Female Hair Transplant

If you are a woman experiencing hair loss, it may seem as if your options for hair restoration are limited. If medications and other treatments aren't effective, you may be considering a hair transplant to restore lost hair. Although hair transplants for women can be helpful, the effectiveness of a transplant will depend on the cause of your hair loss.

Identification

During a hair transplant, doctors remove small areas of healthy, or donor, hair from your scalp and transplant the donor sections to problem areas. The grafts contain the underlying skin and the hair follicles. Several sessions may be needed to achieve a natural look. Your doctor determines how many sessions you need by considering the size of the grafts, the area of the scalp being treated and the desired hair density, according to the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery.

Considerations

A hair transplant may not be an effective treatment if you suffer from androgenetic alopecia, also called female pattern baldness. Female pattern baldness causes thinning hair over the entire scalp, making it difficult to find enough healthy donor hair to transplant. Using hair from unstable areas in a transplant will result in the transplanted follicles falling out, according to the American Hair Loss Association.

Transplant Candidates

You may benefit from a transplant if conditions other than female pattern baldness cause your hair loss. A female hair transplant can restore hair lost due to burns, scars or injuries of the scalp, or may be helpful in restoring hair lost as a result of a plastic surgery procedure. Women whose hair loss is due to constant use of tight hairstyles may also benefit from a hair transplant. If you experience distinct areas of baldness, similar to male pattern baldness, you may be a good candidate for a transplant, according to the American Hair Loss Association.

Procedure

Doctors place grafts in small slits in the scalp. Placing hair in groups of one to four hair follicles, called follicular units, allows closer placement and more natural appearance of transplanted hair, according to the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery. Doctor uses stitches or staples to close the incisions in the donor areas.

Recovery

After your transplant, your scalp may feel tender and you may notice scabs around the grafts. If your doctor uses stitches that don't dissolve or staples to close donor sites, you will have the stitches or staples removed approximately one week following surgery. You can wash your hair one day after surgery, but should avoid any strenuous activity for one week. Your transplanted hair will fall out approximately one month after the procedure, but you can expect to see new hair growth in about two months, according to the American Academy of Dermatology.