(+90 photo) General hair transplant for men: reviews, before and after photos

Both men and women suffer from alopecia, and hair transplant is often the only solution. 👨🏻‍⚕️ In the client's imagination, the transplant often looks like an operation, 🔪 after which you leave the office with luxurious hair, 🧔🏻 but this is not entirely true.

After the procedures, a rather long period of time must pass, during which the transplanted material takes root and takes on its final form.

Who even invented hair transplant?

Japanese surgeon Suji Okuda, a physician in the Kwantung Army, became interested in the topic in the 1930s. In 1939 his work "Clinical and Experimental Hair Transplantation" was published. Before that, the hair was not transplanted - they wore wigs.

Okuda has conducted more than 200 operations on military volunteers. The hair transplant hid scars and burns from the war.

Okuda used a perforator for hair transplant. Miniature, of course - a circular metal trephine with a diameter of 4 mm. Spoiler alert: Not much has changed since then.

With a perforator, the surgeon drilled out the grafts (pieces of skin with hair follicles) from the back of the head, and then inserted them in the right places. But it didn’t work out — politics got in the way. Japan in World War II supported Germany. After Hitler lost the war, the country found itself on the outskirts of civilization.

In the 60s, scientists began to extract one hair at a time so that the result of transplantation was more natural. And only 15 years ago, surgeons realized that it is more effective to transplant natural hair microbunches.

Such bundles have a common blood supply channel and a common sebaceous gland. The process is complex and time-consuming, but the result is impressive.

What methods are used now

All techniques are divided into two groups - seamless (FUE) and suture (FUT, Strip). In theory, there are other experimental methods, but the ISHRS (International Society for Hair Restoration Surgery) only recognizes these two.

Both groups have their own advantages and disadvantages. The number of FUE and FUT / Strip operations is approximately the same.

• Recently, they also use HFE and DHI - improved options for seamless transplantation. In it, the grafts are smaller, the scars are not so visible.
• A common disadvantage of all methods is that the hair in this area is shaved off before the grafts are removed. But if you are already used to shaving to hide baldness, this is not a problem.
• Shaving is only possible if you need to transplant some follicles. For example, masking a scar or making new eyebrows.
• If you need to transplant a lot of hair, but you cannot shave, pieces of hair are cut off. But for the doctor it is not so convenient, the effectiveness of the procedure decreases.
• The operation itself is not difficult for the patient. You can watch TV, read a book, or play. If necessary, you can stop at any time to walk or eat.

Seamless transplant

FUE is the extraction (extraction) of follicular units. Groups of 1-4 follicles are called grafts.

Hair is transplanted in three stages:

1. Under local anesthesia, grafts are drilled out of the skin with a special tool - a punch.It is a metal handle with a beveled tube with a diameter of 0.5-0.9 mm inside.

2. Canals are made in the baldness zone. These are shallow cuts and will not need to be sewn up.

3. The grafts are placed in the canals with tweezers in a checkerboard pattern. This is more natural - so that there is no “doll effect”.

Grafts are obtained manually or mechanically. Up to 1.5 thousand grafts can be cut manually (yes, this is not much!). All in all, a person has 90-200 thousand hairs on his head.

Need more? We'll have to take a microturbine and get grafts for her. You can extract twice as many follicles.

The turbine is easier - the doctor makes fewer movements and is less tired. But the surgeon needs to feel how deeply to take the grafts and how quickly.

The turbine rotates at a speed of up to 1,000 rpm. The procedure requires serious experience and utmost care.

Pros of the seamless method:

• Almost painless.
• Less traumatic.
• Punch marks will not be visible even on a shaved head.

Minuses:

• Suitable only for small bald areas.
• The procedure can take up to 8 hours. Not everyone can stand it.
• Up to 6% of follicles are damaged and lost.

Suture transplant

If the baldness is severe, stitches are indispensable. The doctor will have to take a whole flap of skin and cut it into grafts.

There are three main stages:

1. Strips of skin are cut with a scalpel from the back of the head and divided into grafts.

2. The surgeon tightens the edges of the wounds with sutures so that the scars are not so visible.

3. After that, the grafts are transplanted to the desired place manually or with an implant. The surgeon takes into account the direction of hair growth to achieve a natural look.

Usually, the surgeon deals directly with the transplant, and assistants (up to eight people!) Separate fresh grafts from the flaps.

Pros of the suture method:

• Up to 5 thousand grafts can be transplanted at a time - up to 12 thousand follicles.
• The operation takes 3-4 hours.
• The grafts are easier to remove.
• The marriage rate is less than 3%.
• The price is lower.

Minuses:

• Scars from cut skin flaps.
• Headaches due to damaged nerve endings.
• Inability to wear short haircuts.

What hair is transplanted

Only your own hair is transplanted. Hair donation does not exist - other people's follicles do not take root. In theory, follicles can only be transplanted from one identical twin to another.

Where does the hair for the transplant come from:

From the head

In 1952, the plastic surgeon Norman Orentreich developed the concept of the donor dominant. He proved that hair from the temples and the back of the head is the most genetically resistant.

They are resistant to male hormones, due to the imbalance of which androgenic alopecia occurs. It is she who is the cause of 90% of cases of baldness.

The hair on the back of the head grows densely, so that up to 50% of the follicles can be removed without noticeable marks. This is if you choose a seamless method and drill out individual grafts.

If you take the flaps, the scars will remain. But it is often the lesser of evils.

From the body

If there are few follicles on the back of the head, hairs are taken from the body. But they are sensitive to male hormones, and after transplantation they can fall out in 2-3 years.

Hair from the chest is sometimes transplanted onto the beard or eyebrows. On the head - from the beard, they will grow longer than from other areas of the body.

If it is no longer possible to take the required number of follicles from the beard for a head transplant (for example, during a repeated procedure), hair is taken from the groin area. Then arms, legs, chest go into action. But only if there are no other options.

This hair will not grow too long. Therefore, they are used either to fill the crown and back of the head, or to create an anterior hairline.

Can artificial hair be transplanted?

Artificial hair transplant is performed in exceptional cases. In the United States, such procedures were banned in 1983 due to the great risks - from the development of infections to complete hair loss.

Artificial hair for transplantation is produced, for example, by Italian Medicap (polymer single hair Biofibre and triple Medicap High Density) and Japanese Nido. At the end of the hairs there are loops or hooks in the keratin sheath, which prevent them from falling out of the skin.

But the effectiveness of such a procedure is much lower than if you work with live hair. Artificial hair can be rejected by the body.

Artificial hair should not be dyed, curled, or curled or ironed. If you cut them short, then this is already forever. You also need to comb very carefully.

Hair transplants can be anywhere

Sideburns, mustaches, eyebrows, chest - the doctor doesn't care where to transplant the follicles. So if you want a shaved skull and a mustache-beard like a lumberjack, that's not a problem.

And when the fashion changes, transplant it back. Joke.

More and more women are replanting hair on their eyebrows (hello, Cara Delevingne!). The difficulty is that the hairs here grow at a large angle, so only an experienced doctor can do the job efficiently.

The procedure takes 2-3 hours. Taking care of your new eyebrows is easy, but you will need to trim your hairs regularly.

How many hairs will take root

On average, up to 95% of follicles take root. But everything very much depends on the qualifications of the doctor and the condition of the patient.

After a couple of weeks, some of the transplanted hair will fall out. But this is a natural renewal. The main thing is that the follicles will remain in place.

In general, a 100% guarantee for all follicles is a myth. Firstly, 3-6% of follicles will be lost before transplantation. Secondly, no one will recount the transplanted hairs.

With artificial hair, everything is sadder. About 10-20% of hairs fall out every year. You will have to correct your hairstyle every 2-4 years.

What to do after the procedure

Even after suture hair transplantation, you can return to work the very next day. After three days they will be allowed to wash their hair, after a week they will go to the gym or do other physical exercises.

The traces of sutureless transplantation are faster. But still, in the early days, you should not overexert yourself, go out into the sun without a cap, or visit the sauna.

If you are confused by scars, you can do tricopigmentation - tattoo the missing follicles. It doesn't hurt too much.

Hair from the new follicles will begin to grow in two months. At first they will be curly and naughty, but after a few haircuts it will go away.

The final result is assessed one year after the procedure. If the hair is not thick enough (normally 80-120 hairs per 1 sq. Cm grow, transplanted up to 50), the procedure can be repeated.

How much does it cost to have a hair transplant: personal experience

Everything related to combating baldness is not particularly discussed in society, and there is practically no exchange of experience after various procedures. In this article I will tell you what I learned after five years and about half a million rubles of expenses.

A visit to a trichologist and search for a solution to the problem

So, at about the age of 24, it became obvious to me that I was balding. Having accepted the inevitable, I began to study the issue. I listened to a couple of hundred unsolicited advice that "you just need to shave your head." As a result, I went for a consultation with a trichologist, paid 2500 rubles and found out that I have androgenetic alopecia - AHA, which in common people call "male pattern baldness."

Attention
The diagnosis can only be established by a trichologist. You, your relatives, friends, colleagues, sexual partners, a familiar therapist, bystanders from the Internet - cannot.

There are three most likely verdicts you can get from a trichologist.

• Androgenetic alopecia, or AGA. Thinning of hair, which leads to baldness of the parietal and frontal regions in men and to thinning of hair in the central part of the head, spreading to its lateral surfaces in women. The reason is that the hairs located in these areas are sensitive to steroid hormones, which slowly kill them.

If you are a man and go bald, then there is a 95% chance it is due to AGA. For women, this probability is about 50%. The disease is genetic in nature, it cannot be cured, but you can more or less effectively deal with the symptoms. The diagnosis can be made even after a cursory visual examination, although sometimes the doctor may use a microscope for decency.Situations where more than one examination is needed are rare.

• Diffuse, or focal, alopecia. In this case, genetics has nothing to do with it. The most common causes of such baldness are poisoning, radiation, hellish stress, vitamin deficiency, malnutrition, various fungi and diseases.

If you have been diagnosed with this, stop reading the article and start looking for the cause. Usually this is the first sign of a really serious problem. You definitely shouldn't get a transplant, but if you find a reason, chances are that the hair - or part of it - will come back without any surgery.

• Normal age-related changes. Even healthy hair grows thinner and thinner with age, and their growth line gradually goes up. In this situation, it is better to focus on changing your hairstyle or special cosmetics, but you can also just hammer and enjoy life. Although, of course, no one forbids making a transplant.

In my opinion, if you have been diagnosed with AHA, then Mr. Trichologist is no longer your friend, since he is not able to solve the problem. I would be glad if it was refuted in the comments.

Trichologists give not the most effective recommendations, although there are some useful advice to one degree or another. Usually these actions are harmless, but they hit the wallet. The doctor offered me to buy a bunch of expensive minoxidil-based products - 4,000 rubles for a month course, undergo a series of examinations for 15-20 thousand and do monitoring every six months. I guess this is all in order to make the balding process more scientific. But the blood test I passed for 10,000 rubles revealed an acute shortage of brain in my body, so I courageously refused further treatment and began to collect information on the Internet.

Means and methods of combating baldness that will not help

There are relatively effective treatments for androgenetic alopecia. For example, the use of hair growth stimulants, hormone therapy, laser therapy, and even specific blood transfusions. But you need to understand that none of these methods will make your situation much better. The most you can do is stop hair loss and roll it back 10-20%. But each of these techniques will have to be used all your life: as soon as you stop, everything you grow will instantly fall out. Therefore, these methods can be considered as an excellent supportive therapy, but they are not an independent solution to the problem.

And here is a list of remedies that will not help with androgenetic alopecia.

• Shampoos. Neither a cheap shampoo for 40 rubles, nor a super-elite remedy from a boutique for 4 thousand contain substances that can affect hair loss with AGA. In fact, washing your hair more often in the hope of improving the situation can even speed up the balding process and provoke the appearance of oily seborrhea - dandruff, which will complicate the situation as a result. Although shampoos can be useful for treating some skin conditions, they still do not solve the problem of baldness.
• It is the same with healing ointments for “hair loss”. It doesn't matter how much they cost - 200 or 20,000 rubles per bottle, if they do not contain minoxidil or drugs that correct the work of hormones, then they will not affect the course of the AGA in any way.
• Vitamins, minerals, amino acids for hair. Vitamin deficiency can be the cause of hair loss, and malnutrition is, in principle, one of the most common causes of diffuse alopecia. But if you have a diagnosed AGA and you do not sit on a strict diet for a long time, taking vitamin complexes will not affect the course of the disease in any way. At least enough for you to see the difference.
• Beauty salon procedures. A course of mesotherapy, a course of laser therapy, massages - this can really help with AHA. But it is important to make one note: the effect of the procedures is only if you do them regularly throughout your life.

The actual price of hair grown in such ways exceeds all available limits, so it is problematic to collect a sufficient number of positive reviews.People simply quit procedures after 3-4 months, even wealthy citizens cannot afford to spend so much money and time throughout their lives.

• Laboratory services. Many hospitals have such laboratories. They claim to be able to improve the situation without surgery. Just take note: if you are promised to cure AGA, using the words "organic", "unique", "slags", "toxins", "author's method", "individual approach", then you are lying. On the recommendation of a trichologist or blogger, you will come to a beautiful building, a beautiful secretary will ask you to fill out a questionnaire, a nice smiling man in a white coat will make you a trichogram, another charming "doctor" will make an individual magic course worth 50,000 to 250,000 rubles.

It is impossible to sue them for money, there is nothing to blame the "laboratory" for. Many have been working according to this scheme since the 90s, occasionally changing their names.

• Ethnoscience. When I tried to talk to someone about my problem live, I had to filter tons of crazy advice from "traditional medicine". For example, use sour cream or castor oil, remove spoilage, put a piece of raw meat on a bald spot, and so on. It all doesn't work. This will often be recommended to you, so brace yourself.

How does hair transplant take place?

After about two weeks of studying and analyzing the information, I found myself at a fork.

• Option number 1. To be treated with medication. Start using a growth stimulant twice a day, undergo hormone therapy at a cost of about 1000-1500 rubles per month, use thickeners - special cosmetics that imitate the thickness of hair. The main disadvantage of this approach is that you will have to use growth stimulants and undergo hormone therapy all your life, this does not work as a course. I interrupted for a couple of months - I lost everything that I had built up. The same is with plasma lifting and laser therapy.

I quickly gave up on this idea, having read communities of people who constantly use growth stimulants. It's not so much about side effects as about the need to adjust your lifestyle. I was not ready to use the stimulant every day of my life. I just don't want to make an unnecessary commitment. Moreover, over time, the effect of them decreases, and many of those who use them go through a very unpleasant emotional swing, for which I am not ready.

• Option number 2. Use a hair replacement system. Favorite version of actors and politicians. Designed for long-term use, these specialty wigs provide great visual impact, but cost a lot of money to maintain. If a transplant is a way to get back at least some of what was lost, then hair replacement is a way to do even better than it was. A decent system will cost in the region of 50,000-100,000 rubles a year. If you want to cut with a Thranduil hairstyle or even better, then this is your choice, but I do not want to.
• Option number 3. Get a hair transplant. In the end, I settled on this option, because it gives the greatest return on the invested ruble and allows you to solve the problem for a long time. Ideally, for life.

Imagine that you were in charge of a small beautiful and dense forest with 1000 trees, which you safely gave to the Chinese for plunder, and about 300 trees remained of it. Your task is to create visibility for the inspectors that everything is in order with the forest. But there is nowhere to take new trees, you can only dig up and replant the old ones.

The good news is that the inspectors are not very curious and, for peace of mind, they just need to drive along the road along the forest and calm down. The solution is obvious: replant all trees so as to ensure maximum density on the front line of the forest adjacent to the road. For an outside observer, the difference will hardly be noticeable.

This is precisely the task that the surgeon faces.Some of the hair in a person, even suffering from AHA, is resistant to hair loss: usually it is almost all hair from the body and hair from the horseshoe-shaped area of ​​the head.

If you don't know what the horseshoe-shaped head zone is, then remember the lawyer from the TV series "Clinic" Ted Buckland. It is physically impossible to do "as it was", but the skill of the doctor is precisely in achieving the maximum cosmetic effect with the help of minimal intervention.

How the number of hairs to be transplanted is calculated

The volume of a hair transplant is measured not in the hair, but in the grafts. It is an element of the hair tissue of the head, which contains from one to four follicles. The cost of the operation is calculated depending on the price of the graft.

Usually, hair is transplanted from the back of the head, and from the body is taken as a last resort. But suppose you are undergoing an operation to transplant 2500 grafts: 1500 from the back of the head, 500 from the beard, and another 500 from different areas on the body. One graft from the back of the head usually contains two or three hairs, which have an almost ideal survival rate of 99%. One beard graft - one hair, which also has an almost ideal survival rate - 95-99%. On average, the body graft also contains one hair, but their survival rate is average - 60%.

1500 x 2.5 x 0.99 + 500 x 1 x 0.95 + 500 x 1 x 0.6 = 4487.5

In total, during the transplant operation with a volume of 2500 grafts, we will receive approximately 4500 hairs.

• FUT - strip, or suture method. In this case, a long strip of skin with hair is taken from the back of the head, cut into separate grafts and implanted into the patient. After the operation, a scar remains on the back of the head. I have one, it is not visible if the hair is at least 5 mm long.
• FUE - seamless method. At the moment, this is the most widespread technology. The surgeon removes individual grafts from the donor area with a special device and immediately implants them to the patient. Only this technology makes it possible to use hair from the body and beard. In addition, after such an operation there is no scar on the back of the head, and rehabilitation is faster.

They can also be combined, especially in the case of large volumes. No method has been deprecated. Clinics love to come up with their own abbreviations and names of procedures - HLC, PTT, SHT and the like, but no one on the market has any special techniques. This is common branding, try to avoid these kind of clinics.

Choosing a clinic and treatment plan

I started researching hair transplant clinics. First of all, I paid attention to the results of operations and the ratio of cost and quality of work. I was interested in five clinics: Real Trans Hair in Moscow, a clinic in St. Petersburg, HLC in Turkey, Armani in the USA and Talizi in Georgia. I tried to understand from the photographs of patients what the maximum result I could achieve, and also monitored several independent forums with reviews. At that moment, I had already finally decided that the operation would take place, all that remained was to find out the circumstances and go through a couple of consultations.

• The first was Real Trans Hair in Moscow - the oldest clinic in Russia. I really liked their advice, but the cost of the operation dumbfounded me. The entire required volume would have cost almost 800,000 rubles, which was unacceptable for me.
• The next option was the St. Petersburg clinic, on which I ended up and stopped. After the consultation, an action plan was clarified, which coincided by 90% with the RTH proposal. The cumulative result: "The required volume is about 6000 grafts, the donor area allows you to take 8000-9000, we recommend that you divide into two or three operations and carry them out within a couple of years, no obstacles or contraindications were found."
• From the Georgian "Talizi" I turned it down because they had mixed reviews, plus I didn't really like the pictures on their website.
• In the USA clinic my first operation was estimated at more than $ 10,000 (755,873 R), although in St. Petersburg I had it done for 150,000 rubles. Price plug in the US - from $ 4 (302 R) to $ 10? (R 756) per graft. For the volume I needed, I would have to pay more than a million rubles, even closer to two.
• Turkey at that time, I did not even consider theoretically, although it is now the largest hair transplant center.For example, the volume I need could be made about 3000? -? 4000 € (254 858-339 810 R) in two steps. The price includes transfer and hotel, the flight is paid separately.
• In Turkey hundreds of clinics operate - from ultra-cheap ones that are ready to make a transplant in one operation for 1,500 € (127,429 R), to super-expensive ones, with prices almost like in Europe. There are a lot of both positive and negative reviews on the Internet, but this means almost nothing, since a significant part of them are purchased. Although the percentage of rejects is now quite low, because the technologies have been worked out.

The bulk of the problems of Russian patients in Turkey are usually associated with Russian-speaking intermediaries. They take money and send clients to semi-legal small clinics, taking advantage of the patients' ignorance and inability to communicate in English. But I myself did not go to Turkey for the operation because of logistical problems, I do not feel any negative about it.

After I stopped at a clinic in St. Petersburg, I started looking for a doctor and money. The most important thing a patient needs to understand is that hair transplantation is already one of the most standardized and massively performed surgeries on the planet. In terms of the degree of standardization, it is much closer to dental implantation than to a facelift.

Most of all, it was not the price that was embarrassing, but the long wait for the final result, because the bands take root for about six months - and this only takes root, does not even begin to grow. This meant that I would be able to fully enjoy the result only after two and a half years. I was overwhelmingly tempted to do everything at once, but I decided to follow the doctor's advice.

There is always a desire to do everything in one operation, and many clinics do this. But the only way to achieve maximum results is to break the operations into blocks at semi-annual or annual intervals.

One transplant with 6000 grafts will give a worse result than three operations with 2000 grafts due to the specificity of hair engraftment. In addition, this fetters the surgeon and prevents him from adjusting the results of his actions, which is why the bulk of the unsuccessful operations of discounter clinics occurs.

Operations, spending and results

My first operation - 2,500 grafts for 150,000 rubles - was scheduled for the end of December and was given a small list of examinations. On the "Red Arrow" I arrived in St. Petersburg right on the day of the operation, on Friday. The most unpleasant thing is the injections of local anesthesia and the general slowness of the operation. It lasted almost 10 hours, it was done using FUT technology. During this time, I managed to eat, sleep for a couple of hours and watch the first two films from the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy in the director's cut.

The next operation was scheduled six months later and the documents for tax deduction were prepared. I returned to Moscow on Saturday with poorly concealed traces of facial surgery. The postoperative period was easy. There was practically no edema, although the first week the red dots on the head were a little embarrassing.

Six months later, good intermediate results were visible, but before the final version I had two more surgeries - for 1500 and 2000 grafts. I decided to give up growth stimulants and any additional therapy, since I did not want to bother and fit them into my life.

The second operation cost 110,000 rubles: 1,500 grafts using the same FUT technology. I paid 190,000 rubles for the third operation: 2,000 grafts were done using the FUE method. Both operations went smoothly, as planned and predictably. There was nothing special, except that I didn't try to do everything on vacation and went to work with bleeding wounds.

About a year after the last operation, the result was recorded and is now more or less stable. As a result, the doctor said that the donor zone allows for two or three more similar operations. So, if baldness progresses, it can be solved. In situations where it is necessary to ensure maximum results, I use special decorative cosmetics for hair density once or twice a month. A month comes out about 300-500 rubles.

Costs for three hair transplant operations - RUB 494,000

As a result of three operations, I returned approximately 45,000 rubles in the form of tax deductions. Usually hair transplants are carried out under the item "Medical services", so I could not get more than 15,600 rubles per hand for one operation. But, in fact, tax deductions compensated for travel and examinations: the total was the same 450,000. The state paid all additional costs.

Five years have passed since the first operation, and all the transplanted hairs are in place. At the moment, the condition is stable, the loss has slowed down a lot, although there is a need for a slight correction of the crown zone. But for myself, I consider the issue resolved.

Before and after photos