Hair Transplantation

Hair Replacement for Men and Women

Many men feel balding is not desirable and want to have more hair. Losing a youthful self-image can inhibit your self confidence. But this suffering isn't necessary with the many hair replacement options now available. Although it won't restore the same thick hair you had at age sixteen, hair replacement can help restore your hairline while covering the baldness and can bolster self esteem.

Before Hair Loss		After Hair Loss

It has gone unrecognized for many years that women can also genetically inherit the gene for balding and experience progressive thinning of their frontal scalp. Women, like men, do not have to suffer from the inability to manage their thinning hair and do not have to resort to wearing wigs. They can also be successfully transplanted and enjoy their own hair throughout their lives.

Before Hair Loss		After Hair Loss

Procedure

During the initial consultation with Dr. Jennings, he will evaluate the extent of the hair loss and obtain a history as to the natural progression of hair loss. He will then take into account the patient's goals for hair replacement and determine whether they are a good candidate for the procedure and discuss options.

Dr. Jennings has been performing hair transplants for the past eighteen years and has seen many improvements in the procedure and utilizes all of the latest techniques when performing surgery. We no longer use “plugs” which consisted of circular portions of scalp skin with 10-20 hairs which sometimes resulted in cosmetic outcomes that could be detected by others. Follicular unit grafting is now the state of the art. The benefits of this technique are that we can transplant individual hairs or small groups of 2-4 hairs which grow just like your own scalp hairs and are undetectable by others and remain completely natural. Hair transplants work because the hairs are removed from the posterior aspect of the scalp which remain throughout our lives and are under different biologic signal control than the hairs on the front or crown of the scalp, and are moved to the areas where they are needed. The body is not smart enough to recognize that they have been moved, so they continue to grow throughout life as they would have normally before being transplanted.

Before Hair Loss		After Hair Loss

When a patient comes in for surgery, he or she is given medication to induce relaxation. The posterior aspect of the scalp where the hair follicles will be harvested is trimmed short in a horizontal row and anesthetized in about 5 minutes. The patient is unable to feel anything while parallel rows of skin with follicles are removed. That area is then sutured closed so that the hair above completely camouflages the incision. While the patient is resting, we take the skin that has been removed, and with the assistance of microscopic visualization, the tiny fragments of skin with 1-4 hair follicles are created. It then takes about 5 minutes to anesthetize the front hairline which numbs everything behind it. We then use miniature blades to make tiny slits in the areas that are thinning or that are bald. The tiny follicular grafts are then placed into the slits and angled and oriented like normal hair grows.

Before Hair Loss		After Hair Loss

Once all of the grafts are transferred, the procedure is complete. The hair is bonded in place by the patient's own clotting mechanisms which acts like cement. Usually, there are no bandages applied and a scarf or cap can be worn home. The discomfort the evening after surgery is usually nothing worse than a mild headache and can normally be controlled with Tylenol. Pinpoint crusts then form on the surface of the grafts which come off in 7-10 days. Forehead swelling may occur on the third day post op and is transient. The newly transplanted follicles either begin to grow immediately, or from the shock of being transplanted, may go dormant for 2-4 months and then begin to grow. Once their growth begins, they continue to grow indefinitely and are treated just like your own hair.

Before Hair Loss		After Hair Loss

We take pride in the appearance of our transplanted patients and strive for the most natural look that can be obtained with each patient. People that you associate with slowly see a transformation in the way you look but will often not be able to pinpoint what the change is and will often comment that you look younger or that you have lost weight. Our patients frequently tell us that hair replacement is the most important thing that they have ever done for themselves and enjoy it every time they look in the mirror. We look forward to helping you with your hair loss concerns.

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