Every day, a person loses 200 to 300 hairs. Since the hair follicle remains intact in the process, the hair grows back a short time later. If the hair follicle is damaged, the hair cannot grow back and the amount of hair decreases (alopecia). Hair transplantation can fill the bald spots with new hair.
What is a hair transplant?
Alopecia is almost exclusively suffered by men. The reasons for hair loss are usually hereditary. There is a hypersensitivity of the hair follicles to dihydrotestosterone (DHT). DHT is a steoride hormone and is excreted by the body when in excess. If it cannot be excreted – the tendency to do so is hereditary – the excess DHT remains in the body and causes damage to the hair follicle. A damaged follicle can no longer hold a hair, it falls out and does not grow back. Provided the hair loss is hereditary and not disease-related, hair transplantation can replace missing hair.
Function Effect and goals
In hair transplantation – which is usually performed with the patient’s own hair – two procedures have proven to be effective. One is the follicular unit extraction (FUE) procedure, and the other is the strip extraction (FUI) procedure. Hair transplantation by the FUE method works as follows: The surgeon removes individual hair follicles from the areas of the head where the hair is still full. For this purpose, he uses a hollow needle with which he “sucks” the follicle. The follicle is then placed in a nutrient solution and prepared. The follicle is then inserted into the previously marked bald spots. In FUI or strip harvesting, entire strips of hairy areas are removed and then dissected into individual follicles. This is also followed by preparation of the follicles and grafting to the bald areas. With the strip method, usually only one session is necessary and the hair transplantation is complete. With the much more complex FUE method, several sessions are usually necessary to achieve a satisfactory hair transplant result. Which method is used depends largely on the initial situation. If a relatively dense crown of hair is present, the considerably less expensive method according to FUI is quite suitable for a successful hair transplantation. If there is no longer a dense crown of hair, the FUE method is more suitable. The individual removal of the follicles ensures that there are no thinning areas elsewhere. Both methods achieve the goal of regrowing hair in previously bald areas. Hair transplantations are performed under light anesthesia, the duration of the hair transplantation depends on the amount of hair to be transplanted. During the hair transplantation the patient sits, so the surgeon can optimally reach all parts of the head. Since the anesthesia is light, the patient can leave the clinic immediately after the hair transplantation, but should be accompanied by a person. After 2 more days of recovery, the hair transplantation is initially completed.
Risks, side effects and dangers
Hair transplantation is not entirely free of risks. The operation itself is rather small, and the anesthesia is light. Nevertheless, pain may occur during the operation or afterwards, for which a painkiller can be given. There are no other surgical risks. However, it happens that transplanted hair does not grow and bald patches appear again. In such a case, the hair transplantation must be repeated, otherwise a good result is not possible. If the strip method is chosen, scars may remain. Especially if there is a wound healing disorder – for example, if bacteria get into the wound – the wounds will take time to heal. Some people also tend to develop bulge-like scar tissue. In this case, too, the scars will remain permanently visible at the removal sites. It is then hardly possible to wear the hair short in the area of the removal sites. Sometimes it happens that inexperienced surgeons transplant the hair against the natural direction of growth. Thus, it remains permanently visible at which place a hair transplant was performed.
