Hair Transplant and Patient Counseling

The relocation of bald resistant hair follicles from the back and sides of the donors head area to his bald or thinning areas is called hair transplantation. Generally, the transplanted hair follicles resistant to going bald will typically grow hair for a lifetime.

Hair transplantation can be traced back in the 19th century. This involved the shifting of a band of tissue with its original blood supply to a person's bald area through the use of both scalp flaps and free grafts. In the 1930s, modern transplant techniques began in Japan, although these were not attempts to treat baldness per se. On the other hand, the modern era of hair transplantation in the western world was ushered in the late 1950s. A New York dermatologist, Orentreich, began experimenting with free donor grafts to balding areas in patients with male pattern baldness. In the succeeding years, extensive research and experimentation focused on transplanting smaller grafts which eventually led to minimally successful results, attaining a dolls head-like appearance. It was only in 1995 that Bernstein and Rassman published the first paper on Follicular Unit Transplantation, indicating hair is transplanted exclusively in naturally occurring groups of 1-4 hairs. This hair transplant procedure continued to evolve, attaining a more refined and minimally invasive size of graft incisions. Today, a natural appearance can be achieved through modern hair transplantation techniques. This can be done by mimicking natural hair for hair.

Individuals who suffer from hair loss are increasingly drawn to seek hair transplantation surgery. This may happen when there seem to be no other treatment working for them. In effect, some become angry and start to have doubts hovered in their minds when they approach a hair restoration center or clinic. Mainly, these doubts pertain to the outcome of the surgical hair transplantation procedure, and the money and time required for the surgery.

Meanwhile, some men and women visit a hair restoration center or clinic for other motives. One common motive behind most of these clinic consultations is looking younger. For some, hair is considered an integral part of their personality. As for women, it is nothing less than a symbol of their femininity.
When deciding to go through a hair transplant, one must consider the following:

Make an educated decision about your hair restoration surgery

It is vital to make an educated decision about hair restoration surgery to avoid wastage of money and at worst, cosmetically discouraging consequences on the patient's end.

Counseling at a hair restoration center or clinic

A patient deciding to go through a hair transplant surgery should be relieved of fear and apprehension of the outcome of the procedure. To do this, the patient should be well informed through active participation in patient education and compassionate counseling on the different aspects of surgical hair transplantation.

Understanding the psychology of the patient

A vital aspect of the undergoing hair transplant surgery is the patients psychology. This is why the patient must become aware of the realistic outcomes of the hair transplant surgery and must cooperate with the hair transplant surgeon for designing the hair line or deciding the future course of the surgeries during the patient education and counseling.

Understanding the hair transplant surgeons view point

In a patient counseling session, the hair transplant counselor learns what the patient desires to achieve after the surgery. However, there are cases that the hair transplant surgeon must convince his patient to heed professional advice. This may happen, for instance, when a young bald patient insists on going for an unnatural look without any consideration of his facial structure, and quantity and quality of donor hair.
The considerations discussed above provide individuals suffering from hair loss a basic understanding of how to go about hair transplantation surgery. It is necessary that one gains a clear insight of having a transplantation surgery to avoid ill effects, may it be physical or psychological.