With the exception of those who shave their heads bald (such as Jeff Bezos or Sir Patrick Stewart), all adults have hair on their heads. As mammals, human beings naturally grow hair on their bodies, but most people are primarily concerned about the hair on their head in particular. In fact, the general term “hair” nearly always refers to the hair atop one’s head, with “body hair” being a different topic on its own. There is a quite large industry for the care and modification of hair, with products such as shampoos, hair gels, hair dye and curling irons, and more being found all over the world. These products sell well every year, and hair fashions may come and go. Hair styles may be personal expression as well as representing a societal movement or idea at large. One may recall the rebellious “flapper” haircuts women had in the 1920s, for example.
Hair is ultimately a natural product, and like any other, may experience some changes that a person may or may not like. One of the least popular changes in hair, aside from it going gray or white, is balding. Many men and some women may expect balding in their lives, and hair loss is a natural but unwanted phenomenon. Many adults are quite distressed at their balding heads and don’t want their hair to fall out, so they may turn to not only cosmetic work such as toupees or hair wefts, but also visit hair restoration clinics and consult the hair specialists who work there. While it isn’t possible to drink a magic potion to restore all lost hair out of nothing, balding can be counter-acted with modern, minimally invasive surgical methods. How might this work?
On Balding and Hair Loss
There are many statistics keeping track of the state of adult Americans’ hair, given the size of hair-related industries and how much money is invested in them. That certainly includes hair loss clinics, too. What do the numbers show? For one thing, at any given time, around 35 million American men and around 21 million women are experiencing hair falling out at a rapid rate, their hair thinning much more than they’d like. When a person starts to lose their hair, this hair loss period may last around 10-20 years until it is finished, and a person may lose over half the hairs on their head. In general, around half of the hairs most be lost for hair loss to be visible to the eye. Some 95% of men, in particular, may expect male pattern baldness, and this often results in a bald patch atop the head and a receding hair line. By age 35, some two in three men are going through hair loss, and by age 50, 85% of men have lost a lot of their hair, with visible results.
Surveys show how unpopular this is. Among all surveyed Americans who are losing their hair, over half report that they’d prefer a fully restored head of hair over money or friends. Many of those surveyed also said that if they could, they would spend their entire life savings to restore all of their hair. And while there’s no means of conjuring lost hair out of nothing, modern, minimally invasive hair surgery may be the next best thing. How might this work?
Visiting a Hair Clinic
A patient may consult their doctor to find local hair loss clinics, and visit them to consult the specialists employed there. The patient may then arrange a future visit to have cosmetic hair surgery done.
This minimally invasive surgery makes use of follicular units of hairs on the head and rearranges them on the scalp. The procedure of removing patches of skin with hair units is known as follicular unit extraction, or FUE surgery, and it often proves more effective than the older “strip” method of hair replacement. A surgeon may remove a thin patch of skin with one to six follicular units in it and transplant it to the balding or thinning part of the patient’s head. The hairs may be oriented for a natural look. While this doesn’t actually add hairs to the head, it thins out bald or thin patches naturally, and many patients of this procedure report satisfaction.
