About Hair Transplant Growth

Hair transplant surgery gives people dealing with hair loss the chance to regain what they have lost. Far from an instant cure, the surgery does offer a permanent solution. Thanks to advances in techniques, transplanted hair growth can look natural and completely eliminate baldness.

The Facts

• Hair transplant surgery is often the treatment of last resort when it comes to hair restoration. Because of the cost, effort and risks involved with any surgical procedure, doctors usually try other treatment options first. If treating underlying causes of hair loss such as hormone imbalances fail or if topical medications such as Rogaine do not cause hair growth then hair transplant surgery is the last, best option. Hair transplant surgery gives patients the chance to regain growing hair that looks natural.

Procedure

• Most doctors perform hair transplant surgery in their office using a local anesthetic to numb the patient's scalp. Using a scalpel, she removes patches of donor skin from the side and back of the patient's head where he has thick hair growth. Hair follicles from the donor skin are then implanted in the bald areas of his scalp, and hairs are implanted individually and in small groups. Hundreds or thousands of hairs can be transplanted during a procedure. The hairs that are grafted last for two to four weeks before they are shed from the scalp. New hair growth begins in the transplanted follicles about three months after the surgery.

Advances

• Hair transplant surgery has made technological and aesthetic advances in the past decade, as hairs are transplanted individually to the front of the restored hairline. Grafts of three or four hairs at a time are then transplanted behind the individual hairs. When hair growth begins in the transplanted areas, this new technique leads to a more natural looking hairline---and even hair growth behind it.

Considerations

• Hair transplant surgery is not an instant remedy for hair loss. Hair follicles go through a cycle of three stages: hair growth; transition, during which the hair is shed; and dormancy. After the dormant stage hair growth begins again. After hair transplant surgery, the follicles that are moved will shed their hairs, and it will take a few months for them to begin their growth stage. Transplanted hairs usually grow about a half an inch every month, so it takes time for the new hair to blend with the original.

Risks

• There are some risks involved in hair transplant surgery, including bleeding, scarring and infection. If the doctor performing the surgery uses older techniques, then hair growth can occur in unnatural looking rows or spots of hair. Also, hair might not grow as substantially as the patient desires or could grow out in an unnatural-looking pattern, necessitating additional transplant procedures to get the right look and thickness of growth.