Many men and some women face hair loss in their lifetime. The best way to get their hair back is a hair transplant. However, many patients wonder how long hair transplants last? Are there factors lengthening or shortening its lifespan? What is the best hair transplant technique for a long-lasting hair transplant?
Here is everything to know!
How long do hair transplants last? Understanding hair transplant's core principle
Regardless of the used technique, all hair transplants have the same principle: harvesting grafts in an area where the hair is naturally resistant to androgen, then implanting them into the bald spot. It works because the hair follicles keep their genetic properties even after being implanted in another scalp region.
In other words, the hair in the back of the head is genetically programmed not to fall, while the hair in the top of the head is sensitive to androgens, such as DHT and testosterone, which weaken hair follicles and cause hair loss in 70% of men. The androgen-resistant grafts the doctor harvests in the back of the head remains androgen-resistant when he implants them into the bald spot, making the hair transplant results long-lasting.
How long do hair transplants last? Minding baldness evolution
Patients must remember that a hair transplant surgery does not stop baldness from evolving. All the hair transplant techniques cover the bald spots with androgen-resistant hair but do not prevent further hair loss. The only way to avoid hair loss is to block DHT and androgen productions. Some medicines, such as Finasteride, are efficient but come with many side effects as androgens play a crucial role in men’s health and sexual health. Moreover, the patients must take those medicines continuously. Otherwise, the hair falls. Those drugs are not a long-lasting solution to baldness.
Baldness evolution depends on genetics, and there is no efficient way to plan a man’s baldness evolution as it is different for everyone. In the hair transplant industry, we often advise our patients to wait before 30 to do a hair transplant because baldness is rarely stable before this age.
To determine the baldness stage, we use the Norwood-Hamilton scale. However, if the patient has reached the ultimate step, the hair may keep falling, and there is no way to be sure about how fast this process will be.
However, there is no health risk of doing a hair transplant in one’s 20s, and the main issue is that a patient with ongoing baldness would keep losing his natural hair. The grafts would remain in place as they are resistant to androgen, but the hair between them and the eternal hair may fall, and it is esthetically not very good. Those patients may need another procedure to “fill the gap” and achieve a perfect look in the following years.
What is the best hair transplant technique for long-lasting results?
The results of correctly performed hair transplants last for life. However, all the techniques are not equal. Old hair transplant techniques’ results, such as FUT, did not do well over time. Many men who had this type of hair transplant in the 1990s had other procedures in the following years.
FUE and DHI hair transplants are as good for hair transplant results’ lasting. However, those two procedures do not offer the same results. FUE has significant flaws: the results lack volume because the doctor cannot control the grafts’ implantation angle, leading to flat hair. DHI, on the contrary, offers a very natural-looking volume because of its unique direct implantation technique.
The best is to go for a DHI hair transplant in a reputable clinic such as Hair Turkey for long-lasting and very natural-looking results.
