|
Dr. Barry H. Hendler is a member of the American Society of Hair Restoration Surgery. Here the Doctor has answered some of the common questions bizymoms visitors have about Hair transplant.
Q. Who would be a good candidate for hair transplant surgery?
A. Men or women who have experienced permanent hair loss may benefit from hair restoration surgery. Candidates for hair restoration surgery include:
men with male pattern baldness
women with female pattern baldness
men or women who want hair in an area where they have thinning
anyone who wants to change or restore the shape of their hairline
anyone who has scarring from injuries or diseases
anyone who has experienced hair loss after cosmetic surgery (ie: face or brow lifts)
anyone who wants to thicken or restore eyebrows, moustaches or beards
Q. How does hair transplantation work?
A. When grafting a hair to the scalp or even eye brow areas this hair is taken from the back and sides of a patient’s head where the hair is genetically programmed to grow forever. This is called the donor area. Autografts, or hair grafted from the back and sides to balding areas will eventually be growing and keep growing throughout a person’s lifetime. Obviously, the person undergoing any procedure needs to have an adequate supply of good donor hair which is usually the case in both men and women.
Q. What can be done for people dissatisfied with previous mini/micrograft procedures?
A. Revision procedures can be performed to thicken and enhance transplantation sites providing that the previous procedure(s) was performed with a complete understanding of what is an appropriate male or female hairline. In other words the initial template for transplantation was correct.
Q. What are the possible harmful effects of Propecia and Rogaine?
A. For Propecia, adverse reactions include impotence (1 percent to 4 percent) and decreased libido (1.6 percent to 3.3 percent). In my experience, the primary side effects of Rogaine are itching and redness of the scalp. In general, there were no systemic effects.
Q. How many grafts/hairs are needed for hair transplant surgery?
A. This is entirely related to the size of the thinning or balding area. The number of follicular units grafted in general can be 800 - 1,000 for smaller areas to 2,000 - 2,500 per session for someone who has extensive or complete hair loss. All patients require adequate donor hair to transplant to the affected areas.
Q. What are the advanced hair transplant techniques?
A. Microscopic Dissection of one, two, three, and four hair follicular units from donor strips provide excellent tissue to create undetectable results. At the Unversity of Pennsylvania, we are currently cooperating with researchers to develop hair cloning techniques as well as assessments of wound healing in order to provide answers in the future for patients who have inadequate amounts of donor hair.
Q. What are the new hair restoration treatments available for men and women?
A. Follicular Unit Extraction enables patients who have limited quantities of donor hair or who have had several previous procedures to have additional donor hair provided albeit in small quantities. This additional donor hair could be utilized to enhance previous results. |
