Monday, December 1, 2008

I Say Don't Get Hair Transplants

By Gugu Martini

Contemporary drastic improvements have made hair transplant procedures far more prevalent than they used to be. Many times in the past when someone had experienced a bad procedure, it was obvious by their hair plugs, but today this is not always the case. There are still a variety of facts that are not understood about this process even today.

Men over the age of 50 in the United States are afflicted by baldness on a massive level and it is approximated that 50 percent of American men have hair loss. Some men shave their heads completely, as they feel this is the best way society gives them to deal with their hair loss. Others take the exact opposite route and have hair transplant surgery. A third option is to acknowledge the hair loss and do nothing about it, however, the people who do this are not keeping up with the rest of the world in this regard.

The procedure is permanent: If you decide you do not like the results, it is not as simple as taking off a wig to change your hair. Not only will your head may never look the same, you will require a number of surgical treatments. Thus, once a person gets one hair graft, they are committed to the hair transplant so you should never agree to any doctor's proposal that promises to "let you see how you like it".

You might think that because the surgery is so easy to bear that you can just jump back into your activities, but the truth is, you'll need plenty of rest after hair transplant surgery. The scalp is just as important to take care of as any major or bone after surgery. You'll have a head full of tiny wounds that absolutely must be protected after surgery.

Every patient considering hair transplant surgery should be aware that it is a procedure that will take a long time to complete - up to one or two years. These are known as mega-sessions and can require the installation of thousands of grafts in one sitting. The commitment required for these sessions is grueling in and of itself, often requiring a serious amount of time to be performed.

Hair transplant surgery may be combined with other procedures: If you do not have enough hair, you cannot have the normal treatment. There are other surgeries that can be done at the same time to achieve similar results. These procedures are actually far more painful for the patient.

Though there are few surgeons that will tell you, you should be aware that the grafts you have in hair transplant surgery may not all survive. The hope is that only a few will be lost and the overall result will not suffer. In reality, despite all efforts, often grafts simply fail to thrive.

You can expect to pay around 12,000 dollars for hair transplant surgery, though this is not as expensive as you might believe. If the average person has the procedure done at 30 and dies at 70, then they will have spent 25 dollars per month, or 300 dollars per year on the treatment. Many "low cost" treatments for hair loss cost much more money than per month. You would actually save by getting the surgery done in the first place. - 15275

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