What is hair megatransplant?

Megatransplant is the most efficient surgical procedure for the treatment of baldness. It is the transplant of follicular units, called capillary follicles which are extracted from the donating region in the posterior part of the head are transplanted to the bald area. Around 2,600 to 3,500 or more grafts are transplanted in each surgical procedure, depending on the quantity of hairs in the donating area of each patient, which corresponds to more or less 7,000 to 10,000 hairs. After two sessions, the result is natural and permanent hair. 

What can be done in relation to male baldness pattern?
People who suffer form capillary miniaturization have four options to deal with the problem. The best option is a capillary restoration surgery, the only natural and permanent solution for baldness. In initial cases, one may also opt for clinical treatments such as pills, lotions, shampoos, laser, or use cosmetics that hide baldness such as creams, sprays and powders that, when applied to the bald area, help disguising the problem, as long as there is still some hair in the place. Yet another option is correcting the problem by hair plugs, yet another non-permanent solution.

Is there any medicine or lotion that makes my hair grow back?
It depends on the degree of baldness. If it is in its initial phase, the results are good. However, in advanced stages, the best treatment is the surgical one. Medicines can slow down the evolution of baldness, but they do not make new hair grow where the root is dead. The permanent solution for baldness is indeed the megatransplant of follicular units.

Who can undergo a capillary restoration surgery?
This type of surgery is a definitive solution for men and women suffering from AGA. Scar tissues lacking hair can also undergo surgery.

Am I a good candidate?
Any person with full hair and healthy scalp is immediately considered a good candidate for megatransplant. A patient with light hair and skin – in opposition to a patient with dark hair and light skin – usually possesses a larger capillary density, which facilitates the surgical procedure. Patients with curly hair will need fewer sessions than someone with straight hair. Despite being natural, the results vary from patient to patient and may not achieve total density or coverture that you had when you were young.

Is there any risk involved in megatransplant surgery?
Hair megatransplant is a modern technique that applies the greatest advances in medical science to provide both results and safety.

Should I get a haircut before the surgery?
No. With shorter hair the scar in the donating area becomes more visible. It’s easier to hide it under longer hair. It is also easier for the surgeon and his team to work with longer hair, because it will be parted and the new hairs will be put among them.

What measures should be taken before the surgery?
Some exams are necessary before the surgery. Clinica Muricy provides all necessary guidance for the patient’s pre-surgery.

How many surgical sessions are needed?
It depends on the patient. Usually, two megatransplant sessions are enough. There are critical cases that ask for a third session, though. In order to know what your case is, talk to the expert.

What is the time interval between one megatransplant session and the other?
The minimal waiting interval between two megatransplant surgery sessions is 10 months.

What is the time interval between one megatransplant session and the other?
The minimal waiting interval between two megatransplant surgery sessions is 10 months.

Is there any risk that transplanted hair falls?
No. Transplanted hairs carry with them the memory of the donating area that never suffers the action of hormones. No matter how bald the person gets, he or she will never lose the hairs in the occipital region of the scalp. It is from this region that the hairs are extracted to be transplanted to the new region, called receptor.

What special care should be taken with transplanted hair after the surgery?
Transplanted hair grows normally. It is natural hair that can be brushed and cut without the necessity of any special care. Post-surgery is also simple and all its procedures are explained to the patient at the Clinica Muricy.

After the surgery, how long before the patient can return to his routine?
The patient&rsquot;s routine can be resumed around 48 to 72 hours after the surgery. Megatransplant post-surgery is a period that requires rest and some special care.

I have baldness. How long will it take for me to be completely bald?
After the beginning of the AGA, it will take most men between 15 and 25 years to define their baldness pattern. Some men, however, will be bald within 5 years. There are many causes for baldness, but two are the factors that define the speed of the capillary miniaturization: genes and hormonal activity.

Baldness is easier to be treated in an initial stage or an advanced one?
Treating baldness right in its initial stage is more advantageous. Besides the patient having a good amount of hair to be transplanted, he hasn’t yet been labeled bald in his environment.

It is common people talking about hair falling. Why isn’t this term correct?
Hair doesn’t suddenly fall. What happens is that it undergoes a gradual miniaturization process, i.e., it diminishes in length and thickness. This translates into volume reduction, allowing the scalp to be seen through the hairs.

Is there any relation between puberty and baldness?
Unfortunately, yes. Androgenic Alopecia, or baldness, depends on the person’s hormonal activity. Puberty is a period in life in which there are great hormonal changes. It is common for baldness to appear in this phase.

Is there any scientific truth behind the popular custom of associating preoccupations to hair loss?
Whenever we go through situations of fear, despair or angst, our organism produces a hormone called cortisol, which influences cellular metabolism. Cutaneous annexes such as nails and hair are impaired in these situations. However, this is a temporary change. These hairs and nails return to their initial conditions. Stress alone does not generate baldness. Baldness requires genetic predisposition from the person.

My hormone levels are normal, and even so I got AGA. How is that possible?
Genetic predisposition is a decisive factor for baldness. If the hormonal receptors involved in the AGA process are genetically programmed to be sensible, you can present baldness even with hormonal levels that are considered normal. It is not the increased amount of hormones that causes baldness; it is the presence in the cells of the receptor for this hormone. The presence of this receptor is genetically determined.

What is the relation between pregnancy and baldness?
In the pregnancy period, usually the hairs remain in the growth (anagenous) phase and become more beautiful and full of volume. Menopause and the use of contraceptives, on their turn, cause sensible alterations in women’s hormonal levels, and these alterations reflect in the chemical process that triggers baldness.

Why do some men become bald and others don’t?
Some men are genetically predisposed to Androgenic Alopecia (AGA) and others not. This genetic influence is what will determine how sensitive will the hormonal receptors involved in the process be to Testosterone. In case this "sensitivity" is great, the individual will be predisposed to baldness.

AGA has genetic and hormonal causes. Are there other causes for baldness?
Some mycosis and bacterial infections in the scalp can also trigger a process of loss of hair that, at the first sight, can look like AGA. Scar tissue in the scalp can also prevent hair from growing in a certain area, generating a bald spot. There is also another situation, called alopecia areata, when hair loss in areas of the scalp has immunological causes.

Megatransplat of follicular units seems to me like an excellent solution, but what are these follicular units?
It is a set formed by one, two, three or even four hairs plus the sebaceous gland and hair erection muscle, all involved by a tissue called conjunctive. The hairs in the scalp are disposed in follicular units of one ore more hairs (up to four) that we can also call Families. When we perform the capillary transplant surgery we try to "copy" the natural anatomy of the area. In the anterior line, we place follicular units of one hair and as we advance we put units of two, three and four hairs. In the graft cut we also maintain the anatomy and separate the grafts by follicular units.

Will this megatransplant surgery produce new hair on my head?
The principle of the surgery is to redistribute the hair. To remove hairs from an area which there are lots of it, put them in an area with few or none. No new hair will be created.

How do baldness medicines work? Will they make my hair grow again?
In some initial cases of baldness, the answer is yes. The medication reverses the miniaturization process and hair tends to get a little thicker again, giving the impression that new hairs have grown. However, this effect remains only if the person continues using the medication. If the use is interrupted, the baldness process returns.

How, exactly, does minoxidil work?
Minoxidil reverses the miniaturization process of the hair in AGA by normalizing the follicle’s cycle, extending the anagenous phase. Anagenous phase is the phase in which the matrix keeps active, continually producing hair.

How, exactly, does finasteride work?
Finasteride acts in a different way from minoxidil. The "strategy" of this medication is to act as blocker of the 5-alfa-reductase type II enzyme, preventing the transformation of testosterone into DHT (dihydrotestosterone), which is the hormone responsible for hair miniaturization process.