What is hair transplantation and how does it work?
Every single
follicle of hair on the human scalp is genetically programmed before birth to either become sensitive to the male hormones
dihydrotestosterone - DHT (causing the follicle to wither and die in time) or not to become sensitive to these hormones and continue growing throughout your lifetime. Lifelong
hair follicles are found in good supply in virtually all men, and they are often concentrated in a horseshoe-shaped area at the very back of the head. This is why most men only lose their hair from the top of their head and not from round the back and sides.
Hair transplantation is literally taking hairs from the “horseshoe” shaped area and placing them in the areas of hair loss. Once transplanted, these hairs continue to grow normally.
Treatment
Your first consultation with a practitioner should clearly set out your expectations of this
treatment and whether your practitioner thinks he or she can achieve the results that you’d like. As
baldness is a condition, which continues throughout your life, it is important that the practitioner discusses this and takes into account future hair loss when he advises you. A medical history should be taken to make sure that there are no reasons why you shouldn’t have this procedure. You would normally be asked to sign a consent form which means that you have understood the potential benefits and
risks associated with hair transplantation.
Photographs may also be taken by the practitioner for a "before and after" comparison at a later date. The
transplantation procedure is split into three parts as described below.
Donor strip harvesting
The
donor hair needs to be first taken from an appropriate area of skin (usually at the back of the
head). These hairs need to be quite thick. Before surgery, your practitioner may give you a mild tranquilliser to reduce anxiety and discomfort. This will usually be in a tablet. Lignocaine (a local anaesthetic) and adrenaline (used to reduce bleeding) are then injected into the area of donor skin. Immediately before the skin is cut, a salt and water solution is injected into the donor area to help raise the skin so that a crescent-shaped strip around 20cm long by about 6mm in width can be removed with a scalpel. Staples or stitches are used to close the wound.
Graft creation
Once the
donor tissue is collected in the process described above, the individual grafts can be prepared. A team of trained technicians sometimes does this. As we explained earlier, these grafts can be as tiny as using only one or two
hairs. Different terms are used by different clinics to describe the process of grafting and
transplantation. Don’t be confused by this. Below is a
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