Hair replacement surgery is a medical procedure that involves the transplantation of living, healthy hair to areas of your scalp that need supplementation. The hair that remains on the scalp (usually at the back and along the sides) will be used to fill in bare or thinning areas of the scalp. Therefore, if you are already completely bald, hair replacement surgery is not an option. If your hair loss is genetic, hair replacement surgery will not stop the progressive hair loss that eventually becomes total baldness. However, it will allow you to rearrange your existing hair to improve your overall appearance.
During an initial consultation with a hair replacement surgeon, potential patients are given a choice of surgical methods that fit their type of hair loss, their age, and their wallet. All of the procedures that are currently available will require a series of visits. Depending on the methods of treatment, the physician’s fees and the degree of hair loss, the cost ranges from $4,000 to $20,000. Since this is elective surgery, you should consult your health insurer about coverage. Hair loss clinics that have a large volume of patients may have lower costs, but the trade off is often less personal attention.
The most common procedure is transplantation. This process entails removing small skin and hair grafts and placing them in on the bald part of the scalp. Micrografts, the smallest size, may only have one or two hairs; it will be inserted into a needle hole. Grafts with three to four hairs each can also be transplanted into previously prepared scalp slits or sites. Minigrafts of both types may contain up to eight hairs each. The standard round or square graft will relocate a small patch of skin that holds nine to eighteen hairs.
Covering an area that is just three square inches will require at least 500 grafts. The total number of grafts you will need depends on the extent of your hair loss. Many patients opt for strategic placement of the hair grafts to reduce the total number of hair transplants. This is a more effective use of the existing hair than attempting to recover the bald part of the scalp completely. The hair that has been relocated usually falls out soon after the transplant, but new growth replaces it when the graft site has healed.