Hair transplants have become more popular than ever before. The hair transplant industry continues to grow exponentially each year. More men are turning to surgery to restore their receding hairlines and dwindling locks.
In the '80s and '90s anyone who underwent hair transplant surgery was considered a fool, but not anymore. In this article, we're going to explain the reasons why hair transplants are on the rise.
Hair Transplants Are Undetectable
When done right hair transplant procedures are virtually undetectable, even under close inspection by hairstylists and barbers. We're living in the golden age of hair restoration, and patients today have more choices than ever before.
Surgical hair restoration has become ultra-refined and the techniques used today ensure that transplanted hair looks indistinguishable from any other hair on the head.
Celebrities Are Being Honest
Back in 2011, Wayne Rooney announced he had gotten a hair transplant at the age of 25. This shocked the sports world, and countless others followed suit. Wayne isn't the only celebrity to have a hair transplant, other public figures and famous faces have spoken candidly about their procedures.
Notable names include backstreet boy Aj McLean, Robbie Williams, James Nesbitt, Calum Best, and these are only the ones who have admitted it.
What's changed?
In the mid-1990's surgical hair restoration was further refined by using Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) technique. This technique transplants hair in the same follicular groupings seen in nature. Hair grows in groupings of 1, 2, 3, and 4 hairs.
The hairline, in particular, does not contain any multi-follicular unit groupings, only single-haired follicular units. This is why the hairline appears soft and the hair texture is finer in the front. FUT is performed by removing a strip of hair-bearing tissue and dissecting the tissue into follicular units. The follicular units are then transplanted in the balding areas.
In the early 2000s, a new harvesting technique called Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) began to make waves n the hair transplant industry. In the beginning, this technique was vastly inferior to strip surgery, because the yield was significantly lower in comparison.
However, physicians began to master this technique and now it is comparable to strip surgery in terms of yield. Both techniques produce scars however, strip surgery produces a linear scar on the back of the scalp and FUE produces small circular scars.
Conclusion
There has never been a better time to be a hair loss sufferer, with hair transplantation and viable treatments like Propecia (finasteride) and Rogaine (minoxidil).
However, it is important to remember that not all surgeons are created equal their skill, talent, and experience varies widely, as do their results. It's important to select a surgeon who has a reputation built on their results, as opposed to commercial hype and advertisements.