Am I a Candidate for Hair Transplant?

A hair transplant moves hair follicles from one part of the body, commonly referred to as the donor site, to an area of the body where balding is occurring on a patient. The area where the hair is transplanted is known as the recipient site. Hair transplant surgery can be performed on both men and women and it is usually thought of as a procedure that only treats male patterned baldness on the scalp. However, a hair transplant can also be performed on the eyebrows, beard, mustache, pubic area and chest.

Good Reasons for Hair Transplant

1. Improved confidence
2. Stay competitive in the workforce
3. Long lasting and natural results
4. The ability to wear a variety of hairstyles

Bad Candidates for Hair Transplant

1. Patients who are too young to have a mature hairline
2. Patients with unrealistic expectations
3. A person without enough available donor hair
4. Patients who form keloid scars after surgery
5. Patients with hair loss due to treatments such as chemotherapy

Cost Expectations

The overall price depends on the total number of follicular grafts transplanted by the surgeon. Most patients have over 1000 grafts transplanted during surgery and the average cost of a graft is $6-$11. The determination of the total price also includes:

• The type of hair transplant being performed
• The extent of the hair loss
• The graft price charged by the surgeon
• Facility costs
• The area of the country where the surgery is performed

Choosing the Type of Hair Transplant

Once a patient decides to have a hair transplant, he or she will meet with a board-certified surgeon to determine the best transplant method to achieve the desired results. The two main hair transplant options include:

• Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) – This transplant method is when individual follicular units are harvested one at a time from the donor area. The individual method allows the surgeon to perform the transplant without leaving a linear scar.
• Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) – This method is when a surgeon removes units of hair in their natural grouping and transplants them to the balding area. The units contain one to four terminal hair grafts as well as blood vessels and sheaths of protein. The units are removed in a strip and then dissected into individual grafts. This method does result in a linear scar in the area where the units of hair were removed.

Risks and Complications

Patients need to be aware of the potential risks and complications of having a hair transplant. Some of the common risks and complications include:

1. Infection
2. Swelling
3. Bruising
4. Crust on the scalp areas where the hair was transplanted
5. Bleeding
6. Itching
7. Sudden, but temporary, transplanted hair loss AKA shock loss
8. Numbness

Recovery Information

The scalp will be tender following a hair transplant surgery. Patients will have some stubble on the transplant area as well as some scabbing. The transplanted hair will fall out after a few weeks but this doesn’t mean that a patient should worry. It just means the hair has entered the resting phase AKA the telogen phase. The hair of a patient will start to grow again once it enters the growth phase which is also known as the anagen phase.

Hair Transplant Results

The results of a hair transplant should look natural enough that the average person will not be able to tell there has been a hair restoration surgery. It takes about 12-18 months for the final results to be visible. The results of a hair transplant should be permanent as the transplanted hair will act, and grow, like the hair in the area where it was transplanted.

MA