WHAT IS A HAIR TRANSPLANT
Understanding surgical hair loss treatments
Losing your hair can be a very difficult experience to overcome. It’s hard not to feel old and unattractive when looking in the mirror. Some forms of alopecia will affect about 60% of men and 50% of women in their lifetime, with many finding it extremely difficult to cope with the psychological effect. Damage to your self-esteem and confidence can affect your social and professional life
Yet when looking for a solution, it can be difficult to know what next step to take. There are so many details to consider and so many clinics to choose from it can be hard to know what hair transplant treatment is right for you. At the London Hair Loss Clinic we aim to provide you with the very best service, a combination of safe and effective treatment and outstanding clinical care.
Below you will find a breakdown of the main surgical treatments available to you. Our Harley Street clinic is fully equipped with a state-of-the-art theatre, fully compliant with the Care and Quality Commission (CQC) protocols.
Use our online booking service to make your appointment, or call us directly on 020 7666 3147 now.
HAIR RESTORATION PROCEDURES
FUE
Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) represents the latest evolution in the field of hair restoration surgery. This procedure, performed under local anaesthetic, is based on the use of surgical microscopes to extract hair follicles “one-by-one” from any donor area. In fact, FUE allows us to take hairs from the scalp, the sideburns, the beard, the chest and the lower abdominal wall. The procedure can take from two to six hours depending on the size of the area you wish to restore.
With a FUE procedure it is possible to transfer between 1000-1500 follicular units in a single session. It is necessary to shave the whole side and back of your head in order to carry out the treatment.
This means FUE is the correct procedure to:
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cover a limited area of the scalp, such as the crown (top) or the frontal line, or the face – such as the beard and eyebrows in a single session.
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cover a larger area but only when you are happy to complete the restoration process in more than a single session.
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treat other types of alopecia, such as triangular alopecia and traction alopecia
FUT
Understanding Megasession: Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT)
A Megasession Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT Hair Transplant) is a hair restoration technique to redistribute a very large number of healthy hair follicles from the back and sides of the scalp to any thinning areas affected by alopecia.
It is also know as the ‘strip method’ because a single strip of hair-bearing skin is taken from the back of the head, where hairs are resistant to androgens.
The main advantage of FUT is the quicker and safer transplant of thousands of grafts in a single Megasession. This allows large areas of affected scalp to be treated in only few hours.
FUT is the right procedure to:
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cover a small area of scalp or face when you do not wish to shave all your head.
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cover a large area in a single session – which corresponds to 2 or 3 sessions of FUE.
SCALP REDUCTION
Scalp reduction is a surgical treatment to remove parts of the scalp that are affected by alopecia, the purpose being to reduce the overall area of bald skin. The healthier parts of the scalp are then stretched and re-positioned, making the balding area smaller and more manageable.
Often the treatment is completed together with one of the hair transplant procedures detailed above – although it can also be done in isolation. Performed with a local anaesthetic, and sometimes with a mild sedative to help you relax, a strip of skin ranging from two to five centimetres can be removed in one session, with the remaining skin stitched together.
For a normal FUT or FUE hair transplant, a scalp reduction is not required. A scalp reduction treatment is only needed when there is a deficiency of donor hairs to harvest. In these cases, in order to achieve the same success rate and high density of hair, a reduction of the bald area of scalp may be required.
With the latest equipment, excellent standards of clinical care and one of the world’s foremost experts in aesthetic and reconstructive surgery, you are in the safest of hands.
Book an initial assessment here, or call our Harley Street clinic today on 020 7666 3147.