Hair transplants are seen to be life-changing. With a number of reliable hair transplant technologies recently introduced, people struggling with hair loss and facing the problem of baldness most probably have considered undergoing such a popular procedure. However, a lot of false notions that a male hair transplant procedure comes with have been stopping the less courageous ones from finding an exceptional solution.
Below are the top 12 male hair transplant myths we are about to debunk. In a few minutes, you will wish you went through the remarkable procedure earlier.
Top 12 Myths about Male Hair Transplant
Myth #1: The procedure is not for the old aged.
The older men get, the more they are prone to baldness and hair loss. These men are what pushed Dr. Norman Orentreich, the father and founder of modern hair transplantation, to find a remedy for hair loss back in the 1950s. For a very long time, elderly patients account for a huge percentage of the entire men population who want to have a hair transplant. Unfortunately, this myth has them dismissing an effective treatment.
For the hair transplant experts, men are never too old to go through male hair transplantation as a solution for hair loss. Even those 50 years old and older can still expect great results from first-time hair transplantations; records have proven it.
Myth #2: The procedure yields immediate results.
As in normal hair growth, transplanted hairs do not improve in length overnight. You will even notice some hair falling out within two to three weeks after the procedure, a process which doctors call as the shock phase or sleeping phase and it is perfectly normal and harmless.
The wonder it does starts when the transplanted hair starts to grow because from then on, the well-transplanted roots will continue to grow for a lifetime, blending in with your natural hair for a natural-looking result.
Generally, the results of a male hair transplant procedure can be seen in three to four months while the stable results come out after nine months to a year and a half.
Myth #3: Male hair transplant results look fake.
For hair transplant procedures to work, you need to have hair first because the procedure will use your actual strands for the transplantation, i.e. your surgeon will take from your scalp’s hair dense region and plant them on the bald area. That said, it is certain that the surgery will yield a very natural-looking result. Nonetheless, for a more natural-looking hair, it is best to seek help from a seasoned expert in hair transplantation like Dr. Jeffrey S. Epstein. He is a New York-based surgeon and the founder and director of Foundation for Hair Restoration.
Myth #4: The procedure is bloody and painful.
There are two common ways to carry out a hair transplant: FUE or Follicular Unit Extraction and FUT or Follicular Unit Transplantation. While both transplant types follow the same concept of taking hair from the dense to the bald area, they somehow differ according to how the hair is taken. Between the two, FUE is non-invasive and more often than not, with it, any patient can instantly get back on track, scar-less and painless, once the procedure is done. For patients with thin hair, FUE is more advisable but that is not to say that FUT involves blood and pain; it does not albeit the procedure being more invasive. However, the recovery period is longer compared to FUE.
Myth #5: You cannot wash your hair after the procedure.
In fact, you can already take a bath the day after the treatment. Putting shampoo and washing your scalp does not affect how the transplanted hair holds on to your scalp. However, extra care is still advisable for the first few post-treatment days.
Myth #6: The results are not long-lasting.
Even if the hairs are only transplanted, their follicles are also transferred to the bald area. Thus, they are still bound to grow and will not fall out like the real ones.
Myth #7: Male Hair Transplants require post-treatment medications for succeeding hair growth.
Once you undergo a male hair transplant, it is as good as getting permanent hair and they will grow without any medications or any hair lengthening product one way or the other. That said, using ointments or special shampoos is definitely unnecessary but you can still use them if such products worked well for you in the past.
Myth #8: The procedure uses someone else’s natural hair.
Contrary to this false notion, somebody else’s hair can never be used for any genuine male hair transplant procedure because the body naturally rejects hair follicles that are not it’s own. The procedure uses hair follicles extracted from the back or sides of the patient’s head. However, in very rare cases, it may use body hair to help make the scalp hair denser but experts do not recommend this practice because body hair and head hair vary in many areas including growth rate. Also, body hair can cause scar formation and cyst.
Myth #9: Male hair transplant is harmful to the brain.
Hair transplantation is only skin deep. It operates only on the scalp’s skin and does not penetrate further. Hence, to say that it can reach and damage the brain is, in any way, not true. It is guaranteed safe and effective.
Myth #10: The procedure is too complex to absorb.
As in any other surgeries, hair transplantation is often initially thought of as a complex procedure that makes use of different knives and cutters. The truth is, it is never even bloody. Actual videos of hair transplant procedures are now just a YouTube away. You might want to see for yourself.
Myth #11: The procedure costs a fortune.
A lot of men suffering from male pattern baldness are afraid to consider having a hair transplant procedure because they think it is a luxurious solution and the post-treatment is expensive. That, of course, is not necessarily true. The price of hair transplant used to rely on different factors especially the number of grafts that need to be transplanted. However, the latest technologies helped make the overall cost more affordable and again, no post-treatment medications are needed.
Myth #12: Laser hair transplantation works best.
False. In fact, using a laser for hair transplantation is no longer advisable because of the amount of damage it can inflict on the tissues on the scalp.