Youthful Hair, Youthful Beauty: How Hair Transplants Can Turn Back The Clock
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While getting older comes with tons of experience and maturity, it’s also accompanied by inevitable bodily changes, for instance, losing your natural hair.
Of course, normal ageing is a significant contributor to hair loss in men and women, but it’s not the only causative factor.
Hair loss could similarly be caused by hormonal imbalance, stress, hereditary factors, or even certain medical conditions or procedures.
Balding or thinning hair is nothing to be ashamed of. So, instead of wearing hats to cover up your bald spots or receding hairline, you can opt for better, more effective solutions like hair transplants.
Let’s look at how hair transplant procedures guarantee a fuller, youthful look and the different options available to individuals, including options like female hair transplant, to regain confidence and achieve a natural, vibrant appearance.
What is a Hair Transplant?
A hair transplant is a surgical procedure in which hair follicles are relocated from one part of the body to the area of the head where hair is thinning or receding.
Ideally, tiny grafts or small pieces of skin that contain healthy hair are transplanted to hairless parts of the head, and in a couple of months, the newly grafted skin should start growing hair.
Skin and hair grafts are classified according to the following factors:
- Number of hairs grafted
- Number of follicular units per graft
- Graft shape (linear, rectangular, round)
- Size and type of the recipient site used (i.e., slit, slot, or punch incisions)
- Process of graft production
Most medical doctors are using slit grafts and micrografts for hair transplants. Slit grafts usually involve 4 to 10 hairs per graft, while micrografts involve 1 to 2 hair follicles per graft, depending on the coverage needed and your hair characteristics.
Procedures for Hair Transplants
Before grafts came about, doctors relied on hair plugs.
With new technology advancements, hair plugs are a thing of the past. Now, surgeons use new techniques to transplant a few healthy hairs at a time, enabling people to achieve a natural look and regain their youthful beauty.
Today, the two commonly used techniques are follicular unit transplantation and follicular unit extraction.
The two procedures are relatively safe and have the best results.
Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT)
During this procedure, the medical surgeon cuts out a strip of skin from the back of your scalp, usually several inches long, and extracts hair follicles. Then, the hair follicles are prepared and later relocated to the balding areas of your head.
Men with male pattern baldness are the best candidates for FUT, with about 30-50% of men aged 50 and above getting affected.
Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE)
This procedure is highly effective but much more costly than follicular unit transplantation.
It typically involves extracting 1 to 3 follicles from the healthy scalp without cutting off the skin.
FUE requires a lot of accuracy and precision. Hence, robotics are often involved in the procedure.
A standard FUE procedure takes about four to ten hours a day, depending on the amount of follicles. However, an FUE procedure may take longer than that, so you need to be prepared to stay a while in the hospital if you take on FUE.
Which Procedure Works Best For You?
The technique depends on several factors, like the number of follicles you want grafted, the cost of the operation, your hair condition and characteristics, and even your age.
Before setting your mind on a particular procedure, consult a doctor first. Your doctor will ask for a blood test or some scans before recommending any procedures. If you are eligible for both FUT and FUE, then other factors come into play.
For instance, if you want more grafted follicles with a minimal budget in mind, FUT may be your better option. Consider FUE if you want a less invasive procedure with a quicker healing rate.
All in all, both techniques can promise excellent results, and side effects are rare for both.
However, after your procedure, you may experience hair loss, which is completely normal. Doctors even give a half-year or a year waiting period for patients’ progress.
What happens if your doctor finds you non-eligible for a hair transplant? They may recommend other restoration treatment methods like prescription creams, hair mesotherapy, and hair plasma therapy.
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