Over the years, many people have brought up questions if Hair Transplant is really a thing. The possibility of transferring hair from one part of the head to another seemed very unlikely to them and they wanted to know if there’s any chance of it being true. If you’re one of those with those doubts, then this article is for you.
Yes, hair transplant is real. Hair transplant which is the procedure in which a plastic or dermatological surgeon moves hair to a bald area of the head does in fact exist. As a matter of fact, it has been in existence since as far back as 1939 when the first hair transplant was done in Japan. Over time, scientists and doctors have found easier, safer and more effective methods to carry out this transplants on people. Hair transplants, however, are not for everybody. They are mostly for people that are balding or people that suffer from hair loss as a result of an injury. The idea of hair transplant is to take a graft of skin where hair grows and place it on the balding area or the area being affected by the injury.
Now, there are 2 types of hair transplant; slit graft and micrograft. The slit graft usually contains 4-10 hairs per graft while the micrograft contains 1-2 hairs per graft. The surgeon picks the type of graft to use depending on the amount of coverage that is needed to be done.
Transplants are usually done with one of the two available techniques; Follicle Unit Extraction (FUE) and Follicle Unit Transplantation (FUT). While the FUE requires the surgeon to make small holes in the bald area and place hair follicles in them, FUT requires him cutting off a part of a skin graft from one part of the head where there are hairs and place on the part experiencing hair loss. Both techniques are however very effective and are usually decided on by the surgeon or at the request of the patient.
As appealing as hair transplant is, it is however not good for women that have a widespread pattern of hair loss throughout their scalp, people whose hair loss is as a result of medication like chemotherapy, people who develop thick keloid scars after injury or surgery, and people who don’t have enough site on their heads from which skin graft can be taken from to place on the part suffering from hair loss.
People who undergo surgery for hair transplant usually have sore scalps and would need medications such as pain medication, antibiotics to prevent infection on the operated area, anti-inflammatory drugs to prevent the operated area from swelling. Side effects such as bleeding, infection, swelling of the scalp, bruising around the eye, numbness on the operated area, itching, inflammation or infection of the hair follicles, unnatural looking tufts of hair, etc. On the bright side, these side effects are usually minor and only last for a few weeks.
No matter how many times they get a hair cut, people who have undergone hair transplant will continue to grow their hair healthily and naturally as the transplant is permanent. The transplanted hair can be treated like every other normal hair. Also, make sure you visit a good clinic for your hair transplant as the success of the transplant depends on the expertise of the surgeon who is carrying out the transplant.
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