new thread
Okay, I dont think this topic has ever been brought up before or at least I have never seen it been discussed. I would be interested in hearing peoples views on hair transplant opperations.
1. Does anyone on this board know of someone who has had an opperation like this done before?
2. If so was it a success.
3. If you think you may become bald in latter life would you be prepared to go through one of these opperations in order to get your hair back
4. Or would you accept your baldness and live the rest of your life with no hair.
I for one would be prepared to go through an opperation like this if I became bald, however I do not think I will have to as male pattern baldness does not run in my family. It is said that baldness tends to be genetic.
I would love to hear from any of your insights,
comments welcome as always.
Keith
I have been hanging out amongst hair loss forums and online communities for some time now and have read lots of material about transplants. Your points:
1. Does anyone on this board know of someone who has had an opperation like this done before?
I don't know anyone personally but an old poster here (Marc A?) said years back that he knew someone who'd undergone the operation, and that he still felt pain years afterwards. You can search under 'bald' or whatever and LOTS of threads will be returned.
2. If so was it a success.
This usually depends on the surgeon who carries out the transplant. There a few different techniques used by different surgeons, each offering varied levels of hair density, different implantation method, number of grafts per session among other things. From the people I have read stories about on forums, results range from excellent/looking almost natural to dire/having to spend even more money on correcting the original botch up. The main problems are hair direction, and creating a hairline that resembes something natural.
3. If you think you may become bald in latter life would you be prepared to go through one of these opperations in order to get your hair back
Personally, no. Hopefully if I were to lose my hair hair multiplication will be available by then, meaning the traditional transplant would be unnecessary. So while I'd be willing to have an operation, it wouldn't be this one.
Transplants involve cutting a strip of scalp from the back of the head (where follicles aren't affected by MPB), dissecting and isolating the follicles and then implanting them in the bald areas. Other than the horrile prospect of having my scalp stretched back and stitched up, if I were to continue balding, I'd soon run out of donor hair and I'd look silly. That's why patients are advised to be sure of the expected extent of their baldness. Hair cloning on the other hand provides, in theory, an infinite amount of hair.
(Another method is to extract the follicles directly from the scalp without the need for a strip to be cut out. The finite hair problem remains.)
Matt
I don't know anyone who has had a hair transplant. There are some plastic surgeons I deal with in the operating rooms who perform them, however. Here's a summary...
First, they remove a small horizontal strip of hair from the lower back, then close that incision.
Second, they harvest the hairs and reimplant them individually. This is called a microtransplant. In the past, the "plug" transplants were done and they looked just like that, plugs of hair sprouting from the scalp. The microtransplants are VERY natural in appearance. They usually transplant about 1500-2000 hairs per session.
Third is cost. It's expensive, no doubt. But consider other expensive things. How much does a new car cost and how long will that last? Transplants last as long as you do and are not usually subject to male pattern baldness because they're taken from the nape of the neck.
I'm 38 and my hair is just beginning to get a bit thinner at the front hairline. As this progresses, will I get a hair transplant? Absolutely! There's no question.
Don't forget about propecia. It's a pill to help stimulate hair growth. www.propecia.com It is a prescription and your family doc should have no qualms writing for it.
Best wishes,
ToddB
