The consult is an opportunity for a patient to ask any questions they may have regarding their hair loss, medical therapy, and hair transplantation. It is also an opportunity for the physician to create an individual treatment plan for each patient.
The consult helps establish whether or not a patient is a candidate for hair transplantation, the risks/benefits of the procedure, side effects, and long term realistic expectations from the procedure. During the consult, all patients should be made aware that contemporary transplantation is consistently natural in men and women.
Key concepts to consider are how the caliber of a patient’s hair follicle will affect the perceived density from the procedure. Patients with fine, thin hair will grow fine transplanted hair and those with thick wavy hair will grow thick wavy transplanted hair. In addition, the amount of donor density the patient has will affect the amount of transplanted hair that is available for each procedure.
The ongoing hair loss due to male and female pattern hair loss will affect the density from a procedure. If a patient does not use finasteride and/or minoxidil to help maintain existing hair, then as hair loss continues, future procedures may be needed to help maintain existing density.
Patients should be aware , if they choose to shave their hair or closely crop their hair in the donor area, a thin visible scar will be evident. For the vast majority of patients this never will be an issue but occasionally a patient does communicate that they like to occasionally shave their hair and it is important that they understand this before undergoing a transplant. For patients that do express a desire to wear their hair closely cropped in the back, an alternative harvesting method is follicular unit extraction.
Follicular unit extraction is the removal of intact one to three hair follicular groupings from the posterior scalp using 1 mm punch biopsies. The surgical incisions in using 1 mm punches are so small that there is generally no perceived scar in the donor area. Currently the ellipse remains the standard harvesting method because a surgeon is able to harvest more hair with less transection of hair during each procedure. Follicular unit extraction’s chief limitation is the limited amount of hair and, more importantly, the higher transection of hair through this method. The caliber of hair, rate of hair loss, available donor density, use or lack of use of medications will together all help creat realistic expectations for each patient.
All patients should be encouraged to contact the physician or the staff with any questions regarding the procedure before scheduling the procedure.
