Medical Hair Restoration Costs

Medical Hair Restoration Costs: What Can You Do To Replace Thinning Hair?

By non-surgical options we’re talking about hairpieces such as wigs and extensions. While wigs may not be an ideal solution due to the fact that they can be hot, uncomfortable, and fall off, they may well be preferable to their alternative of going around with the bald spots showing. In addition, wearing hairpieces can cause additional hair loss, and quality wigs are both expensive to purchase and to maintain.

Due to the fact that hairpieces can cost so much and be so annoying, many people are now opting to undergo surgical hair replacement. A number of different replacement techniques have been devised, such as flaps, scalp reductions, scalp expansions, and tissue expansions, all of which will augment the existing hair by covering scalp areas where hair has thinned significantly or become totally bald.

Exploring the Surgical Hair Replacement Options

Flaps, also referred to as hair transplants, are surgical procedures that have been performed safely and successfully for over 20 years now. By removing a piece of hair-covered skin from the back or sides of the scalp and affixing it to areas of the head where there is hair loss, doctors can recreate a person’s natural thickness of hair and give them a normal hair line again. Since the hair is still attached to the skin and blood supply when it is sewn onto the scalp, hair will continue to grow and will thicken so that all surgical scars are covered.

By combining scalp reduction and flap techniques, plastic surgeons have been successful in devising a way to better cover the crown of the head with hair. By adding some tissue expansion to the procedure they can also cover frontal areas and thereby restore a natural hairline similar to what you had prior to hair loss.

Scalp reduction is a process that removes skin from bald areas on the back of the head. When the skin is sewn back together, it is pulled much tighter so that hair will then cover the entire space. This might sound pretty easy, but it takes a surgeon with a lot of expertise in scalp reduction in order to successfully perform the operation. During the procedure you will be given a local anesthetic delivered by an injection into your scalp.

The amount of skin that’s removed in a scalp reduction varies from patient to patient. The most common surgery involves removing a piece of skin that looks like an upside-down Y. Occasionally doctors will choose to remove U-shaped or pointed ovals of scalp depending on the needs of the patient.

Scalp expansion surgeries are often done to accompany either scalp reductions or flap procedures, especially if the patient’s scalp is very tight.

The procedure known as tissue expansion is most often used by plastic surgeons to repair skin damage patients have sustained from severe burns or other injuries that caused major skin loss. The technique has been adapted for use in hair replacement, and the result is greater coverage in less time than it takes for other procedures to work.

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