Hair Loss Surgery

Find out more about our hair transplant procedures and other hair loss surgery.

Many people believe that hair transplantation is the only hair surgery method available to them but there are other choices.

Although hair transplants are the most popular surgical method, with 90% of our customers using hair transplant techniques there are a number of different types of hair loss surgery methods available. The alternative hair loss surgeries to hair transplantation are discussed in more detail below.

It is important to understand though, that all hair loss surgery uses the fact that normally, men do not lose their hair from the donor area and this hair can be transplanted. The donor area is usually the horse shoe shaped area of hair, at the back of the head and above the ears, that persists even in advanced MPB (see Norwood 7 on the Norwood scale of male pattern hair loss).

The size of this area varies from person to person and cannot be accurately predicted in each patient, so we tend to assume everyone will eventually become Norwood 7, although this isn’t true for everyone.

The margins of the donor area include hair in front of the ears, the lower part of the crown and also the nape of the neck. All of these areas can start receding, although most people only think of the hair on the top of the head thins.
Body hair can be transplanted but is not as successful as scalp hair and should be seen as the last resort.

To understand more about different hair transplant treatments available visit the hair transplant page.

Hair transplant treatments

Feel free to request an online consultation with one of our doctor’s at any time to find out which surgery method will be the best option for you and please read the articles accessed via the side bar links Strip hair transplant and FUE hair transplant

Hair loss surgery techniques

Hair Loss Surgery is the only treatment available that will reliably and consistently replace hair in bald areas. Over the years, many different types of hairloss surgery have been tried and we will detail the different surgical hair loss treatments below. Essentially though, all hair surgery techniques are redistributing the hair on the head, not creating new hair.

Hair transplantation surgery

As discussed above, the main type of hairloss surgery is hair transplantation. To find out more about alternatives to Hair Transplant surgery procedures, please read below:

Frechet scalp reduction

Scalp reduction is only performed on the crown area of the scalp, or ‘the monk’s bald spot’. In this hair loss surgical procedure, the bald skin on the crown is removed and the hairy sides of the scalp above the ears are drawn together. Normally, the bald scalp requires 1 – 2 sessions to remove it (utilising a Frechet extender under the skin, which pulls the skin together so that the central scar does not widen). The third and final procedure is a very clever three way transpositional flap, which relocates the final scar and hair direction into the classic crown swirl. Although not so often used now, it can be a very effective form of hair loss surgery, giving great results within three months. However, it is very dependent on good patient characteristics and the skill of the surgeon, such as Dr Frechet himself.

Hairline advancement

Female hair line advancement

It is common for us to see women for female hairline advancement because they’ve always had a high hairline. This is not due to hair loss but is just their genetic pattern (Amanda Holden for example). It is perfectly normal and just simple genetic variation, however, many women are very distressed by it. It does look a bit like male pattern hair loss (particularly temple loss) and can give a masculine look sometimes and so women do try to hide it with fringes, scarves or more elaborate hair cuts. High female hair lines can be treated very successfully with hair transplants however – hair transplant information

Male hair line advancement

Hair line advancement surgery (not hair transplantation) is often used in male to female transgender reassignment surgery, when there is extensive frontal loss only. It literally involves pulling hair forward, from further back on the hair bearing scalp, to join with the top of the forehead (the skin in between is removed). It gives quick results but has limitations – the hair further back needs to be thick and dense, and the new hairline still tends to be receding, so will still need hair transplants to give a more curved, stereotypical feminine pattern.

Flap rotation – juri flap hair loss surgery

This hair loss surgery involves raising a flap of the hairy skin from the side donor area (above the ears) and rotating it into an incision made in the frontal hairline. The two flaps from either side then meet in the middle of the hairline. It gives a very strong hair line but unfortunately it tends to be too thick and straight and because of this unnaturalness, this type of hair loss surgery is rarely used nowadays. Variations of this hair loss surgical procedure are used to restore patches of hair loss when patients have scalp burns etc. The alternative is:

Balloon expander hair loss surgery

This technique implants an expandable balloon of saline under the scalp which is slowly filled in size over a number of months. This gradually stretches the hairy skin enabling the surgeon to cover a large gap of missing hairy scalp (typically a burn) in one operation. If the skin wasn’t prestretched, it would contract back and the scar reform. The surgical hair loss methods above are probably the most well known and relevant techniques used and there are many variations of them.