Dr. Juvita Rasquinha

Hair is a person's crowning glory and to witness bald spots emerge or thinning hair can be a nightmare for many. Thankfully, with advances in cosmetic surgery, this is not something you need to settle for. With a hair implant or a hair transplant surgery, you can easily cover bald spots and thicken thin hair. So which one should you go for? At the onset, hair implants and hair transplants seem to be synonyms.

While both address baldness and thinning hair, this is not the case. Getting a hair implant involves implanting synthetic hair into the scalp while a hair transplant involves the removal of hair follicles from one part of the scalp and implanting them into another part of the scalp.

Here are a few ways the two procedures differ:

• Look: Hair implants involve synthetic hair and hence can never look completely natural. A hair implant is often compared to a wig that has been fixed to your scalp. On the other hand, a hair transplant uses your own hair and hence merges with your existing hair. With time, no one will be able to tell if you've had a hair transplant while with hair implants.
• Grooming: You can cut synthetic fibers implanted in your scalp, but hair implants will not grow like natural hair. Thus, if you undergo this procedure to address thinning hair, you will have to settle for the same hairstyle for quite a long time. Hair transplants will grow and fall like the rest of your hair. Also if a hair follicle that has been transplanted falls, it can re-grow, but if a hair implant strand falls, it will need to be replaced with another synthetic follicle. Thus the chances of needing follow up surgeries are higher with hair implants than with hair transplants.
• Rejection: The chances of your body rejecting a synthetic fiber are much higher than the chances of your body rejecting a hair follicle transplant. Thus, the chances of infections are higher with hair implants than hair transplants.
• Results: Hair implants have instant results whereas when it comes to a hair transplant, it can take up to 8 months to notice visible results. In the meanwhile, the hair follicles may temporarily fall from the area the transplant was taken from as well.

Today, between the two, a hair transplant is more preferred than a hair implant. Before taking a decision between the two, go over the pros and cons with your doctor and see what form of treatment is more suitable to you.