Hair loss is a big fear for many people, but not everyone has the same hair loss experience. Some people are born with thinning hair and have no choice but to wear wigs or hats, while others lose their hair due to stress or other factors. We have come up with some interesting facts About Hair Loss and Hair Restoration.
If you’re struggling with thinning hair, you must know your options. There are many different ways to treat this condition, so don’t be discouraged if one option doesn’t work for you!
Hair transplant surgery is the best way to restore your natural-looking head of hair without expensive procedures or medications.
This article will provide information on what causes male pattern baldness and how it can be treated effectively with transplants.
10 Facts About Hair Loss and Hair Restoration
1) An estimated 3% of the world population will experience some form of hair loss by 20 – 30 years of age. These people are not male or female, rich or poor, they come from all walks of life and ethnicities. A person’s physical appearance does not determine whether or not hair loss will occur.
2) There are two forms of hair loss: androgenetic or “AGA” and alopecia areata. Though they share many common physical and social characteristics, these two types of conditions cause very different consequences for those who suffer with them.
3) Androgens (male hormones), including testosterone, stimulate beard growth in men and body hair growth in most women. Still, the same hormone is responsible for causing male pattern baldness in some men by enlarging an area on their scalps called the “safe zone.” This safe zone contains high levels of DHT (dihydrotestosterone), which causes follicles to shrink, producing thinner strands of hair.
4) The follicle size in women is much smaller than men’s; thus, the DHT hormone has a more negligible effect on female pattern baldness. When a woman does experience hair loss, it is typically diffuse (all over). It rarely occurs in the same area as men with AGA, which is usually a receding hairline or a thinning crown.
Women who suffer from alopecia areata have larger patches of hair loss compared to men. Still, they can be located anywhere on their scalps, including areas that have not been affected by male pattern baldness, such as the sides and back of the scalp.
5) Alopecia areata can affect both males and females at any age but is most commonly found in people between the ages of 10 and 30. The hair loss from alopecia areata can be one or a few isolated areas or complete head baldness.
6) Though some forms of hair restoration surgery have been around for hundreds of years; modern advances have opened up a new world to those who suffer from hair loss. New surgical techniques such as Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) and Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) create undetectable results even in cases where just 20 – 25% of the patient’s hairs remain after their existing hair has fallen out.
Some common misconceptions surrounding these methods that many prospective patients share with their doctors include, “I don’t want to look like I have surgery,” “I will end up with a scar on my head,” or “my hair won’t grow back the same way it did before, right?” These fears are baseless because of these advancements in surgery.
7) Hair transplant surgery is not the only option for someone who is experiencing hair loss. Medical treatment can be an effective way to restore your scalp but beware of medical treatments that claim to stop or slow down hair loss by using products containing harsh chemicals which can damage your existing follicles and make your symptoms worse. Hormones cause Androgenetic alopecia (male pattern baldness), so any dermatologist who prescribes you medication that claims to block these hormones is a doctor to steer clear of.
8) Hair restoration surgery is the only treatment that will restore your existing hair and, in most cases, cannot be detected by anyone but you. Hair used for transplant can come from your scalp, body (pubic area), or even from another part of your head where no hair loss has occurred. In some instances when donor hair from these areas may not exist, synthetic fibers may be used to create the appearance of density. However, they do not have the same characteristics as natural human hair in both texture and behavior within a person’s existing hairstyle.
9) Given all the advancements with modern surgical techniques, a patient’s post-operative appearance depends on the unique condition and which option was chosen, whether FUT or FUE. With FUT, the donor strip of hair is removed from the back or sides of a person’s scalp and then dissected into groups or “follicular units” which contain only one to four hairs each; these units are then individually planted in areas where no new growth exists on a patient’s head. The resulting scar that has been made to remove this strip of hair is often hidden in an area of less dense hair growth, such as along the edge of the nape (back of neck).
10) When performing FUE, individual follicles are removed directly from your donor and recipient sites via tiny punches ranging between .6mm to 1mm in size. This technique is suitable when losing hair in smaller areas, but FUE can damage existing follicles. When harvesting via FUT, the minor cuts made to remove the donor strip have little to no effect on healthy hairs because they are being removed from an area that has already been affected by DHT (Dihydrotestosterone) causes the thinning and eventual loss of hair.
