What Is Hair Replacement Surgery? How Does It Work?

Hair loss is a common phenomenon among people these days. Whether a male or a female, each and every individual tends to experience loss of hair at some point of time in their lives. The severe nature of hair loss can vary from a limited area to the entire body. One of the techniques that people have gone on to adopt over the years as part of treatment for this problem is Hair Replacement Surgery.

Before we take a look into exactly what Hair Replacement Surgery is all about, let us first discuss about the causes behind hair loss:

Causes of Hair Loss

Some of the primary reasons behind the loss of hair, which mainly happens as a combination of the following include:

• Age
• Hormonal Changes
• Illness
• History of baldness in the family
• Trauma

Some of the less common causes which might also lead to this problem are:

• Tendency to pull out hair
• Chemotherapy
• Hypothyroidism

What is Hair Replacement Surgery?

The interest among people in hair replacement has increased quite significantly in the last 10 years. By the time, men reach the age of 50, around 85% of them see a significant hair thinning coming through. In men, the main cause behind the hairline getting diminished is heredity. On the other hand, for women, hormonal changes like menopause can cause hair thinning as well as hair loss.

Ideal candidates for hair replacement must have quite a healthy growth of hair both at the back, as well as on the two sides of the head. The hair on one’s back and on the sides of the head would serve as areas of hair donor where dermatologists would take the grafts and flaps.

Techniques

There are mainly four different types of hair replacement methods, which include the following:

Hair Transplantation:

At the time of Hair transplantation, a dermatologist removes small pieces of scalp grafts bearing hair either from the back or from the sides of the head. Dermatologists help the grafts to get relocated to the area that has got thinned.

Tissue Expansion:

This procedure involves a device known as tissue expander, which is placed under the area that bears hair, lying next to the area that is bald. After a number of weeks, this tissue expander results in the skin to grow new skin cells.

Flap Surgery:

At the time of this procedure, a portion of the bald region gets removed and a flap of their skin bearing hair is placed on to the area without hair, while staying attached at one point to its original supply of blood.

Scalp Reduction:

This procedure involves removing the bald scalp with sections of the scalp that bears hair that is pulled together to fill in the bald portion.