If you lose hair, you’d think a hair transplant would solve the issue, and for some, it may, but not many. Hair transplants are limited in their success, cost a lot, and often cause more issues than they solve.
Fortunately, hair transplants aren’t the only way to deal with hair loss. You have other options, which are healthier and safer for your hair. First, let’s learn the risks of hair transplants to determine if you should consider other options.
Limited Donor Area
Hair transplants require hair from other areas of your head, but you have limited areas where the hair may be extracted. Overall, 5,000 follicular units may be extracted, but not at one time. The donor area is at the back of the head, where you can have only a fraction of the follicular units extracted.
If too much hair is extracted from the back of the head, you’ll have thinning in that area. If you extract too many hairs, an obvious difference occurs between the top and back of the head, making it apparent that you had a hair transplant, taking away the naturalness of the look. It can take 6 to 12 months to get a full head of hair.
Scarring at the Back of the Head
Even though hair transplants have come a long way, scars are still a major risk whether you use the FUT or FUE technique. Any surgery puts you at risk of scarring and your head is incredibly sensitive and susceptible to long-term scarring.
The FUT technique (follicular unit transplantation) removes a strip of hair from the donor area (back of the head), which the surgeon then stitches up. As you can imagine, this leaves the head with a linear scar. Depending on the amount of hair removed, the scar may go across the head horizontally, making it obvious. The extracted hair is placed at the top of the head after making small incisions to make room for each follicle, which may leave more scars.
The FUE technique (follicular unit extraction) removes hair follicles from the back of the head by extracting the follicles one by one. This leaves hundreds of puncture scars on the scalp. The scars often turn white after healing but are still visible. The surgeon then creates small incisions at the top of the head to implant the follicles. This leavesyour scalp with more scars at the top of your head too.
You May Have More Hair Loss
You’d think after having a hair transplant that you’d stop losing hair, but it still happens. Almost everyone loses the transplant hair a week or two after the transplant. This is normal as you pull the hair from its blood supply and reattach it. Most people lose their hair within a week. It then takes 4 to 6 weeks for new hair to grow from the follicles and as you can imagine it takes a while for that hair to grown.
In addition, the hair around the transplant hair may start to fall out. This hair isn’t resistant to effluvium and may make the hair transplant look thinner as the hair grows back, but you lose hair around it. It’s a slow process that often leads to more frustration and embarrassment than the thinning hair caused before.
It May Appear Unnatural
Despite the advance in techniques, it’s hard to make hair transplants look natural. Between the scarring and all-to-straight hairlines, there’s nothing natural about the look. Whether the surgeon transplants too much or too little hair, the result is often one that’s more awkward than the thinning or baldness that occurred before. Remember the days of ‘bad wigs’? That’s what happens with hair transplants and you can’t ‘undo it.’
It’s Expensive
Hair transplants are costly not because the one procedure is expensive, but because most people need multiple procedures within a 6 to 12 month period. One transplant isn’t enough. Once the hair falls out, it takes months for new hair to grow in, leaving most people with unsatisfactory results.
As other areas keep balding, more transplants are needed. Eventually, it feels like a never-ending battle that leaves you spending $50,000 or more on hair that doesn’t look natural and isn’t as thick as you’d like it.
Are there Alternatives to Hair Transplant?
Fortunately, there are many other ways to deal with hair loss, but one of the best is to prevent hair loss in the first place. Even if hair loss runs in your family or you’re just one of the lucky ones that has to deal with it, there are ways to prevent hair loss.
Using products that stop DHT, hair shedding, and fall out is the best way to manage hair loss. Using hair loss shampoo and conditioners help you grow thicker and stronger hair that won’t fall out and require a hair transplant.
Caring for your hair before it starts falling out is the best way to manage baldness. Even if it seems like ‘a part of aging’ or it runs in your family, using hair restore products that have no side effects, strengthen your hair, and avoid excessive shedding is your best against hair loss at any age, for both male and female.
