Lasers Can Stimulate Growth

Laser hair treatment is one option for patients who are tired of living with thinning or barely-there hair. According to Dr. Wasserbauer, lasers are thought to stimulate the scalp in a manner that encourages follicular growth. While laser hair therapy can be an option for patients who aren’t ideal transplant candidates, it can also be used as a follow-up treatment for those who do undergo surgery. Dr. Wasserbauer says that on top of stimulating hair follicles, the lasers used in this method of treatment can also promote wound healing; and despite the fact that scarring is usually kept to a minimum during transplantation surgery, a small degree of trauma to the scalp is to be expected over the course of the average transplant.

Platelet Rich Plasma

Another form of hair loss therapy that has recently gained some media attention is platelet rich plasma (PRP).  Although this particular technology is being developed to serve various medical purposes, Dr. Wasserbauer thinks that it may hold some promise for hair restoration. The idea behind PRP is that the plasma can wake up dormant follicular cells, as activated platelets can release proteins known for their ability to stimulate growth. Before PRP can be introduced as a mainstream form of hair treatment, however, additional studies must be conducted to thoroughly evaluate its effects. And unfortunately for hair loss sufferers, some critics worry that marketing this technique as a valuable option for hair restoration may be just another ploy to get money from people who are desperate not to go bald.

Powered FUE

While some are of the opinion that machines can never take the place of humans when it comes to surgery and medicine, this latest technique may just prove that theory wrong. FUE, or Follicular Unit Extraction, is a highly refined method of hair transplantation that produces spectacular results with minimal to no scarring. Powered FUE takes this concept one step further by replacing the human element with that of robotics. Dr. Wasserbauer is actually involved in a research study wherein electronically powered devices are being used to perform this method of surgery. Why the robot? According to Dr. Wasserbauer, whereas manual FUE can take eight to 10 hours to complete, the use of a robot could cut the time in half. The use of robotics is thought to be able to mimic – if not surpass – the accuracy involved in human techniques. Although Dr. Wasserbauer isn’t thrilled with the notion of potentially being replaced by a robot, she agrees that this particular development does show some promise. As for now, however, this method of transplantation is still highly experimental.

Although hair loss can be an upsetting condition,  patients should take comfort in the fact that new procedures such as these are constantly being developed and refined to offer the best results possible for hair restoration. In fact, Dr. Wasserbauer believes that in just a few years’ time, patients will have more options than ever when it comes to minimizing the effects of hair loss and improving their appearances in the long run.

A hair transplant involves moving skin that is growing hair from one part of your scalp to another part of your scalp where hair is no longer growing. The process is similar to the type of grafting that is used to treat burns and other skin damage. In order to achieve the most natural-looking results, your surgeon will transplant the hair in naturally-occurring groups or “follicular units.” Once the hair-growing skin has been moved to the balding area of the scalp, the hair is expected to continue to grow.

Are You a Good Candidate?

Cosmetic surgeons agree that the best candidates for a hair transplant are individuals who have experienced noticeable hair loss on the top of the head while still maintaining healthy hair growth along the sides and back of the head. These are the areas from which your plastic surgeon will harvest the “donor” hair and move it to the area in which the hair loss has occurred.

Hair on the sides and back of the head tends to be more resistant to male pattern baldness and is more likely to grow through the entirety of a man’s life. By moving this hair to the top and front of the head, a surgeon can deliver not only hair that looks just like (because it is) your natural hair, but will also grow in a natural way.

Benefits

The latest hair transplant techniques offer extremely natural-looking results. Rather than the “hair plugs” that became easy fodder for sitcoms in the 80s and 90s, surgeons now use variable sizes of hair grafts applied with state-of-the-art precision instruments to mimic your hair’s natural growth patterns.

Hair loss, particularly when it occurs prematurely, can have a significant impact on your self-esteem. According to the American Hair Loss Association, most men who’ve experienced hair loss are extremely unhappy with their situation and would be willing to do almost anything to change it.  Hair loss can make men feel that they are perceived as less strong, less energetic, less successful and less attractive to women. Many believe that their lives would be better if they had more hair. A youthful hairline again can make you feel as though you’ve been given back your youth—you are likely to have more confidence in social situations, feel more attractive, and in general, experience an enhanced quality of life.

Hair restoration may also have some surprising social benefits as well. Studies show that hair loss is often associated with negative stereotypes. You may be perceived as weaker, less successful or older than you really are. Although attitudes toward baldness are changing, most men who undergo hair transplant surgery believe that they are perceived in a more positive light following the procedure.

Risks

Hair transplant surgery is generally safe, and, in most cases, is highly effective. However, the procedure is certainly not without risks. As with any type of surgery, there is a possibility of developing an infection. Infections are rare and most frequently occur when the patient doesn’t follow the doctor’s instructions for post-surgical home care. If an infection does occur, it can usually be treated with a course of antibiotics.

A less physically significant but still troublesome risk is the possibility of unexpectedly slow or sparse hair growth in response to the surgery. If this occurs, your surgeon will likely recommend repeating the procedure to see if he or she can achieve a better result. No one knows why some hair transplants fail in this way, but it is important to follow your doctor’s instructions for at-home follow-up treatment in order to give yourself the best possible chance for successful continued hair growth.

Scarring, though your surgeon will make an attempt to minimize it, can be an issue with hair transplant surgery. Whether or not you will have visible scars depends on a number of factors—the skill of the surgeon, the placement of the excision in the donor areas, and your own ability to heal.

Changes in pigmentation (darkening) in the area of the transplant are possible as well, and are more common in patients with darker skin. Because of this possibility, your doctor may advise you to take extra precautions with regard to sun exposure for some time after your procedure.

The Bottom Line

Hair transplant surgery has come a long way since the days of visible plugs and social stigma. Today’s surgical techniques make it possible to get a full, natural-looking hairline in a single procedure.

While many men find the topic too embarrassing to discuss, it is actually quite common, with hair loss affecting 35 million men in the United States, according to the Hair Loss Learning Center, 40% of whom begin having noticeable hair loss by the age of 35. By the age of 50, that number jumps to 85% of all men experiencing some form of baldness, according to nationwide survey conducted in 2009.

Of course, hair loss does not only affect men. Twenty-one million women suffer from the condition, often silently since the topic is even more taboo for aging females.

But not all men and women are suffering in silence. Thanks to recent advances in medical technology, thousands of men and women across the country are using hair transplant and restoration techniques to dramatically, naturally, and permanently alter their looks.

What is hair restoration?

Hair transplant and restoration is a surgical technique that has been in use by medical professionals since the late 1950s. The procedure works by taking hair from one area of the scalp and transplanting it into a balding area.

With that said, however, medical advances in recent years have drastically changed the way in which the procedure is performed and the outcome patients can expect. Whereas for many years hair was transplanted in large “plugs”—resulting in an unnatural look—newer restoration techniques allow physicians to transplant the hair using smaller “grafts,” thus allowing the hair to look as if it has a completely natural growth pattern.

Sometimes known as Follicular Unit Transplantation, this micro-grafting procedure transplants groups of just one to four hairs at a time. And because the hair is re-implanted into the scalp in a way that mimics the hair’s natural growth, patients can expect an outcome that blends in perfectly with the hair they originally had.

Who are the best candidates for hair restoration?

Although the majority of those seeking hair transplant and restoration procedures are men, women can also be considered excellent candidates for the surgery as long as they are experiencing balding in specific areas of the scalp—as opposed to a general thinning of hair all around.

In addition, to be considered an optimal candidate for the procedure, patients must have a sufficient amount of healthy hair growth left in the back of their heads to re-implant as “donor hair” on the scalp. This means men who are entirely bald—while few and far in between—are generally not considered good candidates for hair transplant surgery.

Finally, as with any cosmetic procedure, potential hair transplant candidates should have realistic expectations as to the results of their restoration, since no surgery can change a person’s self-esteem or confidence issues. Patients should be comfortable discussing these topics with their doctor prior to beginning the hair transplantation process.

Benefits

For the thousands of men and women who undergo hair transplant and restoration each year, the procedure can have a life-changing impact. Patients who have undergone the restoration report feeling more youthful, energized, and happy with their overall appearance.

While results of hair transplant and restoration vary from patient to patient, the majority can expect to gain a full head of hair in just a matter of hours. Even better, the results of a hair transplant should last a lifetime, which means patients will no longer need to mess with expensive over-the-counter hair products or worry about tedious follow-up appointments with their doctor once the surgery has been performed and deemed successful.

Risks

As with all surgeries, going under the knife carries a certain amount of medical risk. Although hair transplantation is generally safe, patients should ensure that the surgeon performing the operation is qualified and licensed by local medical boards.

Due to the nature of hair transplantation, certain risks and complications may occur, including bleeding, scarring, and anesthesia complications. In addition, some patients may experience a condition known as “stretch-back scarring,” which is generally caused by tension resulting from certain scalp-reduction techniques used in hair transplantation procedures.

Patients experiencing any of these conditions should contact their hair transplant surgeon or primary care physician immediately to rule out infection or other serious side effects.

It’s a big issue with men (half of American men experience hair loss), and it can also be a big issue with women – maybe even bigger, you could argue, because women aren’t popularly thought to experience hair loss.

The aging process: it’s one of the key causes of hair loss – at least in men. But with men heredity is a big player, too. It’s not exactly true (scientifically) that a man will inherit his maternal grandfather’s hair condition. But hair loss somewhere in the family can be a good sign of what’s to come.

For women, hormonal changes can cause hair loss.

Other hair loss causes include the following:  Thinning of the hair; alopecia areata (when the immune system attacks hair follicles); and scarring alopecia (when the hair follicles burn out and poof disappear).

What are hair loss treatments?

A number of surgical procedures can restore hair where it no longer exists, or where it is markedly thinner than other parts of the scalp.

What’s called a scalp flap is a popular option to treat male pattern baldness.

But there’s a new alternative to the clumpy transplantation procedures of the (fairly recent) past: it’s called micro hair transplantation, and it basically restores hair to the bald scalp much in the same way as large plugs. What’s different is that instead of those bulky transplants, micro hair transplantation takes individual micro-grafts of hair – literally single hair follicles, one by one – and transplants them in the bald scalp.

You can also get a scalp reduction, which involves the surgical removal of hairless scalp, followed by the pulling together and stretching of scalp that is rich with hair growth.

With scalp expansion, expanders filled with a saline solution are placed under the scalp. The saline expands the tissue. Stretched-out scalp tissue can make it easier for a surgeon to later perform scalp reduction.

If you’re looking for a more minor, or modest, addition of hair to bald places, you can benefit from punch-grafts, mini-grafts, micro-grafts, slit-grafts, and strip-grafts. But if you’re looking for a more significant, fuller treatment to baldness, you may want to consider flaps, tissue-expansion, or scalp reduction.

Micro skin grafts are the most popular treatment because their results look most natural and it’s virtually impossible for others to notice them. This is because, as noted above, they involve grafting single follicles at a time.

And, yes, the cost. It’s quite a range — from $3,000 to $15,000. Depending on the treatment you choose, of course.

Who would want to go through with this?

It’s pretty easy to understand how and why men feel self-conscious when they lose their hair. Hair is a symbol of virility and youth. So imagine how women feel when they experience hair loss!

Plenty of men (and women, too) are unfazed by their hair loss. Believe it or not, but many men actually derive confidence from baldness because they are proud of the aging process. Go figure.

Nonetheless, hair loss treatments are certainly sought after: The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery found that in 2008 surgeons performed 18,062 hair transplants.

The pros and cons:

A few pros and cons:

• Hair loss treatment can result in a boost in self-esteem.
• But no surgery can be expected to be perfect, and hair transplants are no exception. Numbness can persist in the donor and recipient areas of the scalp. It’s usually expected to go away in three months, but it can remain for six months to a year.
• The skin on the scalp could discolor.
• Some patients don’t even have enough hair to donate to their own bald scalps.
• And hair restoration procedures and drugs aren’t covered by insurance.

The bottom line:

There are many different types of hair loss treatments designed for men and women. The cost can be pretty high, and each procedure comes with its own list of risks. But it just might be the way to get back that youthful sense of confidence.

Laser hair restoration is as unlike hair transplanting as you can get. Hair transplants involve the surgical process of grafting hair-growing skin and inserting it in bald areas. Laser hair restoration is non-surgical. It’s a procedure that seems like the opposite of anything surgical in another way: Rather than being an invasive procedure that cuts into the flesh, laser hair restoration is a flashy (literally – it’s all lights!) low-level laser show that is all external, outside the surface of your scalp.

Laser hair restoration focuses low levels of infrared light energy directly onto the scalp in a process called photo-biostimulation. The heat from the infrared energy massages the scalp, expands the skin’s pores, increases cell metabolism, and increases the capacity for capillaries to carry blood (increasing blood flow to the scalp). All these factors – the results of exposure to the laser’s infrared light – contribute to a situation on the scalp that is conducive to healthy hair growth.

This treatment is designed in this way because it produces an environment on the head that no longer exists (because of baldness).

Here’s one way to think about the whole process. In the summer you may notice that your hair – or your friends’ hair – grows extra strong, extra thick, extra beautiful, extra vibrant, and extra full. This is attributed to the prolonged exposure to the sun’s pure red light that many of us experience during the summer months. We’re outside more often, and the sun’s rays are generally stronger.

So laser hair restoration seeks to reproduce that kind of environment for the scalp in an effort to re-jumpstart hair growth.

The classification low-level laser therapy (LLLT) describes any kind of laser treatment that is non-surgical, and only topical (i.e. on TOP of the surface of the skin).

Who is it for?

If you want to regain that thick healthy head of hair that you associate with youthful rigor, with life, with endless possibility, then you may want to look into laser hair restoration treatments.

Some people don’t really mind hair loss. They see it as a natural – and even handsome – side effect of the aging process. But others don’t want to accept it because they think it takes away from their look; or they want to feel the same vivacious energy that at one time they derived from the youthfulness of a lush, full head of hair.

What are the pros and cons of this procedure?

Remember, laser hair restoration is non-surgical. No bleeding, no cutting, no anesthesia: just flashing lights.

It’s the only FDA-approved hair-growth remedy that is not a drug, medicine, or surgical procedure.

Indeed there are no known side effects. Perhaps this is because laser hair restoration treatments use less energy than a 40-watt light bulb. The only precaution the patient must take is to make sure never to look directly into the laser beams.

But it’s not all so positive: there’s a list of drawbacks you’ll need to consider.

Let’s start with the number of treatments necessary and their cost – it’s steep. It takes  25 to 50 sessions. The 25 sessions will cost over $4,500. And that’s only half of the usually prescribed number of sessions.

Laser hair restoration is still heavily debated among medical specialists. While some physicians reject it entirely, others use it regularly. Who to trust? On top of that, the physicians who offer laser hair restoration often do so only in combination with hair restoration drugs like Rogaine or Propecia.

The bottom line

Laser hair restoration could be an excellent alternative to surgical hair transplants. But it can be expensive, and physicians aren’t yet unanimous on the procedure’s effectiveness.