Do you smoke? Do you drink alcoholic beverages? What medications do you take? Do you use herbal “health food” products? These are questions a patient will be asked before undergoing hair restoration surgery-or, for that matter, any type of surgery. What is the connection between smoking, drinking and surgery? What does it matter what medications a patient takes, or what …
Age-Appropriate Appearance One of the most common reasons for men and women to consider hair transplantation is to overcome what they perceive to be an age-inappropriate appearance. They don’t want to appear older than their calendar age or appear older than they wish to appear. The reasons to avoid age-inappropriate appearance can be personal, work-related, or a combination of …
Androgenetic alopecia-male- and female-pattern hair loss-is known to have a genetic basis. It is an inheritable condition, commonly described as “running in the family”. (See About Hair Loss). Having close family members with androgenetic alopecia significantly increases your risk for having some degree of hair loss between adolescence and middle age. How much hair you will lose and in what pattern …
When a prospective patient consults a physician hair restoration specialist, he comes with a set of reasons for seeking hair restoration. The patient may be a man or woman; most often, the patient is a man whose hair loss is due to hereditary androgenetic alopecia (See About Hair Loss). For both patient and physician, the patient’s expectations for hair restoration must …
Maybe you have never given much thought to hair transplantation. That’s very likely if you are an adult man or woman who has a full head of hair. It may well be the case if you have been losing hair, but take your thinning hair in stride and don’t understand why other people feel differently. What happens when a brother, …
Some men with male-pattern hair loss are candidates for a delayed approach to hair transplantation. This may be especially applicable to adolescent and very young adult men who are beginning to lose hair. The physician hair restoration specialist may recommend a delayed approach to hair transplantation for a young male, even when the young man is distressed by his hair …
The color of your hair is largely determined by the genes that you inherited from your parents and their ancestors. There are a few exceptions, mostly associated with disease or congenital anomalies that induce change in hair color. Knowing that hair color is under genetic control is only the beginning of the hair color story. Scientists are still unraveling the …
Your head is one of the parts of your body most vulnerable to injury. Head injury often includes injury to the scalp and eyebrows, resulting in the destruction of hair follicles in those areas. The injured areas are often bald after healing. Causes of Scalp Scars Injuries A common cause of scalp injury is automobile accidents; jagged metal and glass …
From infancy to old age, everyone loses hair every day as hair follicles go through their normal cyclic activity of anagen (growth phase), catagen (shedding phase) and telogen (resting phase). (See About Hair Loss for more information about The Hair Growth Cycle). A full anagen-catagen-telogen cycle can take years to complete. Each follicle goes through the complete cycle 10 to 20 times over …
Finasteride (brand name Propecia®) is an orally administered medication for male pattern hair loss (MPHL). It is the only specific MPHL treatment approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for prescription by a physician. Several years of investigation and use by more than a million patients show that finasteride has long-term effectiveness and safety in treating MPHL in men …
Older men with hair loss can be confident that age, in itself, does not exclude them from having hair transplantation. Men are seldom “too old” to consider hair transplantation as a treatment for hair loss. Men 50 years old and older can usually expect excellent results from first-time hair transplantation. Excellent results are common in men aged 70 and older …
Science is rapidly advancing our understanding of the causes of hair loss. The successful treatment of hair loss is being rapidly advanced by physician hair restoration specialists who use scientific knowledge to create innovative approaches to hair restoration. As scientific knowledge advances, it becomes clear that the causes of hair loss are complex and may vary in multiple ways from …
The goal of hair transplantation is to give you, the patient, completely natural-appearing hair growth that expresses your unique individuality. Advances in hair transplantation techniques, procedures, and technology make this goal achievable for most patients today. When hair transplantation was first developed in mid-Twentieth Century, the goal was “coverage” using plug-graft technology and techniques of the day. Patients were pleased …
Definition of the Donor Site When hair-bearing tissue is withdrawn from one area of the scalp for transplantation to an area that is hairless due to male-pattern hair loss (MPHL), the withdrawal is made from the donor site-an area unaffected by the genetics of MPHL. The donor site in the balding male is hair-bearing scalp tissue that runs from an …
Surgical hair restoration is a permanent solution for male or female pattern baldness (androgenetic alopecia). Often patients require a second procedure or series of hair replacement procedures for the following reasons: Patients may have their personal reasons for seeking a second hair restoration procedure. It is imperative to discuss these reasons, in full, with a hair restoration surgeon to be …
What do treatment for severe acne, daily aspirin to prevent heart attack, and heavy smoking or drinking have to do with hair restoration surgery? They are all risk factors that have the potential to affect the successful outcome of hair transplantation or other form of hair restoration surgery. Here are some examples: Acne and hair loss are both …