[Director Yoo Hwa-jung's Column] Recently, cases of hair loss patients in their 20s and 30s have been increasing sharply. So-called young people with hair loss who take hair loss medication or consider a hair transplant are rapidly increasing in number. Along with family history, hair loss risk factors such as stress, lack of sleep, and poor eating habits have become more varied, contributing to hair loss cases among younger age groups. Most of them are known to experience the early symptoms of M-shaped hair loss.
An even bigger problem is that countless people miss the right timing for hair loss treatment. Hair loss is a progressive condition in which a greater amount of hair falls out compared with normal, and once it occurs, it continues. Therefore, it is advisable to begin treatment immediately in the early stage, when hair loss is not severe. Rather than using hair loss shampoos or considering unverified folk remedies, it is a wiser approach to seek out drug treatment tailored to the type of hair loss, a hair transplant, and so on.
If hair loss is not severe, improvement is possible with non-surgical treatment, but if it is, a hair transplant should be considered. In particular, in the case of M-shaped hair loss, a hair transplant is recommended depending on the stage of progression.
In men, symptoms typically begin at both temporal regions and clinically progress with the forehead gradually widening into an M shape. Female hair loss is characterized by hair becoming thinner overall and decreasing in density, with hair volume gradually decreasing from the crown toward the sides. If it is a mid-stage in which hair volume has noticeably decreased, improvement can be expected with hair transplant surgery.
Hair transplant methods are broadly divided into incision and non-incision. The incisional hair transplant works on the principle of using healthy hair from the occipital region, where the effects of hair loss are less pronounced, by removing an area of scalp corresponding to the number of hair follicles needed and transplanting it. A linear scar remains after surgery, but its advantage is the lower cost burden.
Non-incision surgery is a surgical method in which follicles are extracted one follicular unit at a time without making an incision in the occipital region and are transplanted into the area of hair loss. Its advantages are minimized scarring and a fast recovery speed, and in cases where the skin elasticity of the occipital region has decreased, the non-incision surgical method can be an effective approach.
In particular, the non-incision method is divided, depending on the degree of shaving, into full shaving, strip shaving, no shaving, and long hair transplantation, in which the hair is transplanted as it is without cutting. In addition, there is also a combined hair transplant that merges the advantages of the incisional and non-incisional methods. The strengths of this method are that a large amount of hair can be transplanted and that, by minimizing the incision area, the scarred area is less noticeable. Since hair transplant methods are so varied, prior customized consultation and detailed examination are more important than anything else.
Also, the graft survival rate can be cited as a key point that determines the success or failure of a hair transplant. Although it is true that, with the recent development of medical technology, there is hardly any difference in survival rates between incisional and non-incisional hair transplants, for satisfactory results it is important to carefully check the surgical method optimized for each individual hair loss patient as well as the know-how of the doctor in charge.
Source: MediaFine │ Published 2021.01.15