures into the skin in the required spaces.

The gap left behind from where the donor strip was taken from is sutured as the scalp is very elastic, and the hair that exists on the back of the head will hide the resultant scarring.

A patient will normally need about three treatments to achieve a good head of hair, but it will vary dependent upon the results wanted.