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Being
rejected as unsuitable for a hair transplant
Unfortunately in some cowboy clinics the only objective in the
interview is to get you to pay up and the clinic representatives
may tell you whatever they think you want to hear and agree to
whatever you demand to get your signature on a check. “The
customer is always right” or “give the punters what
they want” are ideals that many in the commercial world live
and die by. But when it comes to your health and safety the customer
is always right approach is not always in the best long term interests
of you the customer. Do you really know what the best hair transplant
technique is? Are your expectations for a hair transplant realistic?
Do you understand the risks of the procedure? Is a hair transplant
really the right treatment approach for you kind of hair loss?
If the hair transplant technique is not the right one for your
needs, or the result is not what you were expecting, it is too
late to do much about it. If you are disappointed with a hair transplant,
taking a clinic to court may be an option, but an expensive one,
and the damage has already been done and will be difficult to fix.
It is much better that you get the right advice first time around,
even if the advice is that you should not have a hair transplant.
A surgeon should have your best interests at heart, and a good
surgeon will actually tell you if he / she finds that you are not
suitable for a hair transplant.
A good consultant in a reputable hair transplant clinic will take
the interview several steps beyond just giving you information.
A good surgeon will try and gauge your motivation for having the
hair transplant done and will find out how realistic your expectations
are for the hair transplant procedure. If a good surgeon thinks
you are not particularly motivated or you have unrealistic expectations,
he / she will actually recommend that you do not have a hair transplant
at that time. Some people are not really sure that they really
want a hair transplant when they interview a clinic. Because a
hair transplant is a significant financial and health undertaking,
it is better such people are given more time to think about it.
If you are not really sure about a hair transplant, a surgeon may
suggest you wait and think about it some more. You can always contact
the clinic later if you do decide a hair transplant is right for
you.
Other people are wildly over optimistic about what a hair transplant
will do for them (and their sex life even). Some people can get
very emotional about their hair loss, they want it fixed at any
cost and they want an immediate and perfect result. Hair transplants
don’t work that way. Most hair transplants involve multiple
surgical sessions over many months. It can take a couple of years
before an acceptable hair growth is achieved. A good hair transplant
can look quite natural, but it will never give you the hair density
you had as a child. Sometimes because the number of donor hair
follicles are limited and the area to cover is large, the surgeon
has to resort to giving you a higher hairline than normal or making
the hair at the front hairline more dense so that you can grow
the hair long to cover thinner areas on top. Some people get very
disappointed when they find this is the case and that there are
limits to what can be done with hair transplantation techniques.
When they get a hair transplant that is not as they had hoped,
they get depressed and they may decide to sue the surgeon. For
these people, it is better in the longer term that they do not
receive a hair transplant, better for them, better for the surgeon
too.
Some forms of hair loss are simply not suitable for hair transplantation.
A hair transplant for a condition like telogen effluvium or alopecia
areata would just not work. The transplanted hair follicles would
be just as susceptible to hair loss as all the other hair follicles.
While hair transplantation is possible for most people with pattern
baldness, not everyone is a good candidate. People with extensive
hair loss may not have enough hair follicles in the donor area
at the back of the scalp for a hair transplant to give a cosmetically
acceptable result. Others may be in the early stages of pattern
baldness development with only limited areas of hair loss. Whilst
the surgeon could give you a hair transplant, this would not stop
more hair from falling out later on. So a hair transplant in the
early stages of androgenetic alopecia development may fix the problem
for a while, as the baldness continues to expand, so you would
be left with “islands” of transplanted follicles surrounded
by a sea of bald skin. If the interviewing surgeon believes this
is the situation for you they may suggest you try drug treatments
for now and come back in a few years for a hair transplant.
Finally you might be rejected because, while you may be a suitable
candidate for a hair transplant, and your expectations of the transplant
procedure are realistic, the surgeon does not have the required
knowledge and experience in the particular technique needed for
your hair loss presentation. This situation is most often encountered
by those with scarring alopecia or those who need hair transplants
to the eyebrows, lashes, beard, or pubic regions. Most hair transplant
clinics are geared to people with pattern baldness, they may not
have the knowledge to do a good hair transplant job for people
who have a condition other than androgenetic alopecia. In these
situations, a clinic may refer you to a specialist, a plastic surgeon
with experience in corrective surgery. If you know you need a hair
transplant that is different from the standard procedure, it may
be best to seek out plastic surgeons with experience in treating
the particular form of hair loss that you have and avoid the routine
hair transplant clinics altogether.
To be turned down for a transplant may seem harsh at the time,
but it is almost always in your long term interests. If you find
the surgeon has recommended that you do not have a hair transplant
you need to ask yourself why. If it is that your particular hair
loss presentation is not suitable for transplanting then you may
need to consider other treatment approaches. If the technique you
need is not something a particular surgeon can do, find another
who can. But if the issues are more emotional, you are not sure
you really want a transplant, or the surgeon felt your demands
were unrealistic, then you may have a lot of thinking to do. In
both cases, gathering information about hair transplants and then
weighing up the pros and cons of a transplant in an objective way
may help you come to a conclusion.
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