For years I have contemplated having a hair transplant. For years, I have found reasons not to have one. I felt it was vain. It is ridiculously expensive. There is a high chance of shock loss (where the rest of your hair falls out for a few months...more on that later). And quite frankly, I was just chicken. If I had the procedure, I would be forced to tell people and while I am losing hair through no fault of my own...it is still something that is embarrassing. Research indicates that 40% of women show signs of thinning hair by the age of 40. This might be true, but I do not know anyone my age who has thinning hair--or maybe they just do not talk about and/or hide it well. A recent article in Marie Clair magazine said 24% of all women with thinning hair equate it as the same trauma as losing a limb. After reading that article, I felt a little more sane...while it hinders my self esteem, I definitely do NOT think thinning hair is a bad as losing a leg! Come on people. Get a grip. I can always wear a hat or scarf....how do you hide a missing leg? All joking aside, thinning hair is nothing like losing a limb. People who have lost a limb and overcome that are amazing people. Thinning hair does not impede my ability to function in everyday life...it is merely a mental fixation.
In 2011, I took the first step and travelled to Minneapolis for a hair transplant consultation. They talked to me and explained the procedure and took pictures showing my level of hair loss. There is a classification system they use--I was a level two. As ridiculous as this sounds, I was pleased I was not a level 3 or 4--like I had something to do with it. They check the donor site and see if you are a good candidate. Good news, I was.
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| You can see the crown area is where I am really thinning. |
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| So this is classification two. Three and four are thinning farther down the sides and completely bald patches. This is rare for women. |
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| The frontal hairline is what has always bothered me the most. |
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| You can see how much thicker and fuller the hair is on the back of my head. This is why they said it was a good donor site. |
I arrived at the facility at 8:45 a.m. A friend took me as we were not sure how I would feel when the procedure was over. It is considered minor surgery. I met with the doctor and he looked over my scalp and then they took blood pressure and gave me a Valium. Wow, that made me loopy. I said I did not want it but they said they wanted me to have it. The first step is to numb the back of your head with about 10 Novocaine shots. Next Dr. Josephitus (referred to as Dr. Joe) cut a strip about 1/2" wide from ear to ear. It is not a straight cut as he traces it where the hair is the most dense. This is actually the most painful part of the recovery. I have an incision from ear to ear closed with 50 plus stitches. Part of the incision is shown in this picture. Four days later, it still is painful at times. The incision will be invisible to everyone else, as the hair above it covers it...so you cannot see the scar once it heals. The stitches are dissolvable.
It is an odd felling when your head is numb but you can hear them tearing a strip of your scalp off. At this point 3 assistants take pieces of the scalp and remove each hair shaft. Each one is called a graft. Grafts can contain from 1 to 4 hairs. It was determined that I would have 1800 grafts. They actually harvested 1943 so I ended up getting them all put in (I only had to pay for the 1800). The harvesting of the grafts took about 3 hours total. While they were doing this, Dr. Joe took a surgical tool and placed 1800 small holes in my scalp. I was numbed of course (three times). The Dr. looks at how your hair grows and what angle it comes out of your head and then creates the holes to mimic this same pattern. Later he added 143 more holes based on the increased harvest. It took him about 30 minutes to do this. Then one of the assistants placed the grafts into the holes--one by one. This took about three hours. At times, two of them were doing it simultaneously. I watched a movie, listened to music, took a brief nap and socialized with the staff. Many of them were from Chicago. There is an office in the Gold Coast area, so we talked about all things Chicago. They fly in weekly to help in the Minneapolis office. In regard to placement, grafts with single hairs (there were 150 of them roughly) are placed at the front line and in the widows peak area as it looks most natural this way. Grafts with multiple hairs are used in the crown area as they add density. Here is the pic of my scalp the next day after I was able to take a shower. You can see the redness and the small little holes...don't count them but there are 1943! I am not allowed to use any hair products or curl my hair or use any heat for 2 weeks. So, I will be wearing a scarf to work for awhile.
It has been 4 days since the procedure and things are progressing nicely. One thing I did not expect was swelling in the nose and eyes. Apparently, the trauma to the head can cause swelling and instead of swelling in my forehead...gravity took mine to the eye area. In these pics you can see my nose is enormous and my eyes look like I took a few punches from Rocky Balboa!
So what happens next? This is not a process for the impatient. It takes about 6 months to see the hair actually grow. The good news is, the hair at the back of the head is genetically programmed to never fall out (hence many men are completely bald on top and have hair in the back). With this said, once this hair grows, it will be there forever. It is a 100% guarantee that it will grow or they redo it. Since it is your own hair, there is no chance of rejection. If your hair is healthy and your scalp is healthy, it will grow. I will never have thick hair. I have to be realistic. A normal inch of scalp has 1000 hairs. I had maybe 4000 hairs added to an area 6"x5". However, it should be enough for no-one to notice and to pull it back if I want. This is the reason we focused mostly on the front area. I wanted greater density there. I could have another transplant later. Many people do...to add density. I doubt I will as it is very expensive and I am confident this will give me what I need.
At this point my scalp is healing and itchy! I cannot scratch it of course. In about 3 days the scabs will start to fall off. Then in about 2 weeks the little hairs they implanted will all fall out. This is normal. They go into a dormancy phase for about 2 months and then start to grow. At first they come in as wispy clear hairs like on a baby and then get color and thicken over time. You cannot see the full result until about 12 months to 18 months. But at 6 months I should have a good indication of what it will look like. Each person is different. The other issue is shock loss. This is when the hair you have basically freaks out by the trauma to the scalp from all the cuts and falls out (in the transplant areas). This hair will grow back like the rest--but 3 months down the road. In men, this happens only 15% of the time. In women, 40%. You can lose it all...but on average most lose about 30% of what they have. I had a chat with my hairs ahead of time and told them this was unacceptable. We will see if they listen. HA. Some women wear wigs during this phase so no-one knows. Well, after this blog, my secret is out...so I will just wear scarves and explain to people I do not have cancer. For a few months I can handle it. I am confident that this will be well worth it and the boost to my ego will outweigh the drama of people knowing I had this surgery. I will keep you posted and once it grows in show pictures of what it looks like. No-one will ever be able to tell I had the surgery...it will just be my own hair. Until then, I need to go shopping for some scarves to match every outfit I have. Ahhh shucks...an opportunity to shop :)
