dinesh clinic

Thinning of hair and bald spots can be caused by a number of factors. Just as you can ‘erase’ wrinkles with cosmetic surgery, today, you can ‘fill’ bald spots with hair transplants. Hair transplants are a type of surgery which transplate hair follicles from one area to another. There are two types of hair transplant surgery; Follicular Unit Strip Surgery (FUSS) and Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE).

Follicular Unit Strip Surgery involves the removal of a 6-10” piece of skin from the back of your head. This is because the back of your head is genetically resistant to balding. This is then divided into thousands of tiny grafts each with a few strands of hair on them. For a Follicular Unit Extraction, the doctor will pluck individual hair follicles from the back of your head while you are under anesthesia. This can be done in a single session or multiple sessions depending on the amount of hair follicles needed and the surgeons’ experience. These are then prepared into grafts. The surgeon will then make holes or slits in the bald spot that is to be filled and carefully place one graft in each slit. Finally the scalp is bandaged. This process can take anywhere between 4-8 hours.

• Don’t worry, if you begin to see the transplanted hair fall out after 2-3 weeks. This is normal and will be followed by new growth in a few months. You may require a hair growing drug to improve hair growth rate after a hair transplant surgery. You should be able to see dense hair growth within 10-11 months.
• A hair transplant is not as painless as other forms of cosmetic surgery. Most patients require pain medication for several days after the surgery. Your scalp will feel very tender for the next few days and you may also require anti inflammatory drugs. However, you should be able to get back to work within a week.
• There are minimal risks associated with this procedure. In some cases, the patient may experience hair fall from the area where the transplant was taken. This is usually temporary and is known as ‘shock loss’. There may also be slight inflammation when the new hair follicles emerge. This can be effectively treated with antibiotics.
• A hair transplant surgery does not guarantee that your hair will stop falling. Hence, in some cases, you may need to undergo the procedure again to hide bald spots.

Male pattern baldness and other kinds of baldness can turn out to be a pesky affair that also eventually might have a bearing on your confidence level. A hair transplant is an excellent way of dealing with this issue. This method usually takes the hair follicles from the donor site and implants them on the scalp where male pattern balding has set in. While this is an effective and commonly used process, it also comes with minor scars and other issues. There are many things which you must take care of, after the procedure. Here are a few of those things.

1. Scars: The procedure will leave you with a few scars as you wait for the hair to grow back from the replaced follicles. There may also be a little bit of swelling or inflammation at the site of the transplant which may cause irritation. Ask your surgeon for medication which will bring down the swelling. You must make sure that you do not touch or scratch the surface under any circumstances.
2. Elevation: After the procedure, as mentioned before, there will be some amount of swelling. So, it is important to keep your head in an elevated position so as to ensure that there is no extra swelling in the head. For this, you may have to sleep with your head on two pillows so as to keep the head propped up. Also, you may want to sleep or relax in a reclining chair for a few days until the swelling subsides.
3. Physical Activity: Sweating will make the scar and swelling even itchier. So it is imperative that you shy away from physical activities like workouts and running. Also, you may want to stay out of the sun, or even avoid a trip to the sauna for a few days as the exposure may lead to sweating.
4. Hygiene: The area around the scar and your scalp in general must be kept clean. Use mild shampoos and medication to keep the numbness and irritation at bay so that the scars get enough time to recover.
5. Food: In order to help the scar recover faster, you will need to avoid food that is too spicy as this usually has an adverse effect on the incisions and scars after any surgical procedure. These spices usually create a lot of heat and can cause further swelling, redness and other symptoms. Excessive alcohol consumption must also be avoided.

There are a number of things that you can take care of after a hair transplant procedure in order to recover faster and be comfortable until the hair growth starts. Talk to us in a private consultation for more information!