Advantages and Disadvantages of Hair Transplant
Everyone, including males and females, does care about their outlooks. Nobody wants to go out without looking awesome and commendable. One of the essential facets of our outlook is our hair, and it goes a long way in complementing our appearance. Without fuller head hair, most people feel incomplete with their physical appearance.
Unfortunately, most people do suffer from hair loss; some might be due to balding, some due to aging, especially people above 40 years of age; mothers with children also suffer from postpartum hair loss and all other factors which make most people at crossroads on what to do.
Presently, there are numerous hair loss treatments such as laser, hair transplant surgery, and so on. People also opt for a hair replacement method such as hair patching, in which artificial hair is used to cover the balding area. Nevertheless, it has nothing to do with treating your hair loss.
Among all other treatments available worldwide, this surgery procedure remains one of the proven ways to regain your hair. In this article, our focus will be on the pros and cons of hair Transplants. Basically, you need to know the important things about hair transplant before opting for it.
Hair Transplant
Hair Transplant is best described as a surgical process that involves the movement of hair follicles from areas of the scalp or other parts of the body where hair is full, thick, and strong, moving them to areas deficient in hair. This process can also be known as hair restoration surgery. It restores a hairline that has fallen out due to aging, genetics, or other factors.
Hair transplant surgery has been in existence for more than 70 years now. People have gone through this procedure to restore their hair, and it has worked for most of them. The good news is that the surgery is not gender-based; it is for both males and females.
In the past, hair transplant surgery was a cosmetic procedure; however, it has become much more of a medical procedure in this present age. In addition to that, the success rate of hair transplant surgical procedures has improved tremendously.
Presently, there are several clinics in operation all around the globe, with a significant percentage of patients reporting to be satisfied with the surgical procedure and the after results. And, since hair transplant has become a bit more mainstream, there are both advantages and disadvantages to a hair transplant.
Right now, we will be looking at the benefits of hair transplants.
Advantages of Hair Transplanting
There are so many benefits attributed to a hair transplant. We may not be able to exhaust all the benefits attributed to it, but most of them will be mentioned, and they are:
1. Natural hair growth
Hair transplant surgical procedure results in a natural hair improvement. After the recovery period, your natural hair starts growing and replicating the other parts of your hair. And because everything's still your hair, it's completely natural.
2. Permanent solution
One of the benefits of getting a hair transplant done is because of the after the result, which is mostly a permanent one. After the surgical procedure has been completed and the recovery phase is over, your hair will begin to grow just like the way it was before the hair loss occurred. The most interesting part is that, as time goes on, it will even shed to the same extent as the other parts of your hair.
This forever result is why it's useful and applicable to both men and women who have lost almost half or all of their natural hair.
3. A perfect remedy for those with alopecia universalis or advanced baldness
Those with these conditions or other related conditions may not regain their normal hair back with other hair loss treatments like Rogaine or laser. But with hair transplants, people with such conditions can regain their normal hair.
4. An outpatient method
This surgical procedure may not really need extraction from any other body part apart from the scalp. This is simply because the sufficient hair needed for the surgery is already located on the scalp.
5. Improved Self-confidence
Everyone loves to look their best, and the majority of us care about how we look and the opinions of others about our outlooks. With a hair transplant being a remedy for hair loss, it definitely would improve your self-confidence as it's all-natural. Also, it won't be obvious to people that you did a hair transplant, except if you tell them. With a hair transplant, a hair loss worry is a thing of the past!
6. Cost Savings
Many people tend to get bothered when it comes to the cost of the surgery procedure, and they wonder a lot if the costs are worth it. However, If we critically look at this subject matter, we will realize that it is worth it. A hair transplant proffers more of a permanent solution to that part of the scalp where a hair loss occurred. And also, after the recovery period is over, it regains resemblance and looks exactly like the other parts of your hair that were not touched during the surgery.
When you compare this to the other hair loss remedies where you would have to be spending money on the hair, buying all sorts of things that will stimulate the hair follicles, thus enabling the hair to grow, you would realize that hair transplant saves more money than others.
Disadvantages of Hair Transplanting
While a hair transplant can be an excellent solution for many patients who end up getting thrilled with their results, this surgical procedure may also be associated with a few drawbacks.
Such as it is in life, everything that has its advantages also comes with its disadvantages. Although, some of these disadvantages can be managed if handled well.
The drawbacks of a hair transplant include:
Some likely perils can be associated with the surgery, and all potential candidates must be aware of such hazards that could occur. Most of these perils include infection, bleeding, and scarring that occurs after the surgery. While skin infections can typically be treated effectively with oral antibiotics and topical creams, there is no treatment for permanent scars. It is important to discuss any concerns with your doctor before moving forward with the procedure.
The surgery procedure is not an exact science, so the expected quantity and quality of hair may not eventually be the outcome. As with many types of surgery that you are conversant with, a hair transplant is different from other types of surgery that you can think of as it's difficult to predict the quantity and quality of hair you will most likely end up with.
How well the new hair will grow with the surgery procedure is difficult to predict because its growth depends on the health of the hair follicles you harvested.
In most cases, many people decide to undergo a hair transplant because they want a tremendous improvement in one area of their hair or to put an end to hair loss. These reasons are mostly the solutions hair transplants proffer.
However, some things can affect how well your new hair grows, and these all have to do with the health of your donor area. When a person has a hair transplant procedure, hair follicles are typically harvested from either an area of the scalp or other parts of their body before being transplanted onto their scalp. The area from which these follicles are taken is known as the donor area, and it needs to be in healthy condition for them to be suitable for transplantation.
If an individual has any diseases or scars in this region, this could mean that the hairs become unsuitable for use during a transplant. In addition, if blood flow in this area is limited, it may also cause issues when it comes to harvesting follicles for grafting during a transplant procedure.
This is why a second or third transplant may be needed if you don't get good results the first time or lose more hair over time.
Hair transplant surgeries are typically not performed on people under the age of 25 years old because a young person's hair loss pattern is often unpredictable. The results of surgery can be harder to predict than for someone with more mature hair loss.
Hair transplantation is a cosmetic procedure, which means your health insurance will likely not cover it. Depending on the technique used and the skill of the surgeon, costs can range from $4,000 to $15,000 and up. With many hair transplants, ongoing annual costs are required for maintenance as well as continued medications.
You won't see results right away as it takes time for your transplanted hair to grow. As the donor hair follicles are transplanted to the bald area by a few numbers of hair follicles, the transplanted hairs take time to start growing again. In fact, it may take at least three months for the growth of all your hair from this surgery.
Yeah, you saw it right; there's a possibility that the hair may start falling out after a couple of weeks, and this may be traced to scalp inflammation that may result after the surgery has been done.
Generally, the first two weeks after the surgery has been carried out are the most crucial weeks. The hair follicles that have been successfully transplanted may start to shed their hair during this period. Hair loss can either be a temporary or a permanent one. Most of the time, it's always a temporary thing.
However, if you happen to experience permanent hair loss, you may need to have another hair transplant done.
Even with local anesthesia, it still can be a painful procedure. After the surgery, if you are like most patients, you will experience some degree of pain. Discomfort can be managed with pain medication, but keep in mind that these drugs may interact with other medication you are taking and cause side effects. And also, pain relievers do not work for everyone.
You should make sure that your doctor has many years of expertise in hair transplanting before proceeding with surgery. The surgeon and his assistants need to be aware of all modern methods available in this area so that the surgery can go with ease without complications later. Experience in that particular field is highly mandatory.
Final Thoughts
If you're considering a hair transplant, consult your doctor and talk with him/her about it before opting for it. And also, you need to be very optimistic about the outcome of the surgery. You never can tell if you may end up not experiencing any of these complications.
In addition to that, you must take the time to consider all of the pros and cons associated with it. While there is a high probability that the hair transplant will be beneficial for your hair loss, there are other factors that could affect the results you are hoping for too. For example, does the doctor in charge of your hair transplants have experience in performing hair transplants? Do they have hospitals that specialize in this surgical procedure? If so, do they have any cases where patients experienced complications due to a poor fit or an uneven result between their patient's head and their scalp?
It's also important not to rush into any decision, as hair transplantation has its own pros and cons. The process requires several months of recovery, which can be difficult for some people–especially those who work full time–and the recovery phase can also cause additional stress in your life.