Hair Transplant
Overview
Thick and healthy hair is seen as a hallmark of youth, vitality and attractiveness for both men and women. Hair loss is a troubling phenomenon for both men and women, making the person feels older, less confident, less attractive and less happy. Many of the cases of hair loss is genetic in origin, some cases are due to hormonal imbalances. On average our scalp has roughly 100,000 to 150,000 hair strands. In a normal person, some 50 to 100 hairs are lost from the scalp every day. However the lost hairs are constantly replaced with new hairs grow form the hair follicles such that the scalp maintains a constant number of hairs at any one time.
Under certain circumstances this balance of hair shedding and hair growth is disturbed, resulting in gradual reduction of the number of hair. In other situation the thick healthy hair (called terminal hair) may be replaced with hair that is thin and soft (called vellus hair). Both of these conditions bring about the reduction of the number of hair and hair density. The hairs on the scalp become sparse and thin, or disappear altogether.
For hair loss that is at the early stage, medical treatment such topical minoxidil or oral finasteride can be effective. However such medical treatments have to be continued indefinitely because once they are stopped, hair loss will resume. For hair loss that is more severe and extensive, or in cases that are unresponsive to medical treatment, hair transplant remains the only treatment proven to be effective to restore the hair loss.
Hair follicular unit
In traditional hair transplant, a strip of scalp skin is taken from the back of the scalp. The skin strip is then cut into multiple small pieces, with each piece contains one to four intact hair follicles. These tiny pieces of hair follicles are then prepared and inserted into the bald area in a predetermined pattern and orientation. While this is simple in principle, the process of harvesting, cutting, preparation and insertion have to be performed meticulously by highly skillful practitioner to ensure high survival rate of the transplanted hair follicles.
A more recent advance in hair transplant is Follicular unit Extraction (FUE). Instead of cutting a strip of skin from the scalp that result in a linear scar on the scalp, FUE involves using a small punch to harvest the hair follicles one by one individually. The multiple tiny holes left behind in the donor site will heal secondarily without obvious scarring. Recovery of the donor site is usually swift. FUE is very useful in cases where the patient will not accept a linear scar on the scalp, when the number of hair follicle grafts required is small (such as in cases with limited hair loss or in eyebrow or eyelashes transplants), or when a short recovery period is required.
Objective
To restore hair loss in balding scalp
Preoperative Preparation
• Treat and stabilize all existing medical conditions, if any.
• Stop one week before surgery
- All supplements that contain vitamin E, ginseng, ginko, garlic, fish oil and other ingredients that encourage bleeding during surgery
- Medicine that exacerbate bleeding during operation such as aspirin, NSAIDs and warfarin. You may need to consult the physician who prescribed the medicine before stopping the medicine
Duration
From 3 -8 hours, very much depends on the number of hair to be transplanted.
Procedure
Anesthesia: Local anesthesia
When to Go Home after Procedure: On the same day
Back to Work: In one to two days
Technique:
1. Extraction: The entire donor area from the back of the head is trimmed to 2-5 mm length. The patient lies in the prone position on the operating table. The grafts are then extracted from the donor area with the help of 0.8 and 1 mm special micropunches. The extraction of follicles is done under 2.5 – 5× magnification.
2. Implantation: The extracted hair follicles will be prepared and implanted one by one into the bald area by using special implanters.
Recovery
• Patient goes home on the same day
• Apply antibiotic ointment three times a day for one week
• Patient can start light hair washing with shampoo after 2 days
• The transplant hair shaft will shed in 2-3 weeks after surgery but the transplanted hair follicles will survive. New hair will start to grow from the hair follicles in 6 to 12 weeks. The full extent of the hair growth takes 6 to 12 months.