Hair Transplant Surgery: Male And Female Differences

By Author: Naomi Mannino
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Many specific diagnoses and patterns of hair loss and/or thinning differentiate men and women's candidacy for hair transplant surgery and its final outcome. Learn the difference!

Hair loss and thinning is much more straightforward to diagnose and predict in men than it is in women, agree doctors and surgical hair transplant experts. And they all agree on one more thing: The best result starts with the most thorough diagnosis of the hair loss or hair thinning issue to determine candidacy for a hair transplant surgery.

While the majority of men are good hair transplant surgery candidates because they have a stable donor area on the back and sides of the scalp as well as predictable patterns of hereditary balding, women are prone to have diffuse thinning all over the head so there is no stable donor area. For that reason, we find that only a minority of women are good candidates for a hair transplant, explains Dr. Robert M. Bernstein M.D., F.A.A.D., Clinical Professor of Dermatology at Columbia University in New York and hair transplant surgeon ...
... and director of Bernstein Medical Hair Restoration in New York City.

It's extremely important to determine which women are good candidates for hair transplant surgery and which are not so we examine the donor areas using densitometry to measure and magnify follicles while we look for miniaturization of each hair, a change in its diameter, which is the hallmark of genetic hair loss. We make sure women have a stable, suitable donor area otherwise the transplanted hair will continue to fall out and will continue to degenerate in the new area. Bernstein also explains that women who present with diffuse hair loss and many diseases, hormonal abnormalities, medications and traumas can mimic thinning hair. When a woman comes in with hair loss we do an extended evaluation to make sure they are a viable candidate for a surgery, cautions Bernstein. Some hair loss diagnoses that do make women good candidates for the surgery are Traction Alopecia or trauma, face lift scars and eyebrow restoration. We tend to stay away from Alopecia Areata because if it recurs in a new patch, scars may become visible. We'll wait until patches of loss are stable 3 to 5 years before we will consider a hair transplant.

Once the diagnosis is determined and stable donor areas are identified, the technical aspects of removing the hair are very similar. The only difference is that women's scalps are thinner and tighter so the surgeon has to carefully control the depth of harvest. If you're a woman, be sure your doctor has experience working with a diagnosis and hair just like yours and ask for pictures and referrals you can call, advises Bernstein.

The design most men are looking for is to replace the forelock or front, and receded temples, first. We'll place the hairs in a predominantly forward direction to accomplish this. Then, if we still have plenty of donor hair, we will try to fill up the thinning crown area on a man. But on a woman, we want to restore the frame - the rounded hairline around her face. So, if we don't have enough hair to do everything, we concentrate on the frontal hairline, the temples and front part of the scalp that frames her face. Once we get enough density there, this new hair can be styled to camouflage hair loss or thinning just behind it, especially in Caucasian women, explains Bernstein. Women's hair transplants are also more difficult because women tend to have specialized swirls, directional changes and growth patterns around this front hair line that must be mimicked and can become very complicated. Once completed, a woman can rely on styling techniques, perms, and color treatments to greatly enhance her hair transplant, advises Bernstein.

The main complication to avoid is visible scarring, so in men, we will advise them never to buzz their hair short because scars can become visible. In women, the biggest complication is stability of the donor area. Transplanting areas in transition can be tricky. Sometimes, cautions Bernstein, because hair growth happens in cycles, the trauma of a transplant can cause a short-term shock and some fall-out even in healthy follicles. We use techniques to minimize this effect but it is a risk that should be explained so women are not literally shocked by it!

Author Bio:

Naomi Mannino is a freelance writer who writes about health, beauty, and fashion, with a specialty in writing about hair, hair loss and Alopecia. She is a contributing writer for HairLoss.Com who writes about hair loss condition and hair loss solutions.