Hair transplant: learn about the technique – 01/19/2024 – Balance

In August last year, heart transplantation gained prominence in the media and on social networks after presenter Fausto Silva, known as Faustão, needed to undergo surgery due to heart failure. But anyone who thinks that this is the most popular type of transplant in Google searches is mistaken.

Data from Trends, a Google tool that shows the most searched terms, show that since 2004, the year the platform’s historical series began, hair transplantation has been the main search related to transplantation, followed by marrow, heart, kidney, cornea and liver .

Trends shows that, among the five, hair care emerges as the first most searched, with 48.43%.

A survey by ABCRC (Brazilian Association of Hair Restoration Surgery), from August 2023, indicates that 80% of people seek the procedure due to genetic hair loss, 10% due to medication-induced hair loss, 5% for reconstruction reasons and the another 5% due to the need for reconstruction after using cosmetics.

The study shows that it is mostly men (90%) who seek the procedure more than women (10%).

Although the search is for hair replacement or restoration, this transplant can also be performed for the beard, to hide scars resulting from trauma or burns, to replace eyebrows or to reduce the forehead.

According to doctor Henrique Radwanski, president of ABCRC, this type of procedure is sought after by men who suffer from androgenetic alopecia, or as it is popularly known, baldness.

For the doctor, humans associate baldness with aging, weakness and illness. The person themselves absorbs this stigma, that is, they believe they are transmitting this image to others.

The doctor compares that hair loss for a man is as if he lost his strength, just like in the biblical story of Samson. “Man subconsciously feels that, by managing to restore his hair, it will reconstruct itself aesthetically, and this will affect his social, emotional and professional life.”

How does hair transplant work?

The most used technique is FUE (Follicular Unit Extraction, in Portuguese it would be the extraction of follicular units) in which the hair follicles are removed from the back of the scalp and implanted in the bald area.

The surgery can last from five to ten hours, so the patient is anesthetized the entire time. “We call this sedation. It’s the most comfortable way to operate on the patient. He sleeps during the surgery, this way he doesn’t get agitated, worried or anxious,” says Radwanski.

Leila Bloch, dermatologist and hair surgeon, states that post-transplant results do not appear immediately, as with rhinoplasty.

“When transplanting the hairs to a new region, it takes around two to three months for them to start growing. After six months, around 70% of the result is already visible, and the patient is generally quite satisfied. However, the final result it is only achieved between nine months and a year”, says Bloch.

The cost of the procedure varies from R$10,000 to R$30,000. Radwanski points out that the cost of the procedure should be a point of attention, as, according to him, there are many clinics that offer the service in inadequate rooms, precisely so as not to have to pay for the rent of a clinic or the hospitalization fees for a small hospital. In this way, these clinics seek to reduce costs, which can attract patients at a lower price.

In view of this, the CFM (Federal Council of Medicine) published an opinion in August this year declaring that hair transplantation is a surgery that must be performed by doctors, such as surgeons or dermatologists, and in appropriate environments.

Engineer Fernando Silvestre, 44, had a hair transplant in July 2021 because his baldness affected his self-esteem and made him look older. He reports that after the age of 30, the condition began to accelerate hair loss.

After the procedure, Fernando felt more excited about other aspects of his life, such as self-care, improving his diet and exercising.

Fernando states that before carrying out the surgery, he sought reports from people who had already been through it, sought information from different sources and visited several clinics.

“I used some questions to ensure the certainty of the decision I would make. Firstly, I asked myself whether this was important to me. I stood in front of the mirror, imagined myself ten, 20 years in the future, and reflected on whether this was something relevant to the my personal satisfaction. When confronted with this question, the answer was yes”, says Fernando.

Entrepreneur Carol Magon, 38, had a hair transplant in October last year. She shares the entire process on her social networks and, as a result, has seen the number of followers increase. On TikTok, there are 58 thousand followers, and on Instagram, there are 50 thousand.

She says she had the transplant because she has a defect on the left side of her head, where hair never grew, and that one of the most difficult phases was the feeling of post-operative regret.

“I looked at the surgery, that ugly thing, which is horrible in the first few days. And then I said, what did I do? Why did I do that? So the first three days were terrible”, he says Carol.

Sharing about the procedure on social networks brought positive comments from people saying that she encouraged both men and women to seek the procedure, but there were also negative comments that made fun of her appearance.

“These bad ones, I’m trying not to even look at. They go in one way, come out the other. Now, the people who comment the most are the people who really want help”, says Carol.