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How does medical hair replacement work?Hair loss is a common and distressing problem. Many people seek treatment for hair loss, and there are several different types of treatment that vary in effectiveness. The effectiveness may depend on a person's expectations and the cause of hair loss. Medical hair replacement, or hair restoration surgery, has grown by leaps and bounds over the years as different procedures have become more successful and less involved. If the patient is balding on the top of their head, but has very thick hair on the side and back of their scalp, they are generally good candidates for a relatively painless skin grafting procedure. If a patient has more populated follicle units-the ones with about six hairs-on the back and side of their head, surgeons can use those areas as "donor" hairs for the transplantation. A strip of hair is removed from this area, split up into follicular units under a microscope, and then replanted into the balding area. The donor site, meanwhile, is stitched up leaving only a thin, 'hairline' scar. These small scars may hurt a little at first, but the discomfort is generally not terribly painful. Other procedures are more involved and can be more painful, such as "scalp lifting." During this procedure, parts of the balding scalp are simply removed, and other parts of the scalp where hair can grow are essentially stretched over the removed section. Surgeons stretch a scalp by implanting a balloon under the skin, then they complete the operation about two months later. The "flap" procedure is usually performed on those that have hair loss primarily on the front of their head. In this procedure, a 'hotdog-shaped' piece of hairy scalp is loosened and then swung around to the bald area. Obviously this technique is a bit more involved than any microscopic laser grafting, and could thus cause a bit more discomfort.
Posted on May 29, 2004 at 10:08 PM
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