Hair is a part of the human body that cannot be ignored, especially now that the beauty industry has widely picked up for both men and women. With yet so much to be learned on hair growth and grooming, but especially on hair loss and this hair transplants.
It is unfortunate that hair loss is a traumatic thing that happens to a lot of people, sometimes as a result of illness, but commonly for men, due to balding. Various solutions like wigs and weaves have readily been embraced by hair loss victims, with the hair transplants solution dreaded by most. Could it be that people dread hair transplants for all the wrong reasons? This article serves justice to the hair transplant course by pinpointing some common hair transplant myths every man should stop believing.
Hair Transplants Procedure
A hair transplant is a hair loss treatment procedure where a plastic surgeon or a dermatological surgeon moves hair from the side or back of the head to a bald spot which usually is on top or the front of the head. This procedure is typically done in a medical clinic under local anesthesia.
The actual procedures that happen during a hair transplant
- The dermatological or plastic surgeon will thoroughly clean your scalp, after that the surgeon will numb the area he’s going to work on with the use of a small needle to apply local anesthesia.
- Next is the implantation of hair follicles which is composed of two key techniques.
The two techniques: FUT and FUE.
In (FUT) follicular unit transplantation: A strip of scalp will be cut out from the back of the head by the surgeon with the use of a scalpel. Typically the incision will be about a few inches long which is then closed with stitches.
Next, the surgeon divides the portion of the scalp which was removed from the head into small sections with the help of a magnifying lens and sharp surgical knife. This is necessary so the implanted sections will grow into natural-looking hair growth.
In (FUE) follicular unit extraction process the hair follicles are directly cut out from the back of the head. The surgeon will punch hundreds to thousands of tiny punch incisions to extract the hair follicles.
Tiny holes will be cut in the area of your scalp that will be receiving the transplanted hair follicles. The hair follicles will then be gently placed in these holes. During a single treatment session that may last up to four hours or more, hundreds or even thousands of hairs can be transplanted. After the hair transplantation is done your head will be covered by gauze bandages for a few days. To keep dust and insects from settling on the raw wounds caused by the punched incisions. Usually, the stitches will be removed about 10 days.
You may have to return to your hair transplants surgeon for about three or four sessions before you can achieve the desired result. that is a full head of hair. These sessions should be spaced out into several months apart to allow each transplant to fully heal first.
Hair Transplant Cost & Prices
The price and costs of a hair transplants range from $4000 to $15000 and is determined by the amount of work the surgeon will be doing. Most hair transplant clinics will quote costs estimates by looking at the amount of hair that will be moved. This is one of the medical procedures that most insurance plans don’t cover.
Hair transplant costs depend on various factors, which include:
- Your locality or the region, country or place where you live: the cost for this factor is set by the relative cost of living in the area and the number of surgeons competing in offering hair transplant procedures.
- Type of procedure: hair transplant has two techniques which also dictate the type of procedure. These are follicular unit transplantation (FUT) and follicular unit extraction (FUE). The procedure cost is different.
- The skill of the aesthetic surgeon: a common correlation in many services. The skill of the aesthetic surgeon is another factor that influences the procedure cost. However, research first the clinic you plan to have the hair transplant procedure. Higher rates don’t always convert to superior skill.
- The extent of the hair transplant procedure: How much hair you want to be transplanted. A few patches will cost less. The entire scalp will significantly cost more.
- Travel costs: Something that will not be charged by your doctor. Still, a cost to be counted, because you have to travel to find the best specialists. Definitely a cost that will definitely determine your capacity to pay for the procedure.
- Recovery from the hair transplant procedure cost: Recovery costs should also be taken into account, in addition to the treatment costs. To include pain medication for the duration of the recovery, anti-inflammatory medications to manage swelling of the surgical site, antibiotics to reduce the risk of infection. If infection can’t be avoided it needs to be treated. This is a potential additional expense, in addition to the costs for medications and doctor’s visits to manage the infection.
Hair Transplants Side-effects
Complications or side effects associated with a hair transplant, which usually only last a few weeks are typically minor.
These can include: bleeding, inflammation or swelling of the area where the procedure was done, numbness or lack of sensation on the treated area for an extended time, infection, bruising around the eyes, crusting around the areas where treatment was done, unnatural tufts or hair growth of the newly transplanted hair.
These seemingly negative results of hair transplants, however, is offset by the long-term outlook. Ideally, those who have had a hair transplant procedure done will continue to grow hair in the areas of the scalp where hair was transplanted.
However, the new hair growth may appear more or less dense depending on: the laxity of your scalp or how loose is the skin on your scalp. The density of the follicles that were transplanted and the quality of hair may also influence the hair growth of the transplanted hair. Also the type of hair you have, whether it’s straight or curly.
To prevent further hair loss on the untreated areas of your scalp, it is advisable to ask your surgeon about taking the medication minoxidil or finasteride. Undergoing a low-level laser therapy may also help arrest continued hair loss in nontreated areas of your scalp. Discuss these expected outcomes with your surgeon. Also developing realistic expectations would help greatly with achieving favorable results.
Hair Transplant Before and After Results
1. Forehead Hair Transplant
2. Crown Hair Transplant
3. Sides Hair Transplants
4. Whole Crown Hair Transplant
5. Receding Hairline Hair Transplant
6. Temple Hair Transplants
7. Whole Scalp Hair Transplant
8. Female Hair Transplant
8 Hair Transplants Myths you should not believe
There are many myths and false-beliefs about hair transplantations and we want to make sure you are confident to get one, and not swept away by fake beliefs and facts. Below some of the most asked concerns and myths, we have encountered.
1. Transplanted hairs appear fake
Is fake hair worth taking on the hair transplant surgery? Truthfully, it can be aesthetically nerve-racking to imagine parading hair that looks fake and is highly distinctive from the rest of your hair and those around you, which has been a valid concern for a while now, for hair transplants.
Nonetheless, the good news is, advancements in technology have created newer ways to make the hairs used for the transplant process look more natural. The transplant process involves grafting your hair back on so that you can achieve a more natural look.
2. Hair transplant prevents further hair loss
It is quite unfortunate that hair loss solutions do not always guarantee hair growth or limit further hair loss. Hair transplant is about acquiring new hair strands from the parts of your body with healthy hair and using them on the sections of your scalp that have no hair. However, if the rest of the hair on your head is not immune to lose, the transplant will not fix the hair loss.
If your balding is not complete, you may require further treatment for the rest of your hair, which might be in diverse forms, including multiple sessions for the hair transplants, use of ointments, tablets, injections, supplements, and creams.
3. Hair transplant is an expensive process
Most one-off solutions in life tend to be ruled on as expensive. The reason behind this logic could be because of the required amount of money in wholesome at the start of the process.
Nonetheless, it is a misconception to term hair transplant as an expensive solution to hair loss, even though you may have to pay a substantial amount of money at the onset. In fact, if you do the math, between the drugs, ointments and other hair loss solutions, hair transplant is relatively the cheaper option. Hair transplant is a one-time solution that will befit that area of your scalp your entire life, as compared to other methods that need continuous acquisitions.
4. Hair transplant has immediate results
After a transplant, it can be frustrating to notice that the implanted hair does fall off, a few weeks into the transplant surgery. The truth is, the hair shafts you see on your scalp might fall off, but the transplant’s effects are on the roots of your hair.
Once the hair roots receive adequate blood supply and nourishment from the body, the transplanted hair will go through the normal growth stages like would your natural hair. The results will be evident soon enough, therefore, hair transplant does not quite yield immediate results.
5. Hair transplants is solely for men
For the fact that balding is common among men, including premature balding, hair transplant is a common practice for men more than women. However, a hair transplant is not solely for men. Women too experience baldness and reserve the chance to get a hair transplant for their hair loss. In fact, the results in women are more rewarding because of their ability to keep long hair.
6. Hair transplant only works for young people
Most people that experience hair loss at an old age prefer to live with baldness because of the deception that hair transplant treatment is just for young people. And this cannot be further from the truth. What people ignore is that the presence of hair at the back of your head are the determinants for whether you are a fit candidate for hair transplant, not age.
Ideally, the younger you are when getting a hair transplant, the more sessions of hair transplant you might require to sustain your results. You cannot be sure that the hair loss will not continue. Bottom line, whatever your age, you can get a hair transplant.
7. Hair transplant requires hair donation from other people
People have used the analogy of organ transplant to explain the hair transplant process. Quite the contrary, unlike the common belief that all kinds of transplants require the use of external parts to fit the need, hair transplant works differently. Only your own hair can be accepted for regrowth by your scalp and body.
Trying to use other people’s hair on your head more often than not fails because the scalp and the body reject that hair as foreign objects. This is why you need to have partial healthy hair at the back of your head so as to qualify as a hair transplant candidate, where some of your strands will be grafted for the bald sections of your head.
8. Hair can multiply independently
Hair is not self-sufficient. The growth of your hair depends on the health of your body, your food intakes combined with external complementing factors like using oils and butter, conditioners and moisturizers.
Hair Transplant FAQ
Although hair transplant had been in practice for many years now and has continually proven to be effective. Still, like you, there are other people too who are bothered by a number of questions about this hair loss treatment practice. Boosting the search numbers for questions related to hair transplant because they want answers to satisfy their doubts. So we grab some of these questions from the web and list them here for you. We vetted the questions and took only the most frequently asked and get some relevant and proven answers for them.
How successful is a hair transplant?
Typically hair transplants are more successful than those hair restoration treatment products sold over the counter. However, there are important factors to be considered. Although estimated that at 3 to 4 months anywhere from 10 to 80 percent of the transplanted hair will be able to fully grow back. The success rate will still depend on the skill and experience of the successful board-certified surgeon that will handle the hair transplant procedure.
When performed properly, the common success rate is 98%. So it is best that your research thoroughly the hair transplant process that the clinic and the plastic or dermatological surgeon will use before making the final arrangement. Remember higher costs don’t usually convert to excellent results.
Is hair transplant permanent?
Hair transplant is considered permanent, yes. In fact, the reason why hair transplantation is one of the most effective hairs restoration options is that transplanted hairs are resistant to hair loss caused by dihydrotestosterone (DHT) hormone imbalance. However, it will all depend on the efficacy of the medication, which is the most essential element in maintaining the better growth of transplanted follicles. With that said, many hair transplants will still fall even after religious medication & maintenance. This is caused by the regular cell cycle we all go through.
How much is a hair transplant?
Hair transplant costs range from $4,000 to $15,000, which mostly you would have to take out of your pocket. This is one medical procedure that most insurance companies don’t cover because this is considered a cosmetic procedure. The costs of hair transplants are also dependent on a number of factors.
Where are you going to have the procedure done (locality, region or country), the extent of the scalp area to be covered by the procedure, hair transplant technique your surgeon will use, the expertise and skills of the surgeon, professional affiliation of the surgeon, travel expenses from your place to the medical clinic, post-surgery and recovery medication and maintenance costs and your hair type.
Are hair transplants painful?
Of course, it is painful. No medical procedure is not. However, postoperative pain is the most common pain suffered by hair transplant patients which commonly occur after the hair transplantation surgery. Pain mostly occurs in FUT (follicular unit transplant) hair transplantation. Some people also feel muscle pain after the procedure which is caused by the lying position of the patient during this period. Pain during the procedure is minimized by the application of topical local anesthesia. But maybe amplified by the extent of the area to be covered. So the larger is the transplant area, the higher is the chance to feel pain.
How long after hair transplant do you see results?
When do patients see results from a hair transplant? Most could expect to see results by the 6th and 9th month after surgery. Others have seen results as late as 12 months after the hair transplant surgery. Don’t be shocked when 2 weeks have passed up to 8 weeks when transplanted hair fall out.
This is called the shock loss period of the transplanted hair, which is the temporary rest phase that all transplanted hair follicles enter into after any hair transplant surgery. New hair growth usually starts to grow within five to six months, the stage where you will start to notice the newly transplanted hair has thickened. In the 10th month, from experience, this will be the time the most impressive difference will show.
Do you have to shave your head for a hair transplant?
Shaving your head before hair transplant procedure is usually not mandatory, especially in FUE. In FUE layer shaving is the most common prep done and to prepare the donor area for graft harvesting. This type of shaving eliminates the appearance of a shaved head. However, this can be true only if the hair on the back and sides of the head are left longer. Layer shaving allows maximized hair grafts harvest in a day, the ideal target is up to 2000 grafts.
Can you wear a hat after a hair transplant?
Most hair transplant experts advise not to wear a hat immediately after hair transplant. This could compress, dislodge or move the grafts, which will compromise the success of the result. The last time they will advise to someone who had just gone through a hair transplant procedure is to wait 3 weeks to pass before they can wear a hat.
This will give the transplanted grafts the chance to become a permanent part of your scalp. Enough time to ensure that the grafts are completely anchored. You can wear a loose hat though if it can’t be avoided for you to go out, to keep out dust and other infection-causing particles from settling into the healing scabs on your scalp.
How can I sleep after a hair transplantation procedure?
To dispel your doubts, after undergoing a hair transplantation procedure there is one important possible precaution you need to take. And that is to sleep on your side, not flat on your back. This will prevent your head from moving too much and probably dislodge your newly transplanted grafts and aggravate the raw wound on the donor area.
You could also protect your newly transplanted hair by arranging your pillow in a staggard upright position. The transition of your position although unnoticeable will greatly help protect your head from accidentally bumping on the headboard. This is another sleeping position that will also minimize rubbing your new hair grafts on your pillows.
These are not the only questions that will be coming up in your head when trying to decide on a hair transplant procedure. The answers are out there and you have all the power to seek them with just the touch of your fingertips. Research and read and you will be enriched by the information you will gain.
Hair Transplant Reviews
Authentic reviews from people who have hair transplants procedures done on their head. Restoring self-confidence and inspiring them to strive to become much better versions of themselves. We share a few of these reviews here for you to see that hair transplant works.
Hair Transplant US
Loved the results so much that I have just scheduled a second procedure! I brought my hairline down a considerable amount and the results are way better than I had anticipated. Couldn’t be happier with the results and the care I received from the two doctors who handled my hair transplant procedure.
Hair Transplants in New York
After speaking with a plastic surgeon and trying both Propecia and Rogaine, I started looking into hair transplant surgery. After doing some research, I scheduled a consultation. I know this is a bit ridiculous to say, but he really impressed me. I understand that some people are looking for someone to take care of them as they ask these, admittedly delicate, questions, but I was just looking for an expert surgeon who could answer all my questions, who wouldn’t try to sell me on anything, and who wasn’t biased toward either FUT or FUE. After another consultation and a few months of deliberation, I was in the operating room, ready to get a FUT procedure.
Hair Transplants Medical Tourism, India
“I am Mr. Jack, and I have done hair transplants treatment from a hair clinic 6 months back. I would like to mention that I had a great experience with the clinic especially their staff members who are so good. Now I can see very good changes in my look. I have gained confidence also, my baldness has been covered with full hair. I have got a very good response from doctors. The medication also helped a lot. “
Getting a Hair Transplantation
Extracting hair from your head and hoping for it to multiply and grow in a lab or anywhere outside the body is unrealistic and impossible. That kind of technology has only been determined for skin, which is later used for burn victims but is yet to be mastered for hair. Whether you got your hair laser removed and want it back, or lost it due to anxiety and stress, we got you covered (with new hair).
Hair loss can be tragic, particularly when witnessed at an early age. With various solutions to your rescue, you should not fret from trying out a hair transplant, if at all for any of the mentioned reasons because they are only but myths. Free yourself from the haircut and hairstyle limitations brought by hair loss and try hundreds of haircuts out there!
Joseph Gonzales
Started with cutting his brother’s hair when he was 7 years old, Joseph always wanted to become a famous hairstylist. After graduating college that’s exactly what he did, traveling the world while working in salons in the most diverse cities, learning from the best hairdressers of our time. Now he shares his knowledge with us by inspiring articles, photographs, and hairstyle advice.
