Mane It Right
A beautiful mane can be one’s crowning glory but a receding hairline can often make one more conscious, often affecting one’s confidence, not to mention ones facial features and personality. Pre-mature loss of hair due to stress, pollution and unhealthy diet is common these days. Hence the growing need and demand for hair transplant – a surgical technique that moves hair follicles from one part of the body called the 'donor site' to a balding part or 'recipient site'. Keeping this trend in mind, Dr Deepali Bhardwaj, a leading dermatologist in the capital, who has conducted more than 100 hair transplant surgeries suggests a few points that one should consider before taking such a crucial step that could affect your looks and health in the long run. In the light of the death of Santosh Kumar, a final year MBBS student at MadrasMedical College, allegedly due to a hair transplant surgery went wrong, one needs to be extra cautious and aware of the procedure. One needs to check the credentials of the doctor conducting the surgery. He/she must be a qualified dermatologist and certified hair transplant surgeon from a recognized university with valuable experience of having conducted at least 100 HT surgeries before you book yourself. A lot of local beauty salons and quacks are conducting this surgery nowadays without a proper license as in the case of the Chennai boy who was tricked into the surgery by a heavy discount from the salon but ultimately cost him his life. However, there is no need to be wary or fearful of the surgery or lose faith in it because of a few incidents. Hair Transplant is a simple surgical technique that can be painless and completely harmless if done by a well-qualified and experienced doctor.
Method of the matter
The two most common procedures for hair transplant are the Strip Method and SingleHair Technique. The Strip Method or Follicular Unit Technique (FUT) involves removing a small strip of tissue from the back of the head (where the donor hair follicles are located). The hair follicles are harvested from the strip by a skilled clinical team before being individually transplanted to the recipient areas. However, in Single Hair Technique orFollicular Hair Extraction (FUE), each hair follicle is removed individually from the scalp and then re-planted in the balding area. Though this procedure is more time-consuming, it is definitely more popular because of being less painful and more effective than FUT. With no stitches required and no linear scar left to heal, FUE also heals faster with less post-procedure discomfort than FUT.
Scaling the scalp
However, the point to be noted here is that none of these methods can be used for women, because of a technical difference in the way donor hairs (that can be transplanted) are placed on a woman’s scalp. While men have donor hair on the back of their scalp, women have them scattered all over their scalp. It is nature's way to ensure that a woman always has some hair on her head. Hence, itis important for women to not fall prey to quacks and advertisements promising100% hair transplant for women. Scientifically, there is no method yet to find out whether a hair follicle in a woman is of the donor or not. So, here’s wishing everybody the awareness to take care of their crowning glory and entrust it in safe hands for good health and a good life ahead.