HLC Hair Transplant Repair
Hair Transplant Failure
A Hair Transplant Repair is a correction of an unsuccessful hair transplant surgery which has not provided natural, aesthetically pleasing results. Previously transplanted hair is removed during the hair transplant repair process. In this image, the hairline is to be rectified and the scars will be transplanted with new hair grafts. The Hairline Clinic (HLC) has extensive experience in hair transplant repair operations, and can provide you with the hairline you desire.
How to Repair a Failed Hair Transplant
If a hair transplant does not go as expected, some results may not always meet the patients’ expectations. Unfortunately, there are clinics and physicians that will destroy the confidence of their patients by offering an unprofessional hair transplant. The result may fail to reach the promised density of hairgrowth, or can look unnatural, and will need to be corrected by a hair transplant repair.
Hairline Repair Transplant – Prospects and Limitations
In recent years the demand for hairline corrections has risen rapidly. The reason for this is that many patients undergo treatment at cheap clinics with inexperienced personnel. Although the general growth rate has improved in five years, the transplanted hair displays a unsatisfactory result.
This can be due to the hair looking unnatural where multiple grafts have been transplanted into an area designed for an individual graft structure. This affects the result of the hairline, looking similar to the hair plugs advocated in the 1970’s! Additionally, substandard surgeries do not attempt to harmonise the growing angle of the transplanted follicles with the pre-existing native hair. This exhibits an uncoordinated and low density appearance.
Additionally, at low budget clinics little attention is paid towards patients care, or planning a structured procedure. This can increase the embarrassment of the patient later on, and affect them mentally, often causing them to seek out a repair at a better reputed clinic. The HLC is keen to help and compassionately support those patients whose hairline has achieved an unnatural result.
The HLC can offer professional advice and expertise regarding hair repair surgeries. We can provide a wide range of options for a viable repair. Each repair surgery requires unique conditions, from the delicate removal and replacement of transplanted hair follicles, to the harvesting of new grafts. Depending on the damage already caused by the previous failed hair transplant, the route for a repair procedure may have some limitations. However, we will also be realistic with each patient about the probability for a successful repair surgery.
How you can prevent a Hairline Repair?
Firstly, ensure that the assistants and the surgeon are using surgical loupes for the extraction and implantation process. Only single grafts should be transplanted into the hairline, and care needs to be taken to prevent partially transected, single grafts growing as multi-grafts.
For the first row of a hairline, you will need a minimum of 200-300 single grafts. During the hairline design process, you should consider your age and future hairloss. Everyone would like to have a thick and full hairline, but sometimes this is not possible as hair naturally thins with age. If you are an older patient, your donor area will be naturally depleted.
How a hairline correction can be done?
We can’t remove the whole hairline and redesign it. However, we can extract some multigrafts from the hairline and replace them with single grafts. We can also slightly pull down the hairline. If the whole hairline, or false temples point has to be removed, we recommend electro-epilation first. After 3-4 months of this procedure you can have the hairline corrected.
Factors to consider for Hairline Repair
A limited donor supply
Even excellent hair surgeons, who make every effort to correct unsatisfying and poor results of a failed hair transplant, may reach their limits if there is not a sufficient donor supply. This point is particularly valid for scalp hair, as it is the prime candidate for hair graft transplantation. With scalp hair it will be possible to harvest multiple grafts (hair follicles with up to 5 hairs) and generate a higher density at the balding zone of the patient. If the scalp donor supply has considerably thinned out, it may be difficult to perform a repair hair transplant to the desired expectations of the patient. This is likely to happen when the donor has been significantlly over-harvested during a previous hair transplant.
Growing angle, hair design and symmetries
The personal hairline regularly figures prominently during a hair transplant since it gives a frame to the face. The hairline is often the prime focal point for determining a satisfactory transplant result. Consequently, it can also cause the greatest embarrassment if a poor hairline transplantation surgery has been performed. This may be constantly distressing to patients when they observe the result in a mirror.
Body hair transplant (BHT)
A body hair transplant may be a valid solution for a successful hair repair surgery. Those who suffer from visible scars on their heads (due to outdated hair transplant methods like strip surgery, FUT) may ask for a repair to fully cover the scars with body hair. The HLC is conducting an increasing number of repair surgeries using body hair, and this is applicable when there is not enough donor hair remaining on the patient’s scalp. A body hair transplant may be the only solution to achieve a satisfactory repair.
The HLC has years of experience in body hair transplant. The primary resources qualifying for body hair transplant, determined by our experienced physicians, include beard hair and chest hair.
This method is primarily performed on male patients. Body hair and scalp hair are constituted differently in structure, diameter and growth cycles. Furthermore, multiple grafts (hair follicles with 2 or more hairs) are not found in body hair, they only occur in single grafts.
For this reason, more body hair is required to cover the desired area with an aesthetically pleasing density. Multi-grafts from the scalp are preferred to achieve this required hair density. As a result, body hair can sometimes only be used to supplement donor hair from the scalp.
With a body hair transplant the average growing yield will be lower than with regular scalp hair. At the HLC, patients may expect a growing yield between 80-90% for beard hair, whereas for chest hair transplants the growing yield rarely shows a 50% growing yield. Unfortunately, a chest hair transplant is a riskier procedure as the results are more unpredictable.
Skin Structure – expectations with repair hair transplants
A hair transplant repair focuses on an area that has had a previous hair transplant. The skin in this area has suffered from numerous incisions and started to create subcutaneous scarring. Our patients may have experienced a low growing yield than they initially expected.
Any repair performed on our patients may not be able to fully undo a previous hair transplant. The HLC will not be able to return a failed transplant to its previous unaltered state. Therefore, irreversible consequences of failed hair transplantations are not within the responsibility of the HLC. All physicians at the HLC sympathise with the disappointment experienced by some patients undergoing a repair procedure, and will do our utmost to improve hair conditions for each individual.
Advanced hair loss – donor management
Genetic hair loss occurs as a process in several cycles and various intensities over many years. Patients who are suffering from hair loss at an early age, and willing to undergo a hair transplant, still need to be aware that hair loss will proceed with further aging.
Serious and experienced hair surgeons regularly ask younger patients to wait until the final progress of hair loss can be seen. However, there is a number of unsatisfactory clinics and physicians willing to profit from a personal desolate situation and impatience, that offer hair transplants to younger patients.
As with progressive balding, the final result will no longer meet the patient´s expectations due to advanced hair loss. As a result, patients come to ask for a follow-up or repair at the HLC hoping to achieve an aesthetically pleasing result and a higher density.
Younger patients who are deciding against medication often risk the final success of a hair transplant. The HLC empathetically recommends medication against hair loss (e.g. Rogaine, Finasteride) at younger ages to stop the process of hair loss. Professional donor management will then help to explore the resources for future hair transplants. Those who do not follow medically approved recommendations will risk failing for a repair, as it may only help to limit the damage but no longer meet the patient’s genuine expectations.
Miniaturization in hair transplant and transaction – When transplanted hair falls out
Patients having undergone a hair transplant via a micromotor, or robotic extraction, often opt for a repair at the HLC because the results from their previous transplant are unsatisfactory. Our experienced medical staff have observed many patients whose transplanted hair starts to thin and miniaturise.
Additionally, some of the transplanted grafts start to fall out for no reason. The number of grafted hair follicles is clearly not visible in the balding area. This regularly happens when patients have had a hair transplant with a low-cost provider who utilise a micromotor.
The transaction rate during a motorized operation at a bargain establishment is very high. This risk is increased when extraction rates of 3000-5000 grafts per day (mega sessions) are promised. These surgeries lack the necessary care and attention required during the extraction process. As a result, hair follicles will be damaged and partially to fully transected. The resulting growth yield will be reduced, and a patient’s expectations will suffer.
Your Way out of Mental Stress after a Failed Hair Transplant
With years of experience, the HLC has gained global respect for successful repair procedures in hair transplants. Patients with bad experiences from other clinics come to the HLC to evaluate and discuss their remaining prospects. The majority of these patients suffer from:
- a considerably limited donor supply caused by over-harvesting
- unnatural hairlines
- thinning densities
- advanced hair loss
Great embarrassment and mental stress is evident with these patients, who have undergone emotional turbulence because of their reduced hair supply. Previous unprofessional hair transplants conducted at other clinics can also exacerbate genetic hair loss. This creates a lot of individual dissatisfaction that the HLC will attempt to remedy.
Unfortunately, dubious discounts for hair transplants and supposedly new techniques, such as DHI and Sapphire FUE, are getting more popular and profit from the misery of patients. It is in the patient’s best interest to consider the quality of care they will receive in addition to the cost of the hair transplant. The reputation of the clinic, the methods for hair transplantation, and the expertise of the surgical team are also important considerations.
The HLC and its entire team truly understand the concerns and misery of our patients. We aim to provide our patients realistic hope, although unfortunately some effects of failed hair transplants are irreversible. The HLC strives to limit the damage caused by irresponsible surgeons. Nonetheless, the HLC will achieve the best possible outcome for each patient’s condition, and regularly succeeds in performing a repair with aesthetically pleasing results.
