The very basic reason for a hair replacement surgery is discomfort with your looks caused due to hair loss. Hair loss occurs for different reasons like ageing, hormonal changes or family history of baldness passed on to you. At times hair loss can be caused due to accidental burns. Hair loss replacement surgery makes use of the existing hair of the patient and transfers them to areas that have less or absolutely no hair and is a proven method to cure hair loss.

Most people believe that baldness is an after effects of poor blood circulation, vitamin deficiencies, wearing helmet, etc which is a false belief. Being a male itself is enough reason for hair loss and the reason of baldness for women is due to the phenomenon of male pattern baldness in them.

Hair replacement with plastic surgery

Besides hair transplant and hair restoration surgery, there are some other plastic surgery options available for hair replacement. Scalp flaps and scalp reduction are some of the procedures that are available as hair replacement options. But these usually are more appropriate for patients who desire a more dramatic change. Besides these options are only suitable for men's hair loss replacement, women generally cannot receive these procedures because they have a Diffused hair loss caused by slightly different mechanism of Androgenetic Alopecia than that seen in men.

If you are at a stage of hair loss where your doctor believes that a hair replacement surgery is your ultimate option to prevent any further hair loss, then you must go for it. Before getting a hair transplant surgery done, discuss your expectations with regards to your looks - how you want your hair to look after the hair loss replacement surgery or what is your ideal hair style, etc with your surgeon.

You don't have to wait for all your hair to be lost before going for a hair transplantation surgery. In fact it is not advisable to wait for too long but human hair patterns are diverse before the age of thirty. Ideally you need to wait till your thirties to go in for a hair replacement surgery since your hair patterns would get stabilized by then for the surgeon to take any action. Your donor hair site may not yet be well established when you are young which will make the procedure a little conservative. Haste will make waste here; try other hair loss measures till then and get a hair replacement surgery done when it's the right time. The hair loss replacement surgery procedure seems lengthy and requires a lot of patience but at the end it is worth the wait.

Before the surgery

Hair replacement surgery is an individualized treatment. To make sure that every surgical option is available to you, find a doctor who has experience performing all types of replacement techniques-flaps and tissue expansion as well as transplants. Look elsewhere if your doctor tells you that he or she has perfected one technique that can "do it all." In your initial consultation, your surgeon will evaluate your hair growth and loss, review your family history of hair loss, and find out if you've had any previous hair replacement surgery. Your surgeon will also ask you about your lifestyle and discuss your expectations and goals for surgery.

Medical conditions that could cause problems during or after surgery, such as uncontrolled high blood pressure, blood-clotting problems, or the tendency to form excessive scars, should also be checked by your doctor. Be sure to tell your surgeon if you smoke or are taking any drugs or medications, especially Aspirin or other drugs that affect clotting.

If you decide to have hair replacement surgery, your surgeon will explain anesthesia, the type of facility where the surgery will be performed, and the risks and cost involved. Don't hesitate to ask your doctor any questions.

Make sure you understand your surgeon's plan-which procedures will be used and how long each will take. Ask your doctor to give you an idea of what you will look like after the procedure or, in the case of grafts, after each stage of treatment.

Surgical process of hair replacement

There are numerous nuances of hair replacement procedure that you are curious to know about but do not know where to ask. Most of the individuals contemplating the surgical operation have many questions such as:

1. Where will be the surgery done?
2. Are there different types of anesthesia that the surgeon will use?
3. What will happen during surgery?

To begin with, most of the hair replacement surgeries are held in the surgeon’s facility or as an outpatient based center. Only in rare cases, it might require hospitalization. Irrespective of the technique used, all of the replacement of hair procedures are conducted under local anesthesia and may require sedation for higher relaxation. Even though you may not feel the pain, tugging and pressure can be felt during the surgical operation. However during flaps and advanced surgical grafting procedures, general anesthesia is given.

The most anticipated phase of the replacement procedure is the surgery and transplantation procedure. The complete process needs to be understood as it happens in differently in a variety of procedures.

The punch grafts have 10-15 hair follicles. Mini graft has 2-5 hair, while micro grafts have just 1 to 3 follicles. In the slip graft procedure, slits are made in the scalp and tiny slit grafts are inserted, each with 4-10 follicles in it. While the longer versions are the strip grafts that have about 30-35 hair and are long thing segments of skin tissue that is grafted on balding patches.

Additionally, this is not just one-session procedure and your surgeon will let you know how many times the hair replacement procedure will need to be repeated to get the desired effect. The other key considerations that will decide the number of sittings are the color and texture of hair and the amount of coverage. It has been seen that coarse grey or blond hair has better and faster coverage than finer dark colored hair.

In the common punch graft technique, the surgeon uses a round steel tube like instrument to punch the grafts out and replace it on the balding areas close to the frontal hairline. Each of these round grafts has 8-10 hair. Then the donor areas are stitched and bandaged for healing which takes about a week. Numerous sessions are done and there are intervals of a few weeks to a few months to see the progress. The total time to actually see the full results of the hair replacement treatment can span from 18 months to 2 years.

After your surgery

How you feel after surgery depends on the extent and complexity of the procedure. Any aching, excessive tightness or throbbing can be controlled with pain medication prescribed by your physician.

If bandages are used, they will usually be removed one day later. You may gently wash your hair within two days following surgery. Any stitches will be removed in a week to 10 days. Be sure to discuss the possibility of swelling, bruising, and drainage with your surgeon.

Because strenuous activity increases blood flow to the scalp and may cause your transplants or incisions to bleed, you may be instructed to avoid vigorous exercise and contact sports for at least three weeks. Some doctors also advise that sexual activity be avoided for at least 10 days after surgery.

To make sure that your incisions are healing properly, your doctor will probably want to see you several times during the first month after surgery. It's important that you carefully follow any advice you receive at these follow-up visits.

Risk factors related to hair replacement procedures

As with any surgical procedure, hair replacement surgery entails numerous risks that must be clear to you before you actually go ahead with the procedure. The chances of things going wrong can happen during and after the hair replacement operation and includes infections, scarring and failure of the surgery.

The worst that can happen is that the complete procedure can fail, deemed as an unsuccessful surgical process. Well, it entails quite many things such as complete fallout of hair follicles or the transplanted hair follicles die. In other words, it means that the balding spots will remain as no new hair will grow there. Additionally, failure of hair replacement surgery is also termed when there is irregular growth of new hair due to patchy transplantations. Thus, to remedy the unsuccessful surgeries, another hair replacement procedure will be needed. The fact remains, the more surgeries you get done, higher are the chances of scarring and infections.