Are You a Candidate for a Hair Transplant in Houston?

[Posted on Mar 28th, 2013 by Dr. Carlos Puig]

People, especially men, tend to lose their hair because of aging, genetics, injury or illness. As long as a person has some healthy head hair left a hair transplant Houston can be a viable option. Treatment consists of several sessions that will last a couple of hours. The candidate is also ideally over 30. Men who are younger than that usually do not have a fixed hair loss pattern. An exception might be a person who has a family history of male pattern baldness who has already begun to lose his hair.

Finding a Surgeon

A man who wants a hair transplant should interview a certified cosmetic surgeons before settling on any surgery. He might get a recommendation for a cosmetic surgeon who has experience with hair transplant Houston procedures from his regular doctor or from friends or coworkers. When the patient has a consultation with the cosmetic surgeon, the surgeon will let him know: the risks, benefits, possible side effects and complications of the treatment. The surgeon will also analyze the density, texture and color of the donor’s hair to determine whether the client has enough hair to transplant. This will help the doctor figure out how many grafts will be needed for the surgery.

The Surgery

The surgery is performed under local anesthesia. Both the donor area and the recipient areas of the head are given anesthesia. However, if the hair transplant is going to be extensive, the patient might be put under general anesthesia.

During the operation, tiny grafts are removed from the donor area of the scalp with a steel tube puncher or a scalpel. The grafts not only contain hairs but the hair follicles from which the hair grows. Then, the donor hair is attached to the balding recipient area. The grafts can vary in size. Some have four hairs, some have 10 and some grafts have up to 40 hairs. The donor skin site is then stitched back together. Though this will cause scarring, it won’t be seen because the hair will grow over it.

Recovery

After the surgery, the recipient area is full of tiny scabs that will heal very quickly, usually within a week to 10 days. The cosmetic surgeon will prescribe pain medications to help the patient deal with the discomfort, swelling and bruising. The transplanted hair will also fall out within about a month and half, but because of the transplanted follicles it will regrow within about three months. Because the follicles have been taken from the patient, there is no risk of rejection.

Outcome

The hair grows out thinly at first but then grows fuller over time. Within about a year, the hair looks perfectly natural. However, hair transplant surgery may need to be done over a long period of time, perhaps one to two years. But once the treatments have been completed, the hair will last for the rest of the patient’s life.