About Face

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About Face

Chapter Ten Hair Transplants Types of Male Pattern Baldness Surgery Punch Grafting Flaps Scalp Reduction Scalp Expansion

Surgery

The surgical procedures for dealing with male pattern baldness fall into four basic categories: punch grafting; the short flap; the long “Juri” flap; and scalp reduction.

To make the proper assessment of a patient’s balding pattern depends, to an extent, on when the patient makes his first appointment for treatment. If the patient shows signs of male pattern baldness in his early twenties, the surgeon will be able to warn him against too-early treatment, as I mentioned above. If, on the other hand, the patient arrives for treatment at just the right time (perhaps in his mid-thirties), the surgeon can begin to perform punch grafting about one inch behind the patient’s existing hairline. This action “anticipates” the receding hairline and should make it look quite natural over the years as the original hair thins next to the transplanted hair.

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