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Posts Tagged ‘Hair Transplant Surgery’

Use of mini and micro grafts in hair transplant surgery

Apart from the treatment of male and female pattern baldness hair loss, hair transplant surgery using micro and mini grafts are now widely used in hair transplant repair procedures and reconstructive surgical hair restoration procedures. With the increased use of micro and mini grafts along with the single hair unit follicular transplants, the reconstructive hair transplant surgeries now account for approximately 8-10% of the total hair restoration surgeries.

Because of their small size, the micro and mini-grafts have lower metabolic requirement than the plug grafts and have better survival rate than the follicular units, which can be damaged during dissection. Since these grafts are able to successfully grow on burnt scalp or fibroid areas, they seem to hold a high promise for the reconstructive hair transplant surgeries.

Only precautions that hair transplant surgery with these mini and micro grafts is that the dissected mini and micro grafts are to be inserted into the scalp as fast as possible after a silt is made. Transplanting of the grafts in the shortest possible time increases the chances of the hair follicles surviving the hair transplant procedures and actually grows into hair. To hasten up the above mentioned hair transplant surgery procedure, help from the assistant is taken who immediately inserts a graft into the slit as soon as it is created by the hair transplant surgeon. The blades used for the surgery are so small and sharp they leave almost no detectable scar on the scalp.

Hair Transplant Surgery: Hair Restoration on the Face
Hair transplant surgery procedure for hair restoration of the face (eyebrows, mustache, and sideburns) is more difficult and different. If a hair transplant surgeon makes slits near other grafts, the neighboring grafts tend to “pop out” of their corresponding slits. Hair transplant surgeon in such cases makes the slits in a preliminary fashion, with the grafts inserted a few minutes later. The rest of Hair Transplant Surgery procedure is just the same, when the hair transplant surgeon withdraws his needle, an assistant implants the graft with a jeweler’s forceps. An experienced hair transplant surgeon always pays close attention to the natural direction of the growth while performing a reconstructive hair transplant surgery, and takes care to insert his blade or the needle at acute angle lateral to the eye brows.

For a successful reconstructive surgery the restoring the natural direction of the growth for the restored hair is more important than the number of hair. For the hair loss restoration of beard and mustache, a hair transplant surgeon keeps his blade as flat as possible to the surface of lip so as to ensure the downward direction of growth.
On eyelids, the hair transplant procedure is more complicated because the eyelids are very thin, mobile and very adjacent to the eye. The most difficult aspect of the hair transplant surgery in this case is maintaining the direction of hair growth. Usually the eyebrow hair is used as the donor hair, and around 10-12 micro-grafts are inserted per eyelid in two separate sessions of hair restoration surgery performed with a gap of about 8-12 months between them. The use of a curved needle for the eyelid hair restoration is the new innovative technique that hair restoration surgeons have started making use for the ease of hair transplant surgery.

Proper preservation of these micro and mini-grafts are throughout the course of hair transplant surgery is of utmost importance. The grafts are kept in Petri-plates filled with saline so as to keep them moist. During long procedures taking more than 3-4 hours, the Petri-dishes with these grafts in saline are stored over a basin filled with ice.
A procedure, which holds good for any hair transplant surgery, is the technique of inserting the grafts in way so as to leave the epidermis of the graft superficial to the epidermis of the recipient site. The aim of this hair transplant surgery procedure is to prevent the formation of inclusion cyst at the insertion points and also to prevent in-growth of hair. After any hair transplant surgery, the grafts look like bumps. After healing, the epidermis of the grafts starts turning into a crust and takes about 10 to 14 days to finally shed. The transplanted area now becomes smooth as before. The hair growth on the recipient area is seen only after 3 to 4 months. But once the growth becomes evident it continues to improve over the next few months.
The recent advances like the use of mini and micro grafts and follicular unit transplants have greatly improved the aesthetics of hair transplant surgery. Hair transplant surgery has proved to be a boon in restoring hair on burnt scalps or in congenital deformities such as cleft lips etc.
Interested in more information on the subject? Refer to our web site hairtransplantadvice.com which has been developed specially for people who are looking for readable and meaningful information on hair transplantation surgery. The web site aims at providing in depth knowledge of the subject in an easy to understand language that avoids the use of complicated technical jargon.

Hair Loss in Women – Getting To the Root of the Problem

November 3rd, 2009 hair extensions pro No comments

Hair loss women can be very distressing, whatever your age. Baldness and thinning of hair is not associated with women, and it is the “male pattern baldness” that receives all the press. However, the reality is that many women do experience thinning, bald patches, hair breakage, and even suffer from extensive hair loss.

One of the major challenges of preventing and reversing hair loss in women is finding out the cause of hair loss. Baldness treatment is often like a detective job, the patient, physician, hair expert and others involved in the treatment have to look at every usual and unusual option. Although diet is not a common cause, something as simple as vitamin or zinc deficiency can cause hair loss. Pinpointing the cause or sometimes causes is key to proper treatment.

Approach the Right Professionals

Faced with hair loss, women tend to falter in identifying the right person to approach. Most women start by confiding in their general care physician who may not be able to find out the cause of hair loss. You have to consult a dermatologist, trichologist or hair restoration doctor to get the right suggestion. The doctor may order tests to find out the underlying cause of hair loss. Sometimes a scalp biopsy is required.

Possible Causes

Some of the possible causes of hair loss women are infections, hormonal imbalance, poor thyroid functioning, genetics, and stress. Most women are not aware of the toll stress can take on their hair. If you are a career-centric woman who has to juggle home and work, you might be under stress even without your knowledge.

If you have gone through stressful situations recently and find your hair thinning, that should set the alarm bells ringing. Sometimes, prolonged illness can lead to a general deterioration of health, and affects hair too. If you are on medication, check with your physician to find out if the drugs can possibly cause hair loss, because unfortunately many commonly prescribed medications do have hair loss as a potential side effect..

For permanent hair loss that does not respond to medical therapy, baldness treatment by the means of hair transplantation surgery often becomes the best treatment option.

Hair Transplant Surgery can Improve your Career

November 1st, 2009 hair extensions pro No comments

Hair transplant surgery can do much more than restore your hair.  When Blain Randolf, 32, of Scottsdale Arizona began to experience premature hair loss, he was not prepared for how it would alter the course of his life. He was not prepared for how he would feel when he studied the back of his head in the mirror every morning to see how much more hair was missing. He was not prepared for the feeling that he’d lost a piece of himself along with his hair. Nor was he ready to accept the feeling that he was suddenly old before his time with his hair loss condition. The last thing he thought is that he would ever consider hair transplant surgery.  He’d always been modestly good-looking, confident and athletic. He’d had his share of girlfriends, his pick of jobs and frankly, life. But suddenly his dream sales job was slipping away from him and he couldn’t figure out why.  He’d always been a closer. Now he couldn’t seem to close anything but the book on how his life used to be. Blain found himself doing a lot of second-guessing after his hair loss. His confidence took a big hit, not only in his love life, which took a downturn. It seemed that he was screwing up business deals more often, losing focus. He didn’t, at first, connect it to his hair loss. After all, he knew that the people he worked with were not so shallow as to judge him for his hair loss. But the problem, Blain realized, was his. He walked in doors, anticipating failure instead of success. But when a manager finally sat him down and told Blaine that he needed to get his old mojo back, he knew it was his confidence his boss was referring to. That day, Blain made an appointment at a hair transplant surgery clinic. After analyzing Blaine’s hair loss issues, the expert hair transplant surgery physician suggested that Blain transplants.  Because of his age, and the excellent quality of donor hair, the hair transplant surgery was a great option for him. Not only would he never have to worry about adhesives or constant maintenance of nonsurgical hair replacement, the transplanted hair would be his own, growing hair again. And the hair from the hair transplant would never fall out like the old hair had because it came from a location on the head that was not genetically predisposed to falling out.  It was in there for good. Blain scheduled the hair transplant surgery after working out an easy payment plan. Undergoing the hair transplant procedure was easier than he’d expected and recovery was short. Within a couple of months, he began to see the new hair sprouting where once there had been nothing.  The surprising thing was that as his hair sprouted, so too did his confidence. That confidence spilled over into every area of his life.  His love life improved (he married a year later) and his work life improved, too.  After his hair transplant surgery, his newfound confidence showed in his monthly sales figures.  He felt like himself again and when he looked in the mirror, he didn’t see an imposter staring back.  He saw himself, the way he used to be before he began losing his hair.  He did not regret for a minute doing the hair transplant surgery.  That summer he was promoted to Sales Manager and he hasn’t looked back. Today, Blain would be the first to tell you that it wasn’t the hair transplant that improved his life as much as it was the restored confidence the surgery gave him.

Hair Transplant Surgery in 2009

November 1st, 2009 hair extensions pro No comments

What did men do about their hair loss before hair transplant surgery?  For centuries, men have been in search of a solution to their hair loss problems. Wigs, toupees, and more recently the dreaded hair plugs have graced men’s heads with unfortunate results.  Modern technology has made tremendous breakthroughs regarding hair loss, in the last decade or so, from topical solutions (like Rogaine or Propecia) that halt hair loss to the more permanent solution of hair transplant surgery. But for those who are sick of daily medication, and do not want to wear a hair system, hair transplant surgery maybe the answer they’ve been hoping for.At the very mention of hair transplant surgery, most people immediately think of unnatural-looking surgery of the past where plugs of hair were inserted into the scalp, making it look, well, polka-dotted and awful. It was a terrible solution primarily because the groupings of 15-25 hairs doctors implanted in the scalp did not mimic what occurs naturally on the scalp. Naturally, hair grows in groupings of 2-4 strands, no more. And there is a direction in which these strands of hair grow that determines how the hair falls once it grows out. One new hair transplant technique takes that into consideration. When surgeons developed new methods using micro-tools, they were finally able to harvest hair follicles in small enough groupings to make what is called follicular hair transplant surgery look natural.According to the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS), understanding what made our hair fall out turned the tide in follicular hair transplant surgery. Doctors discovered that hair taken from the back of the head tended to be immune to the same process of weakening and falling out that the hair on the top of head was.So how does follicular hair transplant surgery work? Robert Collins can tell you. The forty-year-old has gone through the process. “I was skeptical at first, worried it might look fake or unnatural,” Robert said. “But I asked to see the hair transplant surgery photos my surgeon had and I felt more confident. Also, a friend of mine who suffered from hair loss had done the procedure the year before and I wanted my hair to look as good as his.”Robert made an appointment with a surgeon who specialized in follicular hair transplant surgery and did the preliminary work-up which included studying his scalp to make sure he had enough hair in his donor hair area to donate.  On the day of the surgery, with light sedation and topical anesthesia, the hair transplant surgeon incised an eliptical-shaped piece of scalp from the back of Robert’s head–the place where the hair follicles are not generally subject to falling out permanently. While he was closing that wound (which would be completely covered by his hair) technicians got busy separating small sections of skin and hair. With 1-4 vellus hairs in each group carefully sectioned, along with oil glands, a band of collagen and a small muscle, each section had all the requirements to regrow in the scalp. Then, the surgeon delicately replaced these follicular hair transplant sections, paying close attention to the direction the hairs were growing.  When he’d finished the hair transplant surgeon dressed his scalp with a bandage that allowed for breathe-ability. In the ten days it took for his scalp to heal, all of the external hairs the hair transplant surgeon had positioned in Robert’s scalp fell out due to the stress of the surgery. That was perfectly normal and did not affect the follicular roots settling into place there. Robert was able to go back to his normal life again, looking just as he had before. But within three months, hair began to sprout in the places where the surgeon had placed them during the hair transplant surgery. After a year, he had a full head of hair again. This all happened so gradually that no one really noticed the change, except that Robert had hair now. And this hair would not fall out as his old hair had.“I don’t regret doing the hair transplant surgery it for a minute,” Robert says now. “Not only do I look like myself again, I feel like myself. I’ve got my confidence back.”Hair transplant surgery remains at the top end financially of hair loss solutions. It is not cheap. But considering the long term necessity of using hair systems that need maintenance, or topical hair therapy medications that can never be stopped once started, or the even more unpleasant prospect of being bald for the rest of one’s life, the cost of hair transplant surgery is not so bad. Most patients are able to spread the cost of the surgery into affordable payments. But most importantly, find a surgeon who is an expert in hair transplant surgery with a great reputation to help restore your hair and your confidence.

Hair Loss Online Social Network Launched

October 31st, 2009 hair extensions pro No comments

HairLoss.com, the world’s most comprehensive social network community dedicated to “all things hair loss” has been launched.  The latest generation of HairLoss.com will live up to its promise of introducing a novel and groundbreaking website to the hair loss industry. HairLoss.com is a complete social network service, providing an online community of people who share a common interest in hair loss issues, from solving hair loss to celebrating hair loss and all things in between, while providing users with a variety of ways to interact and share facts, opinions and advice.”The premise of the website is simple enough,” states Michael Garcia, spokesman for the consortium of hair loss industry leaders who have founded the current incarnation of HairLoss.com.  “Hair loss can be solved or celebrated, treated or embraced depending on how you feel about it.  Whichever posture you adopt, you will find all the tools necessary here to prevent, solve or celebrate hair loss in every imaginable context.”The website, which launched on July 2, utilizes state-of-the-art technology and graphics developed by Bright Bulb Solutions in Los Angeles and features all-new original content developed specifically for this hair loss project including sections dedicated to hair loss conditions, hair loss solutions, a comprehensive professional providers directory, along with news and lifestyle channels.”Hair loss looms so large in our lives when it happens to us,” said Garcia.  “Our Lifestyle channel shows our community how to perfect other parts of our lives, even if we may never have perfect hair again.  Our Entertainment channel provides a little respite, a little fun while members seek out solutions to their individual condition.”The lifestyle channel features articles and advice on health & fitness, fashion & beauty, nutrition, entertainment, business and travel, as well as an advice column for community members to get advice from a “relationship coach” in order to assure that hair loss – and the complexities surrounding it – don’t overly complicate our personal lives.Full membership in the hair loss community is free and allows the member to participate and interact with others in the community by way of forums, newsgroups, comments, RSS feeds, friends and more.  The amount of unbiased information about hair loss solutions is presented to speak to those across the broad spectrum of hair loss conditions.  Men, women and children with temporary and permanent conditions such as Alopecia areata or hair loss caused by Cancer treatments will find information especially for them.   ”One thing we all understand is that hair loss is more complicated than we knew before.”  There is no one-size-fits-all solution.  Many of the existing hair loss websites speak above the typical person seeking solutions or contain thinly veiled sales pitches, Garcia said.  “We’ve reduced the rhetoric of solving hair loss to its simplest terms.  Those using the Internet to perform their due diligence are going to appreciate this approach.”Also launching with the website will be HairLoss.com’s “Hair for Children” program that will provide children who suffer from hair loss – and who demonstrate financial need – a customized hair loss solution.  A video contest that challenges filmmakers to craft videos raising public awareness about the many sensitive issues surrounding hair loss has also been announced with the launch.As presented, HairLoss.com represents an online community in the deepest sense.   This website has its experts and has a stance, but its clear that members will be the lifeblood. The success of the online community will rely completely on members sharing their most creative and thoughtful ideas, experiences and insights with the community and to engage the experts so that everyone in the community benefits.