Dr. Mejia was interviewed by NBC’s channel 5 news. We seem to have an endless fascination with hair. Remember in the 60s and 70s, there was even a Broadway play about it called “hair.” But what happens when that long, beautiful hair falls out, and you’re bald?
Question asked in the interview: If you have hair replacement surgery, will it actually grow in the place that it fell out?
Well, some people have surgery to put it back on! How does it work? Good question! We’re pretty much a society of “anything goes” when it comes to hairstyles and hair color. In some cases, there’s *no* hair involved. And that’s what we’re focusing on today: that dome that lost its cover. more specifically, those who want to get it back through hair transplant surgery.
Sometimes you get a good question that just makes a lot of sense. After all, if what was there fell out in the first place, what makes you think a “transplanted” hair follicle is going to grow? Good question!”
Dr. Ricardo Mejia, a dermatologist who specializes in hair restoration says the answer is simple.
“Transplanted hair comes from the back of your head and that hair is more genetically insensitive to the hormone that causes hair loss, which is EHT. So when you take hair from the back of the head and move them to the front they continue to grow as if they were growing to the back of the head.”
The answer may be simple. But the procedure is a little more complicated and expensive. And therein lays the rub as in why some men would prefer to rub in a hair-growth product, like “Rogaine,” which contains “minoxodil,” which has been a successful remedy for some patients.
But Dr. Mejia says the best results happen with surgery.
“Surgery is the best option because we can give you your own natural, living hair. You can comb it, you can style it, you can do whatever you would want to normally do with the hair that you did have before.” And Mejia says you don’t have to pamper it; once it’s there, it’s there to stay.
Another plus: The new hair comes in slowly over a period of months.
“And you can see little tiny hair follicles starting to grow so it is a gradual process where people will get a natural look over time. It’s not going to be very sudden where people notice anything.”
If you’re considering hair replacement surgery, make sure it’s really what you want because it’s not cheap, and it’s generally not covered by insurance. Dr. Mejia says you can expect to pay five-to-nine thousand dollars for usually one or two sessions. But the good news is it does seem to work in nearly *all* patients. It looks natural and it grows like your old hair did before it fell out.
