Hair Transplantation
Overview
Baldness or hair loss is a common problem amongst our people. The main cause of baldness is hereditary. Pattern hair loss which is the most common type can involve both male and female with considerable differences. Male pattern baldness often presents in the 1st decade after puberty and varies in extent and has certain typical patterns. Female pattern baldness, which commonly presents in the 4th and 5th decades, is more diffuse, without any temporal recession.
Surgical management
Surgical management remains the only permanent method of restoring hair in pattern hair loss. Follicular unit transplantation (FUT) has now become the established and gold standard method for hair transplantation. In this method hair is transplanted exclusively in its naturally occurring individual follicular units. The basis of hair transplantation is that occipital hairs (back) are never lost and more importantly, they show donor dominance and hence can be transplanted in the balding area. This procedure is done under local anesthesia as a day care case. It consist of harvesting occipital strip, follicular unit dissection under magnification, making needle holes and slits in the recipient area and finally insertion of follicular unit grafts. Postoperative pain is controlled with analgesics and swelling of forehead subsides with time. Within a month, the transplanted hair may fall. New hair starts to grow 10-12 weeks after the surgery, behave like normal hair, never fall and subsequently require hair cut. Hair transplantation may require more than one sitting or operation depending upon the extent of baldness.
Overview
Baldness or hair loss is a common problem amongst our people. The main cause of baldness is hereditary. Pattern hair loss which is the most common type can involve both male and female with considerable differences. Male pattern baldness often presents in the 1st decade after puberty and varies in extent and has certain typical patterns. Female pattern baldness, which commonly presents in the 4th and 5th decades, is more diffuse, without any temporal recession.
Surgical management
Surgical management remains the only permanent method of restoring hair in pattern hair loss. Follicular unit transplantation (FUT) has now become the established and gold standard method for hair transplantation. In this method hair is transplanted exclusively in its naturally occurring individual follicular units. The basis of hair transplantation is that occipital hairs (back) are never lost and more importantly, they show donor dominance and hence can be transplanted in the balding area. This procedure is done under local anesthesia as a day care case. It consist of harvesting occipital strip, follicular unit dissection under magnification, making needle holes and slits in the recipient area and finally insertion of follicular unit grafts. Postoperative pain is controlled with analgesics and swelling of forehead subsides with time. Within a month, the transplanted hair may fall. New hair starts to grow 10-12 weeks after the surgery, behave like normal hair, never fall and subsequently require hair cut. Hair transplantation may require more than one sitting or operation depending upon the extent of baldness.
