Hair transplant is a surgical process used as a hair loss treatment. If you are suffering from baldness and want to rid yourself from hair loss than a transplant may be right for you.
As with all cosmetic surgical procedures, there is risk involved. Like with many things in life, you need to balance the risk versus reward. Finding an experienced surgeon who specializes in hair restoration will greatly reduce the “risk” factor.
Overall, a surgical hair transplant procedure whether it may be FUE (Follicular Unit Extraction) or the Strip method is a completely safe procedure.
Generally speaking, risks are usually limited to:
Swelling – This is your body’s way to heal an area as blood reserves collect in the area. Mild swelling is normal after a hair transplant, but excessive swelling that might result in black eyes requires immediate medical attention.
Bleeding – Similarly to all wounds, bleeding may take place as the body heals. Rarely, a graft might dislodge from the area, which results in excessive bleeding that will require pressure to stop.
Numbness -Some transient numbness is inevitable. Typically, and if any, this is felt at the suture line or graft sites and generally lasts from 3-18 weeks.
Pain -This is actually a good sign for it demonstrates that your body is working to heal itself. Often, over the counter medications help alleviate the symptom, and some patients don’t need anything for pain.
Itching -Another sign of healing as your body adjusts to the new follicles and is usually alleviated with regular shampooing.
Infection -Even papercuts are vulnerable to infections if they are not properly cleansed. After undergoing this procedure, and under the guidance of your physician, it is important to regularly clean the wound site accordingly.
Scarring -Scarring generally occurs in FUT/Strip method plantations and is occasionally seen from the FUE technique with an inexperienced physician.
Every individual varies greatly in their physical reactions and healing abilities. Yet, these associated risks are relatively minimal when you’re looking at the bigger picture of what a hair transplant can do for you and your self-esteem for many years to come.
In hindsight, the ‘biggest’ risk is a bad result or no result from an inexperienced doctor or non-licensed practitioners whom aren’t properly trained to do surgical hair transplants. As long as you feel comfortable that you’re in the hands of skilled, artistic hair transplant doctor, you’re likely to have fantastic results that will look very natural!
Do some extensive investigating to find a well qualified full-time hair restoration surgeon and your benefits will certainly outweigh the costs, these risks are fairly minimal and shouldn’t be a major deterring factor with proceeding with such a life-changing procedure! Having a hair transplant can significantly boost one’s self-confidence and compliment your appearance leaving you with smiles for days, or decades, rather!
For questions or to schedule a consultation, call one of our offices conveniently located in Irvine, Newport Beach, Beverly Hills and Las Vegas at 888-717-5273 or contact via our website at contact Modena Hair Link
Tag Archives: punch size
Avoiding a Botched Hair Transplant
The good thing about hair restoration is that it’s permanent and the bad thing can be that its permanent.
A Hair Transplant can be a life-changing procedure. A full head of thick luscious hair can take decades off your life giving you a youthful you! Unfortunately, there are plenty of horror stories and gruesome photos when it comes to botched hair restoration surgeries. A number of factors can lead to unsatisfactory results, which range from unnatural looking and poor longevity to embarrassing skin damage. Almost always, this can be attributed to the inexperience of the physician. Let’s look at some major factors that could potentially go wrong if you’re not cautious in your planning..
Over-harvesting
Over-harvesting happens when too much hair is taken from the donor site and unfortunately is almost a non-correctable problem. In this case, a recommended solution would be Scalp Micropigmentation (SMP) done to the area that is depleted. Transplanting grafts into the depleted area is possible but extremely difficult and labor intensive. Dr. Yazdan has strict guidelines for safe extraction numbers and routinely performs this technique on depleted donor areas with strip scars and over-harvesting. Although this does not bring the hair back, it will help tremendously on making the area look as natural as possible.
Scarring
Large linear scars are a result of the Strip method. Scarring is something that is common to have happen with improper experience from a doctor and can be caused by over-harvesting. When the incision is made at the donor site, if more skin grafts are taken than the elasticity of your skin can handle, causing tension of closure, this makes it hard to stitch the scalp tightly back together resulting in a gapping scar. If you’re concerned of a botched scar, a safer bet would be the 2nd hair restoration technique which is called FUE (Follicular Unit Extraction) that minimizes scarring as this method is done by extracting grafts individually opposed to taking a strip from the back of the scalp. With FUE there is no linear scar and no stitches are required, so your donor area will be minimally noticeable within just a few days. Dr. Yazdan has done thousands of hair transplants and it takes great effort for anyone to find a donor site scar on his patients.
Failure of Regrowth
This can happen from poor surgical technique. Poor handling of the grafts, and drying out of the grafts. If the donor hair was properly harvested and properly placed, typically 95% or more of the grafts should successfully grow.
Large Punch Size
The larger the punch size, the higher the risk of damaged or dead nearby hair follicles. Your grafts should average only 1-3 hairs which can be accomplished with smaller punch sizes. More recently, many physicians are using a machine or robot, rather, called the Artas which does the extracting of the hair follicles for the surgeon. Multiple problems can occur with the Artas including the use of the larger punch sizes creating permanent damage to the nearby hair follicles. Dr. Yazdan recommends a highly skilled and experienced surgeon who manually does the hair restoration surgery to get both the angle and orientation of the incisions in a way to match the existing native hair, so the results come out looking natural.
Shopping for a Bargain
Going to a budget store is all good if it’s for redecorating your home. It is not something you want to risk your appearance on. This could potentially affect your quality of life and is NOT recommended as this can lead to disastrous results that you may be stuck with. At Modena Hair Institute, our patients take comfort in the security and aesthetic results of their choice.
Bad FUE or Strip hair transplantation planning can lead to unnatural looking results leaving you more self-conscious of your appearance than before you started -Don’t let this happen to you! Picking the right doctor is extremely important, while minimally invasive, it is still a surgical operation that needs to be done by a Board-Certified Surgeon who has a high success rate in order to obtain superb results. A botched surgery can easily be avoided by doing extensive research.
If you have any questions, or would like to schedule a consult please call one of our conveniently located offices in Irvine, Newport Beach, Beverly Hills and Las Vegas 1-888-717-5273
FUE Hair Transplant: How Long Will It Take For My Hair To Regrow?
Hair growth after surgery is the very first question that may come in mind. Understanding the stages how transplanted hair grows will help to keep expectations realistic.
Every person is different, therefore the rate in which your hair will regrow varies from patient to patient. In our practice, a well performed transplant will see results in as little as 4 months whether you’re acquiring FUE or Strip hair transplant surgery. Newly growing transplanted hairs start to become visible at this time however they are still not in their final stages of thickness and length quite yet.
Dr. Yazdan likes for his patients to come in for a post-op visit at the 1st, 3rd, 6th, and 9th month mark to compare your pre-op photos so we can discuss your progress, but expect to see the full benefits within the first year and maximal cosmetic improvement can be seen within 14-18 months.
“I highly recommend waiting a solid year before arriving at any conclusions as to the success of your hair transplant. At this time, if you’re still unsatisfied with the length and density of your new hair, talk with your surgeon. If you still have doubts, you may need to seek a second opinion.” Says Dr. Yazdan.
Once a hair transplant starts to grow, it will continue to grow until the end of the hair cycle at a rate of about ½ inch per month. The new hair which has been transplanted grows in cycles and will become fuller and thicker than the donor site over time.
And for optimal results, we like to follow a hair restoration surgery with PRP (Platelet Rich Plasma) or laser therapy which can stimulate hair regrowth tremendously giving you maximal results. Light medical management is also highly desired during the growth period. Medical management consists of non-surgical methods such as minoxidil, finasteride and GroMD hair loss prevention shampoo.
Some might say the hardest part of a hair transplant is after the procedure is finished. Continuously over analyzing and examining each hair follicle, checking the mirror every few hours waiting to see results. Remember, be patient! Good things come to those who wait.
For questions or to schedule a consultation, call one of our offices conveniently located in Irvine, Newport Beach, Beverly Hills and Las Vegas at 888-717-5273 or contact via our website at contact Modena Hair Link
Eyebrow Transplant: Should You Try It?
Eyebrows are more important than ever before! With todays fashion trend, its all about the thicker, fuller eyebrows. The quest for fuller brows has made eyebrow transplants a thing these days. Let’s talk about who would be a good candidate:
Eyebrow loss can occur in both men and women, leaving them unsettled and insecure about their facial appearance. After all, eyebrows frame the upper portion of the face and eye area making this region the first thing people look at. Brow loss is most commonly due to injury or trauma resulting in scars, hormone imbalance, hereditary, aging, yet over-tweezing making the top of the list! Less common factors may be due to an attack of the immune system such as cancer treatment processes like chemotherapy-which for some patients, can be the most emotionally difficult part of the process as hair loss can be a tell-tale sign of an illness present.
Every day people are applying makeup to recreate a new brow or filling in what they once had. Thinning or hair loss of the brow region from overplucking was a common trend in the 90’s, as that was the time overzealous plucking in earlier years often begin to show up as thinning or bald spots. Overplucked eyebrows are one of the most common causes people seek out transplants. More than ever, people are pulling out all the stops to hide the fact that they’ve lost their brows, and often times the hair won’t regrow on its own. Fortunately, there is a Cosmetic treatment now being used for a more long-term solution using modern microsurgical techniques.
Eyebrow Transplantation is a surgical procedure to permanently restore or customize the brows by taking hair from another part of the body such as the back of the scalp and transplanting it to the brow region to create the desired brow shape. This procedure is quite meticulous and takes artistic design for a successful procedure. However, if done incorrectly, can leave you with redness and scaring on the donor site as well as uneven patchy eyebrows.
As with all cosmetic procedures, the key to a natural-looking result is to fully research the surgeon of your choice to get a good idea of the doctors skill when it comes to eyebrow transplants or any kind of hair transplants for that matter. “I can’t stress enough how important it is that patients do their homework ahead of time in finding the right doctor, otherwise they might end up with a botched outcome,” says Dr. Yazdan -whose patients fly in from other areas to seek treatment at his Beverly Hills and Orange County offices. It bears repeating that careful planning and precise angulation of each hair is critical for a successful end result.
Restore the thickness and shape of your eyebrows by calling our office today!
For questions or to schedule a consultation, call one of our offices conveniently located in Irvine, Newport Beach, Beverly Hills and Las Vegas at 888-717-5273 or contact via our website at contact Modena Hair Link
How important is punch size in FUE hair transplant surgeries?
For those of you who have been researching hair transplant surgery, you’re probably familiar with the term ‘punch size.’ For those of you who are unfamiliar, punch size refers to the size of the tool that is used to extract and sometimes make new places for the transplanted follicles to rest on the scalp.
Common punch sizes used by hair transplant surgeons range from 0.75mm-1.0mm. Recent evidence on the use of larger punch tools has shown that they increase the risk for scarring. One of the great things about the FUE method of hair transplant surgery is that it has minimal risk for scarring. Using a larger punch size negates this benefit. Most experienced hair transplant surgeons, including Dr. Yazdan, agree the smaller the punch size the better.
Some doctors who still use the larger punch size claim that the larger punch allows them to extract follicles containing 2, 3, and 4 hairs. The truth is, punch size has little to do with what type of hair follicles that can be extracted. What plays a bigger role, is skill and experience. More often than not, these doctors lack the expertise needed to extract follicles containing multiple hairs using a smaller tool.
The other scenario where we still see larger punch sizes being used, is with robotic devices. Robots and automated tools can’t be as precise as a tool operated by a human hand. Therefore, they utilize a larger punch size in an attempt to increase extraction results. The problem with this is that the risk for scarring increases dramatically. Further, the success rate for transplanted follicles decreases dramatically due to the trauma induced by the large punch.
Here at Modena, we utilize a 0.7mm punch for extractions. When it’s time to transplant the follicles, we set aside the punch and utilize tiny incisions. This not only reduces the risk for scarring but reduces the risk of shock loss in surrounding existing follicles.
If you would like to learn more about our method of FUE hair transplant, give us a call for a free consultation.
