Male Pattern Baldness

The Hair Transplant Procedure and the Recovery Period

The genetic baldness or the Androgenic alopecia is a hereditary transferred disorder that is transferred from one generation to the next via the combined effect of the genes and hormones. The male pattern baldness affects more than 50% of all men and also women get affected by the female pattern hair loss. The male pattern hair loss is rated on the Norwood scale has 7 categories and the number of grade increases as the extent of loss increases.

Why Male Pattern Baldness occurs in Men?

Responsible factor for causing the male pattern hair loss is Androgen hormone, a male sex hormone responsible for presenting the male sexual characteristics and also affect the hair growth. When the hormone, Androgen combines with the enzyme 5-alpha-reductase produces the DHT-hormone or DI-hydro testosterone that plays at a key role in the pattern baldness. Both the genders are affected by the Androgenic alopecia, but only men experience the baldness issue, whereas the female shows the extreme thinning and a wider gap in the mid-crown area of the scalp.

The Reason that Explains why men only experience the Total Baldness is as follows: –

1. Androgen is the Male Sex Hormone: The Androgen is the male sex hormone and plays a prime role in presenting the male pattern baldness. The hair loss problem gets accelerated by the effect of the genes, hormone, age, and medical conditions as well. Some health conditions escalate the case of pattern hair loss like spot baldness, peeling of the scalp, fungal infections, rash and redness of the scalp, and the unusual pattern of hair loss.
2. Radiation or Chemotherapy: The treatment applied for cancer treatment like chemotherapy or radiation can cause the greater extent of hair loss. However, it is found out that the patients affected by the cancer are more prone to hair loss.
3. Hair Loss Begins at the Temple: The male pattern baldness begins at the temple or the crown area of the scalp. Some men usually start the hair loss in the M-shaped from the frontal part of the scalp and some men experience a single bald spot. The pattern and extent may be different, but the solution is only the hair transplant procedure if you are affected by the genetic baldness.

The Hair Transplant Procedure: Method & the Performance-

The procedure of hair transplant is actually the process of transferring the hair root from the donor part to the recipient balding areas of the scalp. The changing of hair root location fulfils the job of the transplantation that covers the hair loss affected areas with full of live hair roots. The procedure is performed by the methods or the technique of the hair root extraction, either done by the FUT or through the FUE hair transplant.

The FUT or the Strip method of the Surgery: –

The strip or the FUT method of the hair transplant surgery is done via the strip excision that contains the hair follicles/grafts. This excision is made by the smaller and a simple incision that allows a surgeon to receive the excised part of the strip that later sent to the dissection job. The hair graft dissection is performed under the higher magnification of microscopes in such a manner that the live and healthy individual grafts are obtained. The extracted grafts are finally implanted into the recipient balding part of the scalp. In his way, the hair transplant procedure is done with the strip method.

Merits of the Strip Harvesting Technique/FUT:

• The FUT gives the permanent hair roots that remain forever on the scalp
• It gives the maximum number of grafts/hair follicles to perform the procedure
• The multiple sessions are possible from the same donor part
• The high-density packed hair transplant is all possible
• It gives the scarless results as the advanced closing technique is applied to perform the procedure.

The FUE Hair Transplant Procedure:

The FUE or the follicular unit extraction is the process of hair root extraction via the punching tool; either it is the motorized punching tool or the robotic extraction machine. This is also known as the blind technique as the graft extraction is done randomly. This gives the limited number of hair roots due to the limitation of the donor area as the random punching needs the aesthetic distance for every punching, subsequently reduces the capacity of the root extraction.

Merits of the FUE Hair Transplant:

• It is recommended in the case of body hair transplant, especially such as eyebrow, moustache, and the beard hair transplant
• It is performed when the need for the grafts are less in the case of the lesser grade of baldness
• The patients affected by the spot baldness or the Alopecia areata
• The FUE technique is recommended when a patient is underage to receive the hair transplant procedure, mainly with the FUT technique
• The FUE is allowed when a patient doesn’t possess the strong donor supply as well.

The Recovery Period in the Hair Transplant:

In fact, the procedure is just a one-day procedure and from the very next day, the patient joins the office or the workplace. However, it is a normal surgical procedure that doesn’t need rest or the extra precautions. The healing takes just 3-4 days as the antibiotics and the painkillers are advisable after the procedure.

Usually, the hair transplant procedure takes 9-12 months in order to give the best visible outcome. The head gets fully covered with the hair roots and taken the aesthetic length to show the visible outcome.

Primarily, in the starting 3 months of the procedure, the hair roots started to grow and covered all over the implanted areas. But, the shedding starts as a transforming effect of the procedure and 30% of transplanted hair shed off. As a matter of fact, the roots again started to grow as the roots remain intact in the scalp that facilitates the regrowth procedure.  The shedding starts after a few months of the surgery and continues up to the next 6 weeks and thereafter the regrowth occurs normally and naturally adopts the hair growth cycle.

So, it is recommended to attend the primary consultation if you are experiencing the hair loss/baldness problem.