You don’t need to be wrinkled and old for your hair to start balding and thinning. Male pattern baldness affects even young adolescents and teenagers, let alone middle-aged man. Women too are prone to balding at some point in their lives; in fact, 60% of women undergo some form of hair loss in their lifetimes.
When it comes to baldness, no one is safe. We lose about 50 to 100 hair strands a day; we just don’t notice it. Serious cases of thinning and balding, however, require some form of restoration. That’s where hair transplants come in.
Does it Work?
Yes, of course, hair transplants work.
Hair transplants have been shown to by researchers be way more effective than OTC medication in restoring lost hair. The procedure works great also for thinning hair and filling in patches.
However, they are a few very minor drawbacks to the procedure.
· First, hair transplants are not for everyone. Not that they won’t work on everyone, but doctors can’t perform the procedure on just anyone. To qualify for a hair transplant, you must have a balding head or thinning hair, or suffered hair loss from an injury.
· The transplanted hair, just like normal hair, is bound to thin over time.
· Hair growth can range from 10% to 80% will return within three to four months
· If you have dormant hair sacs, the procedure is likely to be less effective. You can, however, improve your replacement results through plasma therapy.
Since hair replacement uses your hair from other parts of your body, it won’t be effective for people who have undergone chemo or folks with very deep scars that affect the hair follicles.
Are Hair Transplants Expensive
A normal hair transplant and restoration procedure will set you back about $5000. Other places may charge as much as $15000 for a single session. As long as a licensed hair restoration expert carries out the procedure, you should be fine.
There are some extra costs for medication and brief follow up sessions that may add to the overall cost.
FUE Hair Restoration?
If you’ve been interested in having your hair restored, then you’ve probably heard the term FUE being thrown around. FUE is short for Follicular Unit Extraction, which is the most popular form of hair transplanting to date. Doctors break down the process into four steps.
1. Shaving off the hair from your head entirely
2. Removing individual follicles from the skin on your scalp.
3. Making small holes on the balding areas where he’ll graft the hair follicles.
4. Covering the area with a bandage or gauze
A small point to note, don’t allow the doctor to do any unnecessary slapping on your head. It is not part of the hair replacement procedure.
Does it Hurt?
You won’t feel a thing during the procedure, which may take up to seven or eight hours, because of local anesthetic. You are, however, bound to feel a bit of soreness for a few days following the procedure. You may also experience some swelling after the hair restoration when the doctor removes the bandage.
To minimize the little pain and swallowing consider getting, pain medication for the soreness, antibiotics as recommended by the doctor, anti-inflammatories, and some topicals to enhance hair growth.
What Next?
After the procedure, you should try to keep your hair relatively dry for the first few days, which is a polite way to say don’t wash your hair for at least three days. You shouldn’t exercise for a week or so since sweat may affect your hair replacement. Also, don’t press or comb the grafted area for a few weeks; they are delicate, and you may accidentally pluck them out
Opting for hair replacements through FUE is a decision most people have settled for and are pleased with the results. Make sure you consult a hair restoration expert before you decide to commit to a hair transplant procedure.