Get A Hair Implant And Say Goodbye To Your Combovers!

Remember the pity you felt for the middle-aged man you saw when you were in your teens? Remember how pathetic a sight it was, seeing him in his futile efforts to cover his bald pate by keeping his remaining hair long, and combing these straggly strands over the denuded scalp, trying his best to look younger, and every once in a while glancing at every convenient mirror just in case some of the strands were out of place?

It is quite easy to imagine that the same thing could happen to us. We all get older. The chances of us balding with age will be pretty high. The same desperate resorting to combovers will be there. The worst imaginable nightmare would be if we were in a place where there were sudden gusts of wind, or if it rained!

Are you getting there? Consider yourself lucky nowadays. In his time maybe 20 to 30 years ago, there was not much of a choice if he were unfortunate enough to lose his hair. All the creams and lotions were somewhat useless. Wigs were the only alternatives, and they did not look natural either, as the stark transition between the edge of the wig that covered the bald patch and the facial skin served only to advertise the sorry state of affairs.

We are lucky indeed. Hair transplants are here to stay and hair transplant clinics are springing up all over the place.

Strictly speaking, hair transplants refer to procedures where hair is transplanted from an area anywhere on the body where there is hair to spare, to an area which needs more hair. A hair implant refers to a procedure where hair, whether real or artificial, is implanted into an area which needs hair.

Thus a hair implant is a broader term, as the hair can be your own, or not.

Artificial hair implants are usually made of non-allergenic, non-toxic, biocompatible and natural-looking plastic polyamide material designed to last as long as possible. These are usually implanted individually into the bare scalp and made to look like natural hair, and are combable and washable. Unfortunately, unless the surgeon is very good, and the product is very natural-looking, the patient still walks around with a scalp looking like a doll with hair implants.

Thus hair transplants are still considered a necessary fact of life, especially if you want to look natural.

Once upon a time hair transplants were a pretty crude procedure, where chunks of hair-bearing scalp were cut out from an area with plenty of hair, and transplanted directly onto the non-hair bearing scalp. These grafts contained several hair follicular units, and because of their size, faced a problem of inadequate circulation and oxygenation to the living hair follicles.

Thus some of these grafts could not survive. However if they did, they were rather odd-looking, as there were a few disadvantages. This was because the surgeon was grafting not just the hair follicles, which were the basis of the new hair, but also the skin, the surrounding connective tissue and the sebaceous glands.

Thus the newly grafted area looked very uneven, patchy and bumpy as a result of the excess tissue - the typical cobblestone grafts. Also the art of orientating the growth of the hairs had not been well developed yet, and hair tended to grow in directions different from that expected on that particular area of scalp!

Things were improved when graft sizes became smaller, and these were plugs containing a few hair follicles that were transplanted. The disadvantage was that although there was greater survival, the plug-like picture similar to that of a doll's hair was still obvious.

One of the latest advances now is the development of the follicular unit transplant. In this procedure, individual hair follicles, each containing 1 - 4 hairs, are teased out gently without damaging the follicles, leaving behind as much skin and surrounding tissues as possible. These hair follicles are taken from an area of scalp bearing hair, either directly from the donor site (a step referred to as follicular unit extraction), or from a strip of hair bearing scalp that has been cut out, the residual scalp defect having been closed by suturing the edges back.

These individual hair follicles are then inserted directly into holes created by special blades in the recipient scalp. Care is taken to insert the hairs in the right orientation and direction normal for that area of scalp, and to space the individual follicles close enough not to leave any bald patches in between.

The above technique is considered the best so far, and in good hands, the success rate of such transplants approximates 100%. The hair that subsequently grows is very natural-looking, and stays practically permanently on the scalp, as the source of the hair is usually the scalp at the back of the head, where hair growth is permanent and baldness does not occur.

The only setback to this procedure is the fact that it is very laborious as individual hair follicles have to be teased out and implanted. It usually takes a whole day of back-breaking work to transplant an average scalp, and this is one main reason why hair transplants tend to be rather expensive.

However the results of follicular unit transplants are amazing. The subsequent hair growth looks perfectly natural, and nobody can tell that it is transplanted hair. The usual response from patients who have gone through hair transplants is that it was worth it. No more wigs. No more combovers to worry about. Manhood is restored.

Seed Newsvine

Bookmark this article in your preferred program

Comments

Add Comment

Popular Articles in this cathegory

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.