Am I candidate for this procedure?
Your hair transplant surgeon will guide you properly if you are a candidate for hair transplant or not as early cases of hair loss can be reversed by medical therapy and on other hand few cases of baldness will not get benefit out of hair transplant. There are few conditions to rule out and type alopecia to be diagnosed for which hair transplant surgeon should assess you clinically.
There are different causes of hair loss mainly are genetic or hereditary; nutritional deficiency; Lifestyle related ;stress (physical or mental);smoking / sheesha (hookah). Lifestyle;Dietary habits and stress are very important causative factors in millennials.
Apart from these there are some skin conditions which are important to be rules out in cases of hair loss and also some diseases not related to skin can also cause hairloss. Which requires medical treatment than hair transplant.
Now a days younger population is directly opting for hair transplant over medical therapy because Hair transplant has better success rate than any other modality for hair treatment.
General information about the procedure
Hair transplant is a procedure in which persons own hair are been transposed from one side to the area of baldness so that they can cover the bald area and grow naturally where they are been transposed.
There are two methods for this FUE Follicular unit extraction in which each graft is punched out individually and transplanted to new area and FUT Follicular Unit Transplantation in which strip of skin from back side of the head is cut and each follicle is separated and transplanted in new area.
After transplantation follicles develop their own blood supply from the blood vessels of new area in 5-7 days and once they have their own blood supply they can grow naturally.
Donor area: from where hair grafts are taken are Scalp; Beard and Body hair (chest mainly) they are always taken in such a way that area from where they are taken is also not obviously noticeable.
Following hair transplant it is advisable to undergo medical treatment and regenerative treatment for maintenance of hairs ( existing and transplanted ).
FUE v/s FUT
FUE is comparatively easy to master and benefits are it doesn’t leave obvious linear scar on back of the head.
FUT hairs are taken from safe zone and are considered to be long lasting but FUT leaves a linear scar on the back of head.now a days with trichophytic closure linear scar can be made less evident as hairs are made to grow through this scar to make it almost unnoticeable.
3000 hair grafts are on an average considered to be safe however this number varies as per surgeon’s expertise and his technique.
How to choose a clinic for Hair transplant?
In todays world of digitalisation and marketing it is very attracting to get a procedure from someone who is not qualified or underqualified to do that procedure.only way to avoid this is to see for the doctors qualification and his years of experience in Hair transplant , His results and visit him personally to understand if your Hair transplant surgeon understands your need and if you can develop sync with him or not.make sure to speak to the surgeon himself than to speak to the marketing person.
What kind of results can be expected?
Hair transplant is a procedure to deliver most natural result out of any of the hair loss remedy.but as we all know it is about growing a new hair in the area where there is no hair results of hair transplant depends on many factors.
In the hands of experienced hair transplant surgeon success rate of hair transplant is 85-90%.most of the cases with less than expected growth can be addressed by second sitting of hair transplant.
Hair starts growing by 4 months more or less and maximum growth is seen by 6 months .Till 12 months of hair transplant few follicles can grow so the actual result assessment of hair transplant is by 1 year.
Hair line wavy and natural and with good direction and density in front area and good circular pattern in crown area is considered to be good hair transplant.Most important than this is patient’s satisfaction, few patients are really happy even with less density while few remains cautious even with good density.
In one sitting it is advisable to cover till 3000 grafts and remaining baldness can be covered in second sitting after 3-6 months. It means in single sitting baldness grade upto 3/4 can be treated.
What can go wrong and how is it remedied?
Hair transplant is one of the procedure with favourable risk v/s benefits ratio that means it delivers more good with less risk,by saying this understand RISK is there but its minimal.
Realistic expectation and patient education about the procedure is very important before considering hair transplant.
Problems during procedure
swelling, pain , discomfort,infection,bleeding and complications like drug reaction and allergy are mostly avoidable and controllable in hands of experienced hair transplant surgeon.
Problems till 7 days after procedure
Itching, pain, heaviness, numbness, clotting with good post procedure care these are too avoidable
Problems after 7 days of the procedure
Nothing significant except suboptimal output and other few which your treating hair transplant can discuss as per patient to patient basis.
Death
Death in hair transplant is mainly due to anaphylactic shock which means abnormal body immunity response to any medication injected in the body. This kind of shock can happen to anyone undergoing any procedure under local or general anaesthesia. Another cause of death in Hair transplant is local anaesthesia overdose which normally is prevented by exact measurement of local anaesthesia to be injected as per body weight and to look for any obvious early sign of toxicity.
Common post op Do’s and Don’ts
After the procedure patient has to lie down straight with 1 pillow and to spray the area with normal saline 1 hourly for 7 days.patient is supposed to take medicines like painkiller anti itching and antibiotics and antacids for 3-5 days.donor area dressing to be opened after 48 hours and to be cleaned and antiseptic ointment to be applied for 5 days
Don’ts are mainly to avoid touching the grafts and rubbing the grafts, bending forwards, to avoid any vigorous movement of head, expose grafts to direct sunlight. These precautions are to be taken mainly for 7 days.
After 7 days head is washed as per each clinic protocol and after that twice a day for 7 days and followed by gentle shampoo for 15 days. Smoking is to be completely stopped as per advice Alcohol to be restricted as per physician’s advice.
Patient can resume work from 5th day of the procedure where travelling to office is involved and can resume from very second day if work from home is an option.