Hair Transplant
It can be defined as ‘The permanent solution for hair loss’. It can be expressed as a microsurgical procedure that is performed in a hospital surgical setting with minimal surgical intervention unlike traditional surgery. It is an effective solution for individuals experiencing ‘Male Pattern Baldness”, who have scars or have lost hair due to various kinds of hair diseases.
Basics of Hair Transplant
Individuals aged between 20 and 60 years can undergo a hair transplant surgery.
The patient who will undergo a hair transplant surgery will roughly need 3 days for pre-operative preperation and for recovering.
Although the duration of surgery varies according to the number of grafts that will be transplanted, it usually lasts about 5 to 8 hours.
In order to respond to possible complications, the operation must be conducted in a fully-equipped clinic.
A hair transplant procedure is performed with a doctor and at least 2-3 medical technicians.
It may take around 9 to 12 months to see the final outcome of hair growth. Starting from the day following the operation, the patient can expect to see hair growth until the 12th month.
Hair Transplant Techniques
There are 2 main types of hair Transplantation techniques :
- FUT (Follicular Unit Tranplantation)
- FUE (Follicular Unit Extraction)
FUT Hair Transplantation
- FUT i.e. Follicular Unit Tranplantation technique involves removal of a strip of entire marked area of scalp skin from the back of you head.
- This requires suturing of the already thick and tense scalp skin ends for closure of the wide wound created.
- The extracted strip of scalp is then cut and used to isolate hair follicles from the skin.
- Main problem with the technique is a very possible chance big scar that can form over the suture area due to thick and tense scalp skin.
- Also this techniques involves deep sutures which sometimes may cause micro damage to the nerves of that area leading to decreased or altered sensations.
- The recovery period with this technique is also significantly more.In contrast to the common arguement that the hair yield from FUT method is better than the FUE technique, practically thats not always true plus the risk of visible scar can not be neglected.
FUE Hair Transplantation
- Hair transplants have come a long, long way since the early days.
- Hair transplants conducted with the FUT technique during the 80s & 90s, has been replaced by the FUE method which was developed in the early 2000s and introduced in 2005.
- Even though the technique has been in continuous development with some further ongoing refinements, the basic principles of FUE remain the same.
- Today, this technique continues to be regarded as the Gold standard of hair transplant surgery by majority of the surgeons.
Advantages of the FUE technique
- Hair transplantation can result in a more natural-looking and denser appearance.
- It is a permanent solution for treating moderate to severe hair loss.
- It is a comfortable technique that is designed to ensure patients with the least amount of discomfort.
- Leaves no external scars after the procedure.
- FUE hair transplant technique offers patients faster recovery times; They can conveniently return to their daily routine and are able to travel 1-3 days after the procedure.
- With the right operation plan, no damage will be caused in the donor area and no change in the appearance even after multiple operations.
- 98% of the transplanted grafts grow as normal hair.
Types of FUE Hair Transplantation
- Advanced FUE
- DHI technique
- Bio enhanced FUE
- FUE with Cold Laser
Advanced FUE
Consultation
- In this step a thorough analysis of the patient’s recipient and donor area is made, taking into consideration the expectations and practical aspects the surgeon develops an operation plan and creates the hairline design that suits patient’s facial profile and also meets the reality criterias.
Preparation
- It covers the stages of pre-operation precautionary testing, sterilization and lastly anaesthetising the operation area on the day of the procedure.
Harvesting of Hair Follicles
- ,In FUE technique, the hair follicles to be collected are extracted in an extremely & highly aesthetic success rate.
- With the FUE method, the follicles are harvested one by one with cylindrical needles. This way the follicles can be harvested with minimal distortion.
- Depending on the length of each follicular unit it is important to utilize needles / punches that have a diameter of 0.7mm to 0.9mm or if the follicular unit grafts contains 3-4-5 hairs, needles / punshes with a diameter of 1.0 mm should be used.
- The sharpness of the needles / punshes as well as being single-use with each patient, are the elements that have a considerable impact on the operation’s success.
- Another important factor is to extract hair follicles with precise accuracy so as to avoid any follicular damage.
- For example; if the person who is having a hair transplant has very curly hair, the risk of follicular damage can be eliminated by using a curved punch called u-graft during the process of extracting follicular units.
- All of these elements are refinements planned by the doctor prior to the operation, which are tailored specifically to each patient’s condition.
- Whereas with FUT, it involves extraction of strip of skin and then it is sliced to obtain hair follicles.
Recipient site preparation & creation of incisions
- In the classic FUE technique, steel blades / fine needles are utilized for creating the recipient sites within the transplanted area.
- Nowadays in advanced FUE, much sharper and smoother blades / needles are used.
- The use of these blades / needles makes it much easier to determine the correct angle and direction of the transplantation.
- While making slits in the recipient area, it is very important to follow the direction and angle of the existing hair in that region.
- With the use of latest blades / needles the healing process is much shorter.For each patient, the blades / needles used should be new and should not be reused.
Transplantation of hair follicles
- The final stage, which is transplanting the hair follicles; is the process of transplanting the follicles one at a time at an angle of 40-45 degrees, within the incisions that have been created at directions that enables accurate placement.
- All 3 phases have certain specific technicalities and the most important technicality within all stages is certainly experience.
Post-operative processes
- This stage incorporates the processes of wound-dressing for the donor site.
Post-operative care & clot removal wash
- This is washing process that is to be carried out for 7 days.
- Both the donor and the transplanted area will be sensitive during this period, so it important to carry out the washing process with extra care.
DHI FUE Hair Transplantation
DHI Hair Transplant is the process of extracting hair follicles from the donor area via utilizing a micro motor and then transplanting them into the receipt site using a pen-like device that contains a hollow needle.
The first thing that comes into mind when we say DHI is usually the FUE method, but there are actually some differences between the 2 methods.
DHI method enables the hair transplant to be performed without shaving the head.
Hair follicles are transplanted in about 1-2 minutes after the extraction process so they only remain outside the body for a very short time period.
It is easier to transplant between hair strands if the patient has non-balding areas on his / her scalp.
It is possible to achieve higher density of hair, especially when the area to be transplanted is not spacious.
Bio enhanced FUE Hair Transplantation
Bio FUE hair transplant is an advanced and improved version of FUE hair transplant, which results in more better, faster and natural hair growth.
The main aim of this latest technology treatment is to supercharge FUE results by combining regenerative cell-based hair growth stimulating factors in the surgical process.
The procedure is similar to the advanced FUE hair transplant but with special modifications that help achieve better outcomes.
Bio stimulated FUE uses the power of our body's internal growth stimulating cells to enhance the outcome of Hair Transplant.
Hair Transplanted using Bio stimulated FUE grow faster, longer, enhances their ability to survive for longer periods, grow stronger and have better texture. The treated transplanted area also heals rapidly.
The overall duration of post operative healing is significantly reduced with this technique allowing out patients to resume and enjoy their lives as early as possible. Thus, it saves the patient's time.
FUE with Cold Laser Hair Transplantation
Hair Transplantation with Laser Hair Therapy, is the latest addition to the continuously evolving field of Hair transplantation. Application of low-level laser therapy also known as "Cold laser with hair transplantation". The main objective of applying low level laser therapy after hair transplantation is to speed up the healing time, to help reduce side effects such as redness, swelling as well as pain within the operated area and to promote the fastest hair growth possible. In individuals who have undergone hair transplantation, laser therapy helps reduce the recovery time and also provides good pain control, which is linked to better wound healing. This laser application allows to penetrate without heat, it has no side effects such as a burning sensation.
For treating hair loss conditions, we use a different low level laser device. When it is applied on the scalp twice a week for 20 minutes, the progression of hair loss stops and with long-term use it is found to have a promoting effect on hair growth. After a certain improvement level is reached, it is possible to sustain the improvements obtained by reducing to one session carried out in a week.
Laser hair therapy is a clinically proven, effective treatment for men and women who have mild to moderate hereditary pattern hair loss. Laser hair therapy increases the production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which induces the release of nitric oxide. This in turn leads to enhanced hair growth. Additionally, it has been also observed that laser therapy was capable of reducing scalp tissue DHT, which may help slow, or even stop hair loss and improve hair growth.
Laser hair therapy that uses medical-grade lasers delivers low level laser light to the scalp. Laser therapy stimulates the hair follicles simply by increasing the blood flow to both the hair follicles and the surrounding scalp. Through this treatment you can reverse hair thinning and stimulate the natural growth cycle of hair. The result is increased hair volume and improved hair health.
The low level laser therapy device that we use at our clinic consists of multiple modules, with each transmitting energy from hundreds of sources. Its application that possesses 6 different therapeutic frequencies, can be specially adapted to the individual needs of our patients’.
Key points of success with FUE
Experience
- An experienced surgeon has the knowledge, understanding and skills to identify with the patients needs and the variety of possible outcomes.
- This helps in ensuring that the patients are booked in for the right procedures.
- When it comes to the safety of surgery, experience and skills of the surgeon are the two important aspects that matter the most.
- There is no point of undergoing an aesthetic surgery like hair transplant if it is not safe.
Profession
- Hair transplant operations whether FUE or FUT must only be conducted by specialized doctors.
- People may have different health situations and hair loss conditions, a specialized doctor can examine and make the correct diagnosis.
- A duely qualified surgeon can determine a patients suitability for the operation, taking into account their hair loss conditions and provide them with all the detailed instructions on what should be done or avoided prior, during and after the operation.
- A specialist will care about his/her patients’ health & about the overall final outcome of their hair transplant procedure.
Artistry
- For a successful and natural looking hair transplantation result, the hairline design and angle of the hair should be natural and compatible with the patient’s facial shape and appearance.
- This requires skill, experience and an aesthetic understanding.
- There are plenty of examples of weird looking hair line designs and not so dense hair transplants on the internet.
Instrumentation & Infrastructure
- Using latest and advanced instruments helps the surgeon to precisely make the extraction of grafts from donor area and creating slits in the recipient area.
- This leads to superior outcomes and ease of patients.
- Back up infrastructure for handling emergencies situations is also extremely important.
- Hence you should choose a clinic with quality health care and with all the necessary safety measures.
Understanding the patient
- The starting point of an operation is the medical examination.
- At this stage, it is important to understand the patient in order to conduct a needs analysis and develop a good operation plan.
- A clinic should always act in accordance with these principles and ensure whats best for our patients.
Additional sources of hair that increase the success of a Hair Transplant
- For individuals experiencing hair loss, a hair transplant may also be in need of other sources.
- As an example, if the donor hair, which takes place at the back of head, are not sufficient to cover all areas of baldness, the chance of a successful hair transplant is unlikely.
- For this reason, to be able to perform a more successful hair transplant operation, grafts from different parts of the patient’s body can also be used. And this extraction needs skill and experience.
Beard to Head - Hair Transplant
- Hair transplant using beard grafts, is generally performed in cases where the patient has inadequate scalp donor supply and when the bald patches are too wide to be covered.
- Beard grafts remain in the growth (anagen) phase for long periods and after the back of the scalp, are an excellent alternative donor source for hair transplantation.
- Beard grafts are known to be thicker than the grafts at the back of the head.
- For this reason, to provide better volume in the transplanted area, hair grafts extracted from the beard are transplanted in the top and crown area, but it may not be the best option for front hair restoration.
Body to Head - Hair Transplantation
- For men planning on undergoing a hair transplant, body hair is considered as a 3rd source of grafts recipient.
- If grafts extracted from the back of the head and the beard area are still not sufficient for coverage, chest hair can be considered as a good alternative source of hair follicles in hair transplantation.
- There are 2 underlying reasons why body hair is considered as the 3rd additional donor source in hair transplantation :
- Body hair grafts, particularly chest hair, have a similar structure as beard grafts; they are thick and contain 1-2 hairs.
- As the anagen phase of body hair is much shorter, it grows shorter.
- This being said, hair grafts obtained from the chest cannot be used in front hair restoration.
Things to consider before Hair Transplant
Hair tranplant even though not a full fledged surgery, it involves various risk factors which if ignored can lead to disasterous outcomes in terms of looks, grafts survivability or even to patient's health. It being a procedure which is done over a pretty long duration of 6-8 hours exposes the patient to various complications like infections, bleeding etc
All surgeries carry some degree of risk. Some of the possible complications of hair transplant surgery include:
- Risks of anaesthesia, including allergic reaction.
- Surgical risks such as bleeding or infections.
- Scars that may be severe, raised, red, inflamed and itchy.
- Nerve damage, including permanent loss of sensation – This exclusively may occur in FUT type of surgery.
- Death of the Hair grafts if proper preservation care is not taken.
- Tissue death along the wound – This exclusively may occur in FUT type of surgery.
- Further surgery to treat complications.
An operating surgeon, as measure of care and for the utmost safety of the patients, should always take into account following points before drawing out any plan for the patients
- Physical health – a detailed physical examination helps the surgeon decide if the treatment is appropriate.
- Medical history – pre-existing medical conditions and surgeries influence the decisions about hair transplantation, including the type of anaesthetic that is used.
- Hair evaluation – includes analysis of the hair growth pattern, the extent of hair loss, the hair loss history in the family and any prior surgical or medical treatments for hair loss a person may have had.
- Risks and possible complications – it is important that the patient understands the risks and complications so that he/she can weigh up the gains and risks of the operation.
- Medication – details about any medication that you take on a regular basis or have recently taken, including over-the-counter preparations such as fish oils and vitamin supplements beacuse these affects the planning of the surgery.
- Past reactions to medication – if you have ever had a bad reaction or a side effect from any medication or even food material, e.g. anaesthesia, fish etc, its important that you bring to doctor’s notice.
- Preparation for surgery – a detailed instructions manual to the patients about what they should do at home to prepare for surgery. e.g. you may be advised to take a particular medication or alter the dose of an existing one.
Getting Hair Transplant done from an experienced, expert and qualified surgeon reduce the associated risks and still, if anything odd happens, you are assured of being in safe hands.
Cost of Hair Transplant
The question of, "Cost of hair transplant?" is no one liner for obvious reasons. Cost of hair transplant especially in India varies between 2 extremes. As you might have gone through various Hair Transplant information, you must be knowing that getting a hair trasnplant done is not as easy or as simple as getting a hair cut. It involves various steps and expertise. If your hair dresser makes a mistake, you hair will grow back but if something goes wrong in the hair transplant there are no such options.
So before directly and bluntly asking asking about the cost of hair transplant, a wise person should always ask about the following questions first :
Who is operating?
- Many a times, to cut the cost of hair transplant clinics straight away substitute a qualified, experienced and skilled surgeon with a unqualified, unskilled and inexperienced technician.
- Doctors spend about than 8 -10 years of their lives studying the human body, Skin and Hair and the fees they charge is for the skills they have earned over these years.
- This experience is of utmost importance when it comes to planning a meticulous surgery like hair transplant.
- Planning involves taking details of the patient, analysing the hair patterns, designing hair line to complement the facial features, operating skillfully on the donor and recepient areas, planning proper pre & post operation protocols for individual patients, etc.
- Getting operation done by a qualified, experienced and skilled surgeon gives you the surety of safety.
- If anything goes wrong you are sure that you are in safe hands and this feeling matters!
- Similarly clinics also reduce hair transplant prices buy cutting the operating staff.
- Usually in hair transplant surgery, an operating surgeon is accompanied by 2-3 technicians or staff member.
- Cutting the number of staff / technicians in the team increases work load on the remaining staff which reduces their efficiency and this may compromise the results.
Instrumentions & Infrastructure
- Hair transplant is a constantly evolving field of medicine.
- Various new innovations and technological advances come up from time to time in this field.
- All the technologies and advancements are aimed at one and only one thing i.e. provide better and better outcome from the hair transplant surgery.
- Newer and latest instruments ensures lesser and lesser amount of pain, injuries & discomfort and ensures optimal results with utmost safety.
- Such instruments include the high precision non traumatic punches for graft extraction, use of superfine and smooth edged blade / needles to create precise incisoin to transplant grafts, forceps used by the technicians for collecting, cleaning and sorting the grafts, temperature controlled chiller chamber for the grafts so that they don’t die during the storage period, continuous monitoring of the pulse and oxygen levels of the patients, etc.
- Apart from the instruments, infrastructure also play a vital role.
- Infrastructure includes well sanitised and air controlled operation theater, proper ventilation, proper lighting conditons, proper safety protocols for both patient and doctor, proper waste disposal, etc and last but not the least the infrasturcture required in emergencies situations i.e. the emergency kit, oxygen facilty, stand by qualified physician to handle the emergency situations.
- Hair Transplant is a very safe procedure but sometimes it is known to have risked patients.
- Factors responsible for such fatalities are many but one point remains constant in them and that is the availability of emergency facilities and post operation care.
- So when selecting a clinic for hair transplant always check whether it has the proper infrastructure or not.
Technique used
- Techniques used for hair trasnplant plays an important role in determining the cost of hair transplant.
- In general, FUT techniques with all its risks and benefits usually costs more than the relatively safer and hence widely practised FUE technique.
- Some clinics use the same instruments again and again for different patients, so in a surgery where prescision matters the most, repeated use of instruments tends to make them blunt and this reduces their accuracy causing more blunt trauma which in turn increases the chances of “Shock Loss”.
- This reduces the cost of surgery but compromises the results.
- Skill lies in how precisely a surgeon extracts the grafts.
- While extraction an experienced and skilled surgeon damages nonw to minimum number of grafts so that maximum number of grafts can be obtained.
Number of grafts required
- Now when the technique is decided, the number of grafts required for that session decides the price final cost of hair transplant.
- More number of grafts means more effforts and hence higher is the price.
- The area from where the grafts are also taken into consideration.
- Only the experinced surgeon has the techniques or skills of obtaining grafts from different areas apart from the back of scalp.
What else you opt for with a hair transplant?
- Usually clinics provide packages for hair transplant.
- These packages may include things like accomodation charges, medications, PRP charges, etc.
- All these things require money and hence they add to the cost.