Hair Restoration

The Lion is not a Lion without his mane. But a human? Well, a human indeed,
but without the epithet of handsome or pretty assigned. Agreed that there are
people whose extended foreheads rule supreme (Yul Brynner and Sinead O’ Connor
for example), but that proves the above statement all the more to be true, more
so, because unless it’s intended (which again depends on personal preference),
Alopecia, or baldness is the ghost that has and still is, haunting countless
millions, making them fall prey to absolute forlornness. The remedy used to be
wigs and potions until sometime back; with the help of modern medical
technology, restoration of lost follicles is no more an Utopian concept.

Commonly known as hair transplantation, hair restoration is a surgical
process that involves moving healthy hair from one area of the scalp to another
area where baldness has set in. Recent advancements in the field have succeeded
in making these donor portions smaller in comparison to the large chunks of
yore; the process now delivers a much more cosmetically acceptable result than
it used to in the 1950s and has gained immensely in terms of popularity. Looking
from a psychosomatic point of view, hair restoration, apart from restoring back
a more youthful appearance, grants the treated ones heightened self-esteem and
higher self-confidence, resulting in changes that are far more enduring than the
hair that is transplanted.

A common question the practitioners face is when should hair restoration be
looked upon as a remedy. There’s no clear-cut answer to it since every patient
varies in terms of his/her attitude towards receding hair. However, hair
restoration is as effective in the earlier stages of baldness as it’s in its
advanced stages; the only difference that can be noticed is a hike in the
overall cost. Therefore, it is better to have a transplant right at the
preliminary stage.

Hair restoration requires foresight. It’s a must for the surgeon to keep in
mind the possibilities of future transplants while planning hair removal from
the donor area. Once that is set, as per the choice of the patient after a
successful completion of the pre-operative preparation (diagnosis, analysis and
prescription), he may follow any of the four surgical techniques, namely Micro,
mini and slit grafts; scalp reduction; strip graft and flaps. It’s also
important for the patient that (s)he keeps away from certain medicines and
intoxicants; else intra-operative bleeding may result into a poor grafting
quality.

Hair restoration surgeries are usually performed with optional mild sedation
and injected topical anesthesia. The time span ranges to roundabout four hours;
the time is inclusive of shampooing the scalp and antibacterial chemical
treatment. The real process begins with removing a strip of skin (15sq.cms to
30sq.cms) from the posterior scalp featuring good hair growth. Sealing of the
wound and dissection of individual follicular unit from the strip is carried
along simultaneously; great care is taken for removing excess fibrous and fatty
tissue without damaging the vital follicular cells that’ll produce the new hair.
Next comes the process of puncturing the sites for receiving the grafts; it is
done according to predetermined density and pattern though on an average, it’s
kept between 50-55 grafts per sq. cms.

To transform the surgery into a success, adequate Post-operative care is
recommended; dressings are to be replaced daily and the scalp is not to be
shampooed for at least a week. The next ten days would see a shock loss brought
about by the relocation; all the hair shall fall out and new hair shall show up
within a span of two to three months.