Surgical Hair Replacement Techniques

A doctor could recommend having a hair replacement surgery for you after assessing your hair loss problem. There are different types of hair replacement surgery that are performed. Hair replacement surgery is referred to the process whereby surgical incisions are carried out to transplant hair from the donor area to the hair loss area of the body. These procedures can either be performed inside the doctor’s office or in the out patient ward of a hospital. Hence, the nature of the surgery will give or determine how or where the hair replacement surgery is going to take place.

Are you concerned about the side effects of undergoing this procedure? Well, there is no doubt that every kind of surgery usually has its side effects; hair replacement procedure is not an exception. The common side effects encountered by patients who under went this hair replacement surgery are sensitivities on the scalp of the patients and this varies on the patients. In some patients, it could be minor discomforts while in others the discomforts are extreme. However, these side effects do not last forever. Local anesthesia is used along with sedation to carry out the treatment on patients. The following paragraphs will discuss types of surgical procedures that are carried out in hair replacement surgery.

Scalp Reduction: This is a hair replacement procedure in which the patient’s head is expected to be filled with hair on the top and at the back. This procedure is not applicable when the patient’s hair loss is concentrated at the front hairline. Thus, scalp reduction is applied to cover hair loss at the top or back of the head.

Tissue expansion: In this procedure, surgeons for hair replacement often use devices known as ’tissue-expander’ to encourage hair growth in the head. These devices are structured ‘balloon-like’. In the process, the scalp is incised and this device is inserted into the skin. The device is going to expand and lead to skin cells growth in the head. The expanders are left for several weeks so as to enable this action to take place. However, after the skin cells have grown in the bald area, the tissue expand can be removed and relocated to other places.

Hair transplant: This is the procedure involving the removing of hair follicles from the donor area of the head or body to the area where hair loss has occurred. Many sessions are usually performed to carry out this procedure. The sessions are done in between months and may last for two years. Hair transplant simply means transferring hair from the donor area to the bald area. This procedure is performed in both men and women.

The above are common procedures used in hair replacement surgery. However, after the completion of each of the procedure, a touch up process may be applied after the incisions have healed.