Noticing your hair is getting thinner, your hairline is receding, and maybe you are getting bald spots in your head can be scary.
Hair is one of the most important things that affect your general physical appearance, how people perceive you, and more importantly, how you perceive yourself. Of course, you can use some over the counter medicines or try topical treatments provided by cosmetic centers. Better and the longer-lasting solution is hair transplants. Considering the costs and the side effects, one may wonder how long a hair transplant lasts.
Does A Hair Transplant Last Forever?
Many men and women experience hair loss at some point in their lives. Hair transplant is a medical procedure that has been popular since the 50s, and since then, it has made many people’s lives easier and much enjoyable. It’s more effective than any other procedure for receding hairlines or hair loss in general because the follicles are taken from the patient’s own body directly. It has its risks, just like other medical procedures so questioning the duration of its effects is a natural response.
The short answer to the question “Does a hair transplant last forever?” is “Yes, it can!” The long answer, however, depends on a few factors.
What Affects The Span of Hair Transplants?
What Affects The Span of Hair Transplants?1. Method Used During the Hair Transplant Process
There are many other methods of transplanting hair, but the most effective and popular are Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) and Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT).
FUE is the procedure of getting individual follicles from the donor area with a microneedle and transplanting them into the bald patches. Scarring is minimal because it doesn’t require cutting etc. FUT is a kind of skin grafting method. In this method, a surgeon will take a patch of healthy hair and skin from the donor area and apply these patches to the bald spots. FUE and FUT are reliable methods in permanent hair growth because the follicles implemented are from your body already, they know how to adapt and start growing hair quickly, but the other unproven methods of hair transplanting might not be permanent.
2. Body’s Response to Surgery
Even though both FUT and FUE are safe procedures, the patient’s body may react to the trauma of the surgery and sheds hair as a response. This phenomenon is called “shock loss” and is perceived as natural as long as hair starts growing back within a few weeks or months. However, there are some extreme cases where the patient’s body reacts abnormally, and hair doesn’t start growing back, ever. In these rare cases, another transplanting probably will be planned by the surgeon.
3. The Natural State of Hair
The natural state of hair is determined by genetics. Since FUT and FUE use the already existing follicles, natural hair type doesn’t change. If one’s hair was naturally thin, it might still look thin even after the hair transplanting. The main point of hair transplanting is to carry hair back to its natural way before shedding and hair loss started.
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