Hair loss is primarily caused by a combination of aging, a change in hormones, and a family history of baldness. As a rule, the earlier hair loss begins, the more severe the baldness will become. Hair loss can also be caused by burns or trauma, in which case hair replacement surgery is considered a reconstructive treatment, and may be covered by health insurance.
If you're considering hair replacement surgery, this brochure will give you a basic understanding of the variety of procedures involved. It can't answer all of your questions, since a lot depends on your individual circumstances. Ask your surgeon if there is anything you don't understand about the procedure you plan to have.

THE TRUTH ABOUT HAIR LOSS
Baldness is often blamed on poor circulation to the scalp, vitamin deficiencies, dandruff, and even excessive hat-wearing. All of these theories have been disaproved. It's also untrue that hair loss can be determined by looking at your maternal grandfather, or that 40-year-old men who haven't lost their hair will never lose it.

THE BEST CANDIDATES FOR HAIR REPLACEMENT.
It's important to understand that all hair replacement techniques use your existing hair. The goal of surgery is to find the most efficient uses for existing hair. Hair replacement candidates must have healthy hair growth at the back and sides of the head to serve as donor areas. Donor areas are the places on the head from which grafts and flaps are taken. Other factors, such as hair color, texture and waviness or curliness may also affect the cosmetic result. There are a number of techniques used in hair replacement surgery. Sometimes, two or more techniques are used to achieve the best results.

Transplant techniques, such as mini-grafts, or micro-grafts, generally performed on patients who desire a more modest change in hair fullness.Tissue-expansion and scalp-reduction are procedures that are usually more appropriate for patients who desire a more dramatic change. Hair transplantation involves removing small pieces of hair-bearing scalp grafts from a donor site and relocating them to a bald or thinning area. Grafts differ by size and shape. The much smaller mini-graft contains about two to four hairs; and the micro-graft, one to two hairs. Slit grafts, which are inserted into slits created in the scalp, contain about four to10 hairs each; Generally, few surgical sessions may be needed to achieve satisfactory fullness-and a healing interval of several months is usually recommended between each session. It may take up to two years before you see the final result with a full transplant series. The amount of coverage you'll need is partly dependent upon the color. Just before surgery, the "donor area" will be trimmed short so that the grafts can be easily and texture of your hair. Coarse, gray or light-colored hair affords better coverage than fine, dark-colored hair.

For mini-grafts or micro-grafts, the number can be up to 2000 per session accessed and removed. For grafts, doctor will use a scalpel to remove small sections of hair-bearing scalp, which will be divided into tiny sections and transplanted into tiny holes or slits within the scalp. When grafts are taken, your doctor may periodically inject small amounts of saline solution into the scalp to maintain proper skin strength. The donor site may be closed with stitches- a small, straight-line scar will result. The stitches are usually concealed with the surrounding hair.About 40-50 micrografts are placed in 1 cm for adequate hair density Your doctor will take great care in removing and placement of grafts to ensure that the transplanted hair will grow in a natural direction and that hair growth at the donor site is not adversely affected. Plastic surgeons are the leaders in tissue expansion, a procedure commonly used in reconstructive surgery to repair burn wounds and injuries with significant skin loss. Its application in hair replacement surgery has yielded dramatic results-significant coverage in a relatively short amount of time. In this technique, a balloon-like device called a tissue expander is inserted beneath hair-bearing scalp that lies next to a bald area. The device is gradually inflated with salt water over a period of weeks, causing the skin to expand and grow new skin cells. This causes a bulge beneath the hair-bearing scalp, especially after several weeks the expenders are removed and expended hair bearing skin replaces the bald skin which is removed.

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