1. Will hair transplants ever fall out?

In men, the donor area appears to be more likely to continue to grow indefinitely, since men bald on a different pattern (Norwood). The baldest man you see almost always has a horseshoe of hair around his lower scalp which is where we take the strip of skin from which we derive the follicular grafts or transplants. Women, on the other hand typically have more diffuse loss (Ludwig pattern) and have poorer quality grafts, also, in the donor region, so some of the transplants may deteriorate over time. Many transplant physicians including me, believe that low level laser therapy can offer benefit to improve and thicken existing hair by healing the affected follicles to minimize continued thinning and improve transplanted follicles ability to grow good quality hair. Men can take a prescription drug called Propecia (finasteride) to prevent continued hair loss, however, it does not work for women. Rogaine topical solution (minoxidil) is the only FDA medication approved that may offer some help to females.


2. Does my head have to be shaved for surgery?

As a real board certified surgeon, I am reluctant to call this procedure "surgery." It is more accurate to call it an office skin biopsy. Most of the hair transplant "surgeons" are dermatologists (trained internal medicine physicians who do fellowships in dermatology). They are certainly capable of doing hair transplants, but many potential patients for hair transplantation have been frightened by the concern that "surgery" is required and it is really quite simple, safe, and basically pain free. Local anesthesia is injected and anyone can tolerate that without a problem. To answer your question, however, only the 1 to 1.5 cm. wide piece of skin is shaved, since we are retrieving the follicles in the skin, the hair gets in the way. After the superficial skin biopsy (strip) is removed the edges are pulled back together and no area without hair is visible. The hair above usually covers the stitch or clips and they are removed in 7-10 days. The only exception to this is if a patient has had multiple procedures, then a doctor with a lot of experience or a trained surgeon makes lots of sense.


3. Is it safe to do large sessions?

In the practices that do a lot of hair restorations and have an adequate team of technicians, it is safe. My practice is almost all large session procedures, often, called mega-sessions which are procedures of 2500 grafts or more in my definition.


4. How do I know if I need a mega-session?

It depends on what you are trying to achieve and if you have enough donor. Your HT doctor can evaluate you and offer an opinion on your visit or once he/she has pictures to evaluate.


5. How many hairs are transplanted per session.

Typically, we calculate an average of about 2.5 hairs/graft since follicles grow 1, 2, 3 and sometimes 4 hairs each. So, we would estimate about 5000 hairs for 2000 grafts.


6. When should a hair transplant be done?

Since it usually takes 8-12 months before patients have a near final result, I would say as soon as you can if your objective is to have a better looking head of hair as soon as possible.