Addressing Your Concerns: Will Hair Transplants Actually Work?

As professionals in the medical and hair restoration industry, we can tell you with confidence that hair transplants do work, and modern developments in technique can allow for particularly impressive results. Learning more about hair transplants will help to instil confidence in anyone who is sceptical, or who simply wants to know more about the process.

In a basic sense, hair transplantation is surprisingly simple. Balding is identified, donor hairs are carefully removed from an area that is abundant with healthy hair, and the individual strands are implanted into the affected areas. While some might assume that the process creates new hair, the reality is that the hair is coming from somewhere else on your body, so you do lose hair in another area. Donor sites are carefully selected so that a good balance is found. It is important to find hairs that are compatible in terms of physical characteristics, which is why head hair is preferably replaced with hair from another area of the head. In some cases, body hair can be used on the scalp, but will only be suited to certain hairstyles or used in conjunction with micropigmentation treatment.

There are two effective techniques that are used when performing transplants, and both have various advantages and disadvantages.

FUT Hair Transplant, or Strip Hair Replacement Transplant

This technique is the most commonly used hair implantation method, and accounts for more than two thirds of all procedures performed. It is highly popular with both patients and professionals because it is the most efficient way to make use of donor hair.

This is a surgical procedure where extremely small and thin strips of hair are taken for implantation at a site that is impacted by balding. Local anaesthetic is used to reduce any pain and discomfort that might occur during the procedure. The best places to take donations is from areas where there is plenty of growth. Usually, this is from the back and sides of the head. The area is shaved so that the hair is close to the scalp, and then the thin strip is surgically cut and the small area of scalp is removed. The area is stitched and healing takes around 10 days.

Under a microscope, the small section of removed scalp has individual follicular units removed, after which they are ready for transplant. Reinsertion into a balding area is performed. The surgeon inly needs to make small incisions (roughly the size of a pin head), into which the follicular units can be grafted.