Silky Hair and Hair Transplant?

Question

I understand if someone has extremely silky hair he is not considered a good candidate for hair transplant, as he may not get a good scalp coverage. But if lowering hairline is the prime concern how can one look at this ? If the Person is not completely Bald, and if he is doing this just to lower the hairline, does the scalp coverage factor then come in to picture ?

Jae Pak, MD · Answer

Silky hair is not a contraindication for surgery.  Everyone needs an examination first before they can consider surgery.  Everyone needs to have a specific goal and understanding of what is possible with a hair transplant surgery.  Everyone is different.

Sharad Mishra, MS, MCh · Answer

Hey!

	When you say silky hair I assume you mean low caliber hair. Now lets look at your question from a different perspective. Would the same number of low caliber silky hairs give as much coverage as coarser high caliber hair? The answer is no. The reason for this is that what we see in the transplanted area is hair 'volume' and not hair number. The volume of a single coarse hair will always be more than silky hair because its radius is more (remember pi X r2 X l) and so scalp coverage on a per hair basis will be more for coarser hair.

	Now lets look at the other aspect of same problem. Can we give adequate volume and coverage while using silky hair for transplant? The answer is yes. All we have to do is simply increase the density of transplant. If there are more hair per square cm, the volume will increase and so would coverage. However, one should keep in mind that there is a limit to this increase and the quantum of surgery would depend on many more things than just mathematics. A personalised evaluation by a good hair transplant surgeon would give you best answers.

Rashid M. Rashid, PhD, MD · Answer

Silky hair does not rule you out for a transplant but it means you wont get the same results as in all the before and after photos. Those photos/patients are often thick hair follicle patients. So again, you can move forward but have realistic expectations. Discussing this with the physician before the procedure is important.

William Rassman, MD (retired) · Answer

You are lucky to have silky hair so if you transplant this, you will have a silky hair transplant just like you did before you lost it.

Richard Fitzpatrick, MD (in memoriam) · Answer

Silky hair does not rule out hair transplantation. In fact, silky hair can be advantageous if the goals are looked at in a realist manner. The advantage that silky hair gives is that individual hairs are not so visible, which allows very natural results with less-than full density coverage. Prior to the use of follicular units, the grafted hairs often produced some degree of the “doll’s hair” appearance associated with “plug” HT’s. To avoid this appearance there has been a tendency to use high density grafting, placing grafts very closely to avoid the “plug” look. Follicular units allow very natural thinning patterns to be achieved. Fine silky hair makes this even easier to accomplish. This is an artistic endeavor so you need to choose your surgeon carefully, and I would suggest visiting a board certified dermatologist.

Sheldon S. Kabaker, MD FACS (retired) · Answer

So much depends on a balding pattern if hair loss is the problem. If a high hairline is the problem and the patient is female, there are choices between a hair tranplant and a surgical hairline lowering. The hair texture might not matter in such a situation.

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