New Port Beach Hair Transplant

Hair Transplant Surgery in Newport Beach, Orange County OC

Newport Beach hair transplant centers are generally located at Newport Beach and Irvine Orange County. Due to great patient demand, many hair restoration centers opened a branch in this area of Orange County.
One of the new US Hair Restoration clinics is just opened in Irvine that is accessible and convenient for Hair transplant in Newport Beach and also to San Diego, Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach. Now US Hair Restoration can meet the hair loss treatment needs of the whole southern Los Angeles. We are adamant about making sure hair loss education and hair transplant information is given to all patients. Now with our Orange County hair transplant office in Irvine, we can assure that even our southern patients will conveniently acquire the right information about their hair transplant with us (only with appointment for Irvine and Newport Beach offices).

Hair Restoration Surgery Donor Scar Repair

Hair restoration with regular strip technique can cause linear scar that could be visible on the back of head if the patient wants to shave his head. Hair transplant scar is not limited to bad hair transplant technique and it might have to do with personal healing process too (some people are generally better healers compare to the others).
 

The good news is that we have methods to minimize the size of the scars nowadays and if you have bad hair transplant scars from bad transplants in the past, there are several new methods that can help improving the appearance of the donor scar. Hair transplant scar could be improved by repair of linear widened scars with different methods that we perform at our Los Angeles office of US Hair Restoration. Dr. Mohebi is the inventor of Laxometer, a device that measure the laxity of the scalp precisely before hair transplant surgeries. Good measurement of the scalp laxity is one of the best ways to minimize development of donor wound complications and widening of donor scar.
 

One method is through simply excising the scar. Excision of the donor scar may be helpful for some donor scars. After removing the scar, hair transplant surgeon can close the skin with trichophytic closure method in which a small wedge on one or both sides of the skin edge is removed and skin is closed primarily. Trichophytic closure allows some hair follicles grow new hair into the final scar. Presence of hair helps making hair transplant scar become invisible.
 

Hair transplant donor coverage could be done by transplanting hair into the scar. Hair could be harvested from other areas using FUE or mini-strip techniques. Again, presence of the hair inside scarred area could trick the discriminating eye and scar become less detectable. Patients may need more that one hair transplant procedure into the donor scar for minimizing the difference between the densities of hair in scar and surrounding areas.
 

The last method that could be used to camouflage the linear scar is by tattooing the scar. People who plan to keep the hair very short can easily tattoo the scar with the figures of short hairs so it seems that there are some hairs present in the scar area, which can help minimizing the visibility of the scar.

Megasession at US Hair Restoration for women

Although women generally doing need large sessions, mega session hair transplant surgery has been around for almost a decade since Dr. Rassman and others started doing bigger and bigger sessions. Before 1993 all could be done was less than 1000 and occasionally 1500 grafts per each session. Using newer techniques and larger team of experienced technicians, we at US Hair Restoration are currently performing large sessions on a regular basis.

Not all physician teams are equal. If a doctor routinely performs sessions in over 2500 graft size, then it would be safe to assume that this doctor has mastered the skills required for large session. Unfortunately, not all doctors have either the teams or the skills to accomplish the feat on a routine basis. Limiting the size of the session to under 2000 grafts, it may take more surgical sessions to accomplish the same goal as when twice the number is transplanted.

Many factors should come together for a mega session hair transplant surgery. First, the surgical team must be trained in doing large sessions with fast, efficient cutting and placing. The following points must be available for the surgery to be successful. The sessions should not take more than eight to ten hours, for more than that, the grafts that are out of the body awaiting placement produces reduced graft growth. Hair transplant surgeon should keep a larger team of technicians to help reducing the time of surgery.

The surgeon must know the nuances of prolonged anesthesia without increasing the risks to the patient. The patient’s scalp laxity must be very loose so that a wide strip can be taken safely (often these strips measure greater than 2cm in width and 22cm in length). The patient’s density must be high (50% higher than normal densities). Large sessions might carry increased risk of swelling and redness after surgery, but overall are not more risky than smaller sessions, but the above criteria must be bet or the yield would not be there. At US Hair Restoration, we offer megasessions to patients with extensive baldness with good donor quality with excellent results.

Miniaturization and Hair Loss

Miniaturization and Hair Loss

February 27th, 2008

Miniaturization of hair or thinning of hair shafts is a part of the hair loss process. When hair becomes miniaturized, it gets finer over time before falling out. Microscopic evaluation of the scalp and hair can help determine the rate of miniaturization on human hair. Balding in men and women usually is not obvious until significant miniaturization is present.

Mapping of scalp hair miniaturization in a typical
man with hair patterned alopecia (baldness)

The appearance of baldness will not be visible at least 70% of hair is miniaturized. A miniaturization study is part of the hair loss evaluation of a patient and could be used as predictor of future balding in a given area. Significant hair miniaturization is seen in patients who are in the active phase of hair loss and this evaluation could determine a patients’ response to a certain type of medical treatment.

Microscopic evaluation of scalp:
Patient has significant miniaturization
That can predict future hair loss

At US Hair Restoration, mapping of the patient’s scalp hair is done for all patients in order to evaluate patient’s hair before initiating any medical treatment or surgery. Young patients with significant miniaturization are prone to losing their vulnerable hair after a hair transplant surgery due to the stress of surgery on skin and hair follicles. This phenomenon is called shock loss and occurs less in patients with minimal amounts of hair miniaturization.

Hair transplant surgeon of US Hair Restoration continuously follows the progress of patients through miniaturization studies when they are on a treatment plan to gauge hair gain or loss. This way we can objectively evaluate the effectiveness of our treatment. If you are balding and are willing to do something about it either by hair transplant surgery or medical treatment, you should have your hair mapped for miniaturization to have a baseline assessment of current hair loss status. This way we can assess the effectiveness of medications and predict in which areas you will have the most hair loss. This can help your hair transplant surgeon cover areas or future hair loss so that you are not obliged to take on multiple surgeries to chase the balding hair.

Patient’s scalp is evaluated by digital microscope:
Miniaturization study is needed before starting medical treatment

If patient has 10 to 20% miniaturized hair, it could be normal and not part of the balding process. Scalp hair goes through two main phases: Growth phage (Anagen) and resting phase (Telogen). The Growth phase in scalp hair of normal people can take between 1 to 6 years, where the resting phase is about 4 to 6 weeks. When we lose one hair to the telogen phase, another hair will grow from its follicle which will be represented by a few tiny hairs showing hair cycling, in the area and not necessarily the balding process.
Presence of over 20 percent hair miniaturization in a general area could be quite normal. It is common indication of active hair loss in the area. Higher numbers of miniaturization could represent active hair loss and progress of balding in the future. If you are a balding man with significant miniaturization, you should take finasteride after mapping your scalp. The effect of medical treatment of baldness is very gradual and may take at least six months for any detectable improvement in miniaturization of hair.
Article from Hair Loss Q&A web log.

FEMALE PATTERN BALDNESS

Women Hair loss

Female pattern baldness (FPB) involves a specific pattern of hair loss in females, usually caused by hormones, aging and genetic. This condition is also called alopecia in women; female baldness and androgenic alopecia in women.

Causes, incidence, and risk factors of women hair loss

Rate of hair growth from follicle is about 1/2 inch per month. Life circle of each hair including growth and rest that will be completed with fall of hair, takes about 2 - 6 years. After fall of any hair a new hair soon begins to grow in its place. 85 percent of hair is growing at any given time and the other 15 percent is resting.

Baldness is a condition that new hair does not grow when old hair fall. The causes of the failure to grow new hair in female pattern baldness is not entirely understood, but it seems to be associated with hormonal changes, genetic predisposition, and aging. Hormonal changes are commonly seen in menopausal period when the hair on the head is thinned, while facial hair is getting coarser.

Pattern and grading of hair loss

The typical pattern in female patten baldness is generally different from that of male pattern baldness MPB. In female pattern baldness the hair thins more diffuely but the frontal hairline is maintains in most of the cases (unlike male pattern baldness). Female pattern baldness can occasionally present similar to male pattern baldness, but it rarely progresses to total or even near total baldness as it may in men.

Some of the typical patterns hair loss in women are:

1. Diffuse pattern of hair thinning over entire scalp, often more noticeable thinning toward the back.
2. Diffuse thinning with more noticeable thinning in front, but with no involvement of the frontal hairline.
3. Diffuse thinning with more noticeable thinning toward the front of the scalp with involvement and sometime breaching the frontal hairline[Ref].

Figure 1: Ludwig classification of female pattern baldness

other causes of hair loss in women

• Telogen effluvium: temporary shedding of hair more than the usual rate
• Instrumental: breaking of hair (usually from styling treatments)
• Alopecia areata: Patchy areas of total hair loss (an immune disorder causing local hair loss)
• Scarring alopecia: Patchy hair loss due to sever inflamation or injury, which is followed by scar
• Trichotillomania: Anxiety and psychological related compulsive pulling of hair
• Medications
• Certain skin diseases such as lupus or other inflammatory conditions

Treatment of Female Pattern Baldness

Treatment of alopecia in women can be started when common treatable causes of hair loss is excluded. Rogaine (topical Minoxidil 2%) is aften the first step in treatment. Rogaine is the only FDA approved medication that is currntly available for treatment of female pattern hair loss. The other FDA approved hair loss treatment in males, Propecia, did not show any positive results in female pattern baldness.

Aldactone (Spironolactone) pills help many women and can be used in selected female patients. Other hormonal treatments including Cyproterone acetate have shown some results in patients with evidence of increased androgen (hyperandrogenism) especially in women after menopause.

Hair transplant surgery, using new techniques of follicular unit and minigraft done by experienced hair transplant surgeons can often acheive excellent results. Although effective in most cases, hair transplantation have minimal results in female patients with generalized hair loss. The candidacy of women should be assesses carefully. Women with thin eyebrow or eyebrow hair loss may also be candidates for hair transplant surgery to the eyebrows.

Transgender hair transplant is one of the important hair transplants in transformation of a male to female hairline. Hair transplant for transgenders should be one of the first procedures to be considered in the process of the sex change. A male patterned hairline could be easily converted to a nice feminine hair line with microscopic follicular unit transplantation with perfect results. However in some patients there is some degrees of male patterned baldness that might create more challenge especially in patients with significant miniaturization of scalp hair that indicate future hair loss.