“Am I a Hair Transplant Candidate?”
The most extreme intervention we can make into halting and reversing hair loss is a hair transplant surgery. The operation involves extracting hairs from the back of the head and implanting them into the areas where we have seen some hair loss. While modern medicine makes the procedure extremely safe and the results better than ever, you may not necessarily be a good candidate for a hair transplant. There are a lot of factors that will influence the scope for a good result from the surgery.
The first and foremost is the level of hair loss that you have already seen. The further along your hair loss journey, the more difficult it becomes to get a result you may desire. Unfortunately, we have a limited supply of donor hairs that can be transplanted. If our hair loss is so far progressed, we are likely to not have enough donor hair available to be able to fill in the gaps of our hair loss. Treating hair loss at the earliest possible time is the most important step to take in your hair loss journey. The best way to manage hair loss in the long term are the two FDA-approved drug therapies, Finasteride & Minoxidil.
Age plays a significant factor in determining whether you are a good hair transplant candidate. Hair loss can be seen very early into adulthood with 1 in 5 men at the age of 20 experiencing the early stages of Male Pattern Baldness. Despite this it is usually recommended that men under the age of 25 avoid surgery as the hair loss develops. Our hair loss develops over time and an early hair transplant can lead to disastrous results. If the hair loss progresses over time and isn’t managed well it will create an unnatural look.
Understanding the cause of the hair loss is important to decide what the best course of action is for your hair loss. The most common type of hair loss is Androgenetic Alopecia, otherwise known as Genetic Hair Loss. There are plenty of other causes of hair loss that don’t lead to permanent hair loss. For example, hair loss that is caused by stress is only temporary and will regrow over time. The easiest sign that your hair loss is genetic hair loss is the onset of the loss. Genetic Hair Loss is gradual hair loss that develops over years. Many other causes of hair loss are categorized by a much more sudden onset for the hair loss.
One of the first things your Hair Transplant Surgeon will do is to evaluate the density of hair you have in the donor area. We are looking a high density of hair as that means you have lots of hair that can transplanted. Low density means there isn’t a lot of hair that can be transplanted. If you over harvest your donor area you will have a bare look to the back of your head, not ideal. A hair transplant is just a redistribution of our hair follicles around the head, so the more we have at the point of the transplant the better off we are.