HAIR REPLACEMENT
Hair Replacement and other Solutions for Hair Loss
Your hair can define you as an individual. Your choice of haircut and hair colour says a lot about you. It can tell others what kind of person you are and, in some cases, even what kind of music you like.
Losing your hair, at any age, can be very traumatic as it commonly symbolises a loss of youth, even though this might not be the case. It can also radically alter your appearance and reduce the options to change your ‘look’.
For women, hair loss can be especially troubling as it has a distinctly masculine stigma attached to it. Thankfully, there are now genuinely effective remedies to hair loss that don’t involve resorting to hairpieces or the dreaded ‘comb over’.
Hair Replacement
The idea that hair loss in men is caused by poor circulation to the scalp has been proven to be nothing more than a myth. Similarly, the theories that hair loss can be determined by looking at the maternal grandfather or that hair loss doesn’t occur after the age of forty have also been disproved.
The truth behind hair loss is that it is caused by aging, changing hormones and a genetic disposition towards going bald. It is also true that the earlier hair loss begins, the more severe it is likely to be.
Knowing these facts doesn’t make hair loss any easier to bear and the other unfortunate truth is that over 80% of men will experience the onset of male-pattern baldness in their lifetime.
The chances are that like most men worried about hair loss, you’ve tried an array of anti-hair loss conditioners and shampoos with little luck.
The permanent answer to replacing lost hair is to opt for a hair replacement treatment. Over the last thirty years, more than a million people have undergone hair transplant surgery and with modern techniques delivering a vastly improved ratio of success, now is the perfect time to see if a transplant could work for you.
The transplant procedure involves removing individual follicle, grafts or hair bundles from areas of the head where hair still grows (usually the back and the sides). These grafts are then surgically placed into small incisions in the scalp. Two of the common types of graft:
- Strip Graft
- Individual follicle graft
In a strip graft an area of scalp is removed from the back of the head and the hairs are taken from it and placed individually where they are needed. This can leave a scar which is usually hidden in the hair at the back of the head
Alternatively individual follicles can be removed one at a time, thus there is no scar from the collection sites. The hairs are then placed individually into the areas that they are needed.
Hair can be taken from all parts of the body, but the quality and texture of hair differs. The best hair is from the back of the head, which does not fall out with age, but in some cases there may not be enough hair here for a full head of hair replacement and it has to be harvested from other parts of the body.
Older techniques such as plug grafts do not seem to give the most natural results. But if you have had plug grafts, you can have the appearance improved with individual follicle grafting.
There are various grafting techniques and levels of intensity, depending on the level of hair loss for each individual. This also means the cost of hair replacement can vary depending on your circumstances but you can expect to pay between £3,000 and £5,000 for a session of about 2,500 hairs. Some patients have two or three such sessions depending upon the donor site.
Propecia
PROPECIA is the only once-a-day pill for the treatment of certain types of male pattern hair loss in men. PROPECIA reduces DHT, a key cause of hair loss.
Clinical studies of PROPECIA demonstrated visible results.
A 5-year clinical study demonstrated the effectiveness of PROPECIA.
- 9 of 10 men who took PROPECIA had visible results—either regrowth of hair (48% [134 of 279]) or no further hair loss (42% [117 of 279])—vs 25% [4 of 16] who took a placebo (sugar pill), according to an assessment of photographs by an independent panel of dermatologists.
- 2 of 3 men who took PROPECIA regrew hair, as measured by hair count. All of the men in the study who were not taking PROPECIA lost hair.
- A majority of men who took PROPECIA were rated as improved by doctors—77% (210 of 271) vs 15% (2 of 13) of men who took a placebo.
- A majority of men who took PROPECIA reported that their bald spot got smaller, their hair loss slowed down, and the appearance of their hair improved.
Propecia has to be continued to maintain its effects.
Regain
Regaine contains the active ingredient Minoxidil which works by increasing the supply of blood and nutrients to the hair follicles, strengthening existing hair and stimulating secondary growth. This produces thicker, longer, more-visible hair. Regaine achieves these results without affecting male hormones. Regaine also make a gentle, non-silicon based shampoo called Pregaine which complements Regaine products by cleaning your hair effectively without preventing your treatment from being absorbed.
Regaine must be continued to maintain its beneficial effects.