As more and more men are taking advantage of treatments designed to help combat the issues associated with male pattern baldness, information is available to help men understand why they may be dealing with thinning hair and eventual hair loss. In order to be well-informed about treatment options, including hair implants for men, it is first important to understand the cause of male hair loss.
Most men lose their hair as a result of androgenic alopecia. While the name may not sound familiar to most people, its other name, male pattern baldness, is more commonly used. If having this condition, men will most likely have hair loss just above their forehead’s hair line and/or around their head’s crown area. Knowing why this occurs can help hair restoration professionals better assist men and allow men to become more informed hair restoration patients.
Keratin, the natural substance produced by a person’s body, allows for the bonding of the hair’s root to the person’s scalp. Once a hair follicle ceases to produce keratin, hair becomes thinner and either falls out, or is not strong enough to fully grow and will break completely off at a person’s scalp line. Since the hair follicle is no longer capable of producing keratin, it is considered damaged and must be replaced. A replacement process allows a keratin-producing hair follicle to grow and allows for the visible growth of hair.
In order to be a good candidate for hair implants the client must still have good growth at the posterior area of the scalp. This is because most men’s hair on the back of their heads is still viable and is growing, thus it is most often the hair that is chosen when performing hair implants for men. Before hair can be implanted, a physician will remove living hair follicles from a specified location. He or she then transplants them on to a man’s bald or thinning hair area. After a few weeks, the newly-transplanted hairs connect with an established blood supply and begin producing keratin. Within a few short months, patients will notice their hair is again growing in the transplanted area. Depending on area needing treatment, a man may need more than one procedure; especially if the man has large-scale male pattern baldness.