Female Hair Transplant

What Is Female Hair Transplant?

Female hair transplant is one of the permanent solutions for restoring hairs for female patients with hair loss. Female hair transplantation cost is quite affordable when you think of the products women try to stop their hair loss. Hair transplant for a female is not as known as male hair transplantation; however, there are many women who had hair transplantation surgery. With the new methods, female patients can have hair transplantation surgery without shaving their hair.

It is known that the characteristics of patients’ hair are significant for better results (straight, thick hair close to skin tone). This raises questions for hair transplant for black females. They tend to think that it might be impossible to perform hair transplant due to their hairs’ characteristics; however, African American female hair transplant is possible and successful when it is performed by experienced hair transplantation doctors. Female hair transplant results are permanent and they have got a high success rate. Female FUE hair transplant is one of the most preferred methods but there are also other methods used for hair transplantation. You can read our article about female hair transplant surgery for further information about those methods and other significant facts. Many men and women suffer from hair loss and they seek for remedies to stop their baldness.

When you think of hair transplantation surgery, you might only think of male patients; however, hair transplantation for female patients is pretty common as well. Having full, long, and shiny hair is almost every women’s dream. They can spend hours in hair saloons to have the perfect hair for the party or the date they are invited. They try new colors, new styles and the first thing they change is generally their hair when they want to make a new beginning in their lives. It can be said that women suffer psychologically more about their hair loss than men do due to social reasons. For example, women with a bald scalp and a man with a bald scalp do not get the same acceptance from society. Hence, women with hair loss try to find a solution for their hair loss even with slight hair loss.

There are many products that offer to stop or reducing hair loss for female patients. There are even illegal products that are sold through social media accounts promising to increase hair growth while they are traumatizing women’s hair and scalp instead of causing new hair growth. Many women tend to believe those false advertisements to get rid of their bald or thinning hair. They tend to buy products that are overpriced and try many products to stop their hair from thinning. However, when you consult a hair clinic, you can get your hair examined by educated and experienced doctors and decide on a hair restoring treatment.

Experienced doctors for hair transplantation can recommend some products that are proven to help new hair growth or hair strength or they can offer you a hair transplantation surgery depending on the cause of hair loss and other medical conditions the patient has got. If the patient has got significant and permanent hair loss, products might not be useful to restore hair, in conditions like that, the patients should get a hair transplant to get rid of their baldness. 

Causes of Hair Loss for Women

• Aging: Aging is one of the most common reasons for female hair loss. Scientific studies show that women who are at the postmenopausal period come across with thinning or balding hair. The rate of this condition is two-third around women in that period. Those patients who have hair loss caused by aging generally have the hair loss type “female pattern hair loss” in which the balding starts on the front of the head and continues to spread from the hairline.
• Pregnancy: After pregnancy, women start to lose their hair due to the drastic hormonal changes caused by the ending of the pregnancy. Hair loss is seen generally after 3 to 6 weeks from the delivery of the baby.
• Hormonal changes: Women live hormonal changes due to many reasons. Some of them are caused by the menstrual cycle and menopause. Due to an increase in estrogen hormone, women can lose hair.
• Poor diet or weight loss: It is proven that lack of nutrition such as biotin, zinc, protein, or iron can cause hair loss. It is highly significant to have a balanced diet to prevent hair loss. Especially women who have menstrual cycles tend to face low iron in their blood which is one of the most common hair loss factors for women. Low iron can also cause thin and weak nails as well as hair. Weight loss causes hair loss, too if the patient does not have a balanced diet.
• Stress: Stress can lead to many conditions in our bodies. Hair loss can be caused by extreme stress as well.
• Hair loss caused by medical conditions: Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is a condition many women suffer from. It is a condition that directly targets hormones such as progesterone, estrogen, and testosterone in women. It is one of the most common reasons for hair loss for women. There are other conditions that cause hair loss. These are: Anemia, androgenetic alopecia, hypothyroidism, skin conditions, lupus, alopecia areata, treatments such as Chemotherapy.
  • Some of the medical conditions above might not be suitable for hair transplant surgery. You should see a hair transplant doctor for an accurate answer to your condition.
• Environmental reasons: Hair loss can be caused because of environmental reasons such as pollution in water or air. Hair loss can be caused by drastic weather changes, too.
• Color and style change: Many women love changing their hair color using dyes consuming high chemicals that damage both the scalp and hair. The chemicals in hair dyes can cause thinning in hair, even baldness.

Blow drying hair can damage hair, too. Due to the heat, hairs can get damaged and in a long term, it can cause baldness. Flat irons or hair curlers damage hair and cause them to break. In long term, they can cause baldness or thin of the hair as well. How we tie our hair is important too. Tight braids or tight ponytails can cause damage in our hair which ends with hair loss. Brazilian permanent hair straightening or perm, dreadlocks, or Brazilian braids are traumatizing hair.-

How to Stop Hair Loss

Female hair loss can be very traumatizing for women. When you think of fashion and beauty, hair is the key factor for the image women want to create. Many women are afraid of losing their hair. For the centuries, women are expected to have shiny, perfect-looking hair to look beautiful. That creates social pressure among women about their hair and they react more sensitive to their hair loss than a man does for their hair loss. Even though hair loss can be permanent, there are ways to stop hair loss or start new hair growth for women. These methods are:

Products for hair growth:

There are hair products that strengthen thinning hair. Thinning in hair is the first step of hair loss, when you improve the strength of the hair, you can start stopping hair loss in a certain degree and help the hair to grow healthier. However, hair products do not cause new hair growth, when a hair follicle is dead, it can no longer grow hair and the only treatment is hair transplantation to restore new hair.

Products for hair growth are usually used before and after the hair transplant surgery to create healthier donor hairs and increase the quality and success rate of the implanted hair grafts. Those hair products usually include Biotin, Vitamin E, Vitamin B12, and zinc which help to strengthen hairs. In these products, natural remedies can be used as well such as olive oil, almond oil, Urtica urens (a.k.a. dead nettle), and garlic. Your dermatologist or hair expert will decide on the fact that hair products will work on your hair or not.

Female hair transplant:

As stated in the previous paragraphs, hair loss for women can cause psychological and social problems even though hair loss for women is pretty common because of many reasons. Hair loss is considered normal by many women as almost every woman lose their hair at least in one period of their lives. However, hair loss is not normal and it should be taken seriously as it might be a side effect of an ongoing condition. In general, hair loss in women is not permanent and it can be treated easily by vitamin intake or change in hair care products. However, it can result in balding by age, so it should be taken seriously.

Many women tend to ignore their hair loss unless they can no longer dye their hair or shape it. As a result, they end up stressing over their balding. The first thing they should to must be consulting a hair expert, usually a trichologist or dermatologist. It is highly significant to understand the reason behind the hair loss before starting a treatment or deciding on going for hair transplantation surgery. Female hair transplantation is not a different procedure from other hair transplantation methods.

The difference between male and female hair transplantation is that the general pattern of hair loss can be different in women than men. Besides, female patients with hair loss usually prefer hair transplantation methods in which the hair is not shaved completely.  Hair transplant surgery is a method used to cover the bald area of the scalp with hair follicles removed from the scalp of the patients. It is the only method to start new hair growth in bald areas. Hair transplantation surgery includes anesthesia, removal of the donor hairs, and extraction of the hair grafts prepared by the doctors. Hair implantation surgery might include incisions both during removal or extraction of the hair follicles.  This difference is because there are several types of hair implantation methods.

If you want to learn more about the methods, you can read sections prepared for each method. Your hair transplant surgeon will decide on the best method to use for you. A hair transplant can be defined as personal surgery. Every patient has got a different type of hair or scalp and the hair loss pattern, or hair loss level is different for every individual. Before your hair transplant surgery, your scalp and hair should be examined carefully by experts. The reason why you have got hair loss should be found out and your medical background needs to be checked by the doctor. During the examination, the classification of your hair loss is significant. There are several systems for classifying hair loss in female patients.

The classification is mainly about the hair loss pattern seen on the patient’s scalp. The reason why the classification of hair loss is significant is related to the examination process. There are common hair loss patterns that can help your hair transplant surgeon to decide on the reason behind your hair loss. For example, people who suffer from PCOS usually have hair loss on the front and upper part of their scalp. We stated general types of female hair loss patterns below:

1. The hair of the patient is thin in general or there are certain areas with thin hair usually in the frontal and crown area. Hair loss is seen in the front and crown areas o the scalp. This is the most common type of hair loss in female patients, usually caused by aging.
2. Thinning of the hair in the scalp without a definite area. The hair of the patient is generally thin on the whole scalp and there are not any specific areas hair loss is seen. This type of hair loss is generally neglected by the patients due to the fact that they do not see one or two visible balding areas. 
3. Male pattern hair loss can be seen in women, too. Male pattern hair loss is basically hair loss in the frontal area of the scalp. 
4. Alopecia with a scar is one of the hair loss types. It is a medical condition in which hair is lost in some areas on the scalp. In addition to the scalp, there are visible scars seen on the skin. 3% of the patients with hair loss suffer from scarring alopecia. Hair transplantation can be performed for people with scarring alopecia; however, extracting donor hair from the scalp is really challenging due to the fact that extraction process can irritate or damage scars on the scalp. 
5. Hair loss caused by medical conditions. They usually cannot be treated. It cannot be treated because of the fact that hair grafts transplanted will not successfully start growing like natural hair, or the skin of the patient might not be suitable for the procedure, there might be a high rate of possible risks.

Examination of the hair loss pattern and hair loss degree is pretty significant. Your hair transplant surgeon will decide on the hair transplantation method by this examination. For example, if you have got Afro American Hair, your hair characteristics might not be suitable for DHI hair transplantation method, due to the fact that in DHI hair transplantation, an implanter is used to transplant hair follicles to the scalp. This implanter is developed for straight and thick hair when it was invented. Even though the device’s technology is developed and it has got a high success rate in almost every type of hair, your surgeon might want to choose the most secure way for your remaining donor hair. Hence, he/she can prefer FUE hair transplantation.

During hair transplantation surgery, the hair transplant surgeon tries to choose the best way for the patient. Female patients with hair loss usually have a certain amount of donor hairs and none of those donor hairs should be wasted. Another fact your surgeon will consider how you use your hair in daily life, if you prefer using long hair, your surgeon might prefer Unshaven or DHI hair transplantation methods in which the patient does not have to shave their hair.

Who Can Get a Female Hair Transplant?

• Women over 25 years old. Hair transplant surgeons prefer to perform hair transplant surgeries on patients who are over 25 years old.
• Women who do not have serious allergies or diabetes. Any kind of condition that will increase the risk of the hair transplantation procedure should be taken seriously.
• People who stopped smoking before the procedure. Smoking increases the risks of hair transplant surgery.
• Women who have got permanent hair loss because of:
  • Previous cosmetic surgeries such as facelift.
  • Aging (female pattern hair loss).
  • Scarring or burning.
  • Alopecia marginalis.
  • Non-hormonal alopecia

Before Female Hair Transplant Surgery

Female hair transplant is more complex than male hair transplantation owing to the fact that there are many reasons for hair loss for female patients and they should be correctly diagnosed by doctors. Before your hair transplant surgery, it is very important to learn the cause of your hair loss. We recommend you to get checked by a doctor to find the reason and share your results with your hair transplantation doctor. During the first consultation, you should inform your doctor about your past and current medical conditions, illnesses, treatments, and allergies.

Hair implantation treatment might not be a remedy for some conditions and the success rate for those patients might be really low. Your surgeon will decide whether to have hair transplant surgery or not. Before your hair transplant surgery, you might use hair growth products for a couple of weeks or months to create more healthy donor hairs.  During the first consultation, your surgeon will decide on how many hair grafts you need for a natural look. The number of hair grafts implanted can change between 1500 to 5000. The number of hair grafts implanted varies depending on the availability of donor hair and level of baldness.

Surgery Procedure

The procedure of female hair transplant can vary because of the different techniques used during the procedure. For detailed information about procedures, you can read about hair transplant methods on our website.

1. Signing a consent form.
2. Drawing lines and applying anesthesia.
3. Extraction of donor hair follicles.
4. Preparation of hair grafts.
5. Implantation of hair grafts.
6. Applying solutions which include antibiotics.

The Risks of Female Hair Transplant

Hair transplantation is one of the safest cosmetic procedures. The risks of complications that might occur are very low. However, before getting surgery, it is significant to be aware of every possible risk. The risks and complications that might occur during female hair transplant are more than the ones male patients live. You can read detailed information about different hair transplant techniques’ risks on our website. For female patients, additional risks are:

• Headache.
• Swelling on the face.
• Redness.
• Weight gain.
• Growth of facial hair.
• Fainting and dizziness.
• Numbness on limbs.
• Chest pain.
• Acne.
• Inflammation.
• Scarring.

What Is the Success Rate of Female Hair Transplant?

Hair transplantation has got a high success rate. It is over 90% and it can reach %97 with the FUT hair transplant method. Unfortunately, the success rate of hair transplantation for female patients is less than male patients. It is because of the fact that women’s hair loss reasons are more complex than men. It is significant to consult an experienced hair surgeon for your hair transplant. In Turkey, with affordable prices, you can have the chance to consult the best hair transplant surgeons who are skilled and experienced. 

How Much Female Hair Transplant Costs?

Hair transplantation’s cost might be various because of many factors. These factors are related to both the patient and the clinic or how experienced the surgeon is. Prices change because of:

• The number of hair grafts will be implanted during the hair transplantation surgery,
• How sensitive the scalp of the patient is (some conditions might need extra attention and the duration of the surgery might change.),
• The experience of the surgeon,
• The method chosen (FUT hair transplant is more affordable compared to other methods.),
• Hair products (Some clinics provide special hair products for aftercare.),
• Additional things the clinic provides such as transportation, hotel, touristic trips.

In the UK, hair transplantation is expensive when you want to consult an experienced and skilled surgeon. If you have got a lower budget for hair transplant surgery, you can consider having female hair transplant surgery in Turkey. Turkey is famous for cosmetic surgeries and there are many experienced surgeons who work with specially trained medical teams.

Is Female Hair Transplant Painful?

Hair transplantation is not a painful procedure. During the surgery, local anesthesia is applied on the scalp to prevent pain and after the procedure solutions that will ease the pain are applied on the scalp. As hair transplant surgery has got a fast healing process, the patients will not feel unbearable pains after the procedure.

How Long Does the Female Hair Transplant Process Take?

Female hair transplant is a personal surgery. The number of hair grafts and the sensitivity of the scalp will change the duration of the process. It usually takes between 4 to 8 hours. That duration can be shorter in the FUT method while it is longer in DHI hair transplantation. The procedure is mostly performed in one session, in one day; however, it can be completed in two sessions with extreme cases.

When Can We See the Results of Female Hair Transplant?

There will be a visible change immediately after the surgery. New hairs will be implanted on the scalp and, the scalp will have a full hair look. However, those hair grafts which have been implanted will start falling off during the first month of the healing process. After almost 4 weeks later, new hairs will start growing and full results will be seen a year after the surgery. You can still see the results from the 8th month of the healing process. The healing duration of female hair transplantation is different at all the methods. FUT hair transplantation, known as Strip Method, has got a longer healing process which can take up to a month, while in the DHI method, hair grafts can heal between 2-5 days.

When Can I Start Working After My Hair Transplant Surgery?

The following day after your female hair transplant surgery, you can return to your work if it does not include heavy physical activities. However, it is recommended to rest for one week at home where you can keep your scars more hygienic.

When Can I Start Styling My Hair After Female Hair Transplant?

Chemicals that might harm hair roots should be avoided at least for 4 weeks. We do not recommend dying your hair before fully healing after the procedure. You should avoid styles that pull your hair during the healing process. After 4 weeks you can start using flat irons and blow dryers with low heat.

Will There Be Any Visible Scars After Female Hair Transplant?

Hair transplantation surgery is a scar-less method in general. You can avoid scar marks by preferring FUE, DHI, Unshaven, and Sapphire FUE techniques. However, the FUT method leaves linear scarring at the back of the hair. If you wear your hair long, the scar will not be visible.

Are There Any Other Alternatives for Female Hair Transplant?

Hair growth products and Laser Treatments for hair growth can be used to prevent remaining hair from getting lost; however, they do not grow new hair. Those methods are to secure the remaining hairs on the scalp. Besides, hair products are only effective when they are being used, in most cases, when patients stop using the products, their hair turns back to the beginning point. Female hair transplantation is the only permanent method for hair restoration.

How Can I Prevent Female Hair Loss?

There are many ways to prevent hair loss to a certain degree; however, if it is caused by aging, hormones, or medical conditions, it might not be possible to prevent it without an expert’s help. 

• If you use correct hair products for your hair’s characteristics, you can reduce hair loss. The products you will use can include Biotin, vitamins, and zinc.
• You should avoid ponytails, bobbins, or braids that pulls hair from the scalp. Those hairstyles can damage hair follicles and hairs.
• Blow drying or using flat irons damage hairs because of extreme heat. It is recommended to avoid those hairstyling methods in daily life. When you blow-dry or flat iron your hair, you should use products that protect hair from heat.
• Changing hair color with chemicals damage both scalp and hair. You should avoid bleaching your hair.
• Use a soft towel with natural fabric and do not rub your hair with a towel. Hair is extremely sensitive when it is wet. You should not brush your wet hair roughly.
• A healthy diet is one of the most important factors for hair loss. What we eat creates what we are. You should have a balanced diet with vitamin B12, zinc, and iron. Lack of iron and vitamins are one of the most common reasons for hair loss in female patients due to their menstrual cycle.