What is a hair transplant?
More than half of all men will experience male-pattern baldness at some point in their life time. Most of these men will not begin to lose their hair until they are at least forty years old or older, but may men have suffered from hair loss as young as their late teens and early twenties. Though many men boldly accept their hair loss and choose to not fight it with prescription or over-the-counter medication, other men refuse to let their hair go that easily and opt to utilize any available means to combat their hair loss. Though there are several medications that are available on the market which effectively inhibit DHT - the substance in the male body that promotes hair loss – this is considered a “passive” approach to combating male-pattern baldness because it is very uncommon for a man to regain all or even most of the hair he has already lost.
A more active approach that many men utilize is regaining their lost hair is that of hair transplant surgery. Hair transplant surgery consists of a physician taking the DHT-resistant hair from the back of the scalp and transplanting it to the sparser areas in need of coverage on the top of the head, typically the crown, vertex, and hairline areas. Hair transplant surgery has, in recent years, become the #1 elective cosmetic surgery for men in the United States.
DHT (Dihydrotestosterone) is a chemical that is produced inside the male body that binds to hair root receptor sites intended for use by substances the hair root needs for nutrition, effectively starving the hair to death. Due to DHT choking the hair root in this manner, it eventually stops growing, shrinks, and ultimately dies. The FDA-approved medication Propecia helps stave off hair loss because it inhibits a portion of DHT manufactured by the body. Another medication that is FDA-approved for the treatment of male-pattern baldness is that of Minoxidil. Minoxidil helps treat male-pattern baldness not by inhibiting DHT but by acting as a growth stimulator.
Hair transplant surgery does not effectively treat male-pattern baldness but simply moves the DHT-resistant hair from one part of the scalp from another. So even after a man has had a hair transplant, he is still susceptible to hair loss. It is for this reason that physicians that specialize in hair loss as well as surgeons that perform hair transplant surgery highly advocate the use of Propecia and minoxidil for an indefinite amount of time after their surgery.
Hair restoration has helped millions of men regain the confidence that they lost when they began losing their hair. While not every man that suffers from male-pattern baldness is a candidate for hair transplant surgery, a consultation with a qualified physician can only help hair loss sufferers gauge their options for effectively fighting their hair loss affliction.