What many people don’t realize about hair transplant surgery — and an ‘alarming trend’

As soon as stigmatized, hair transplant surgical procedure has change into an more and more fashionable resolution for hair loss lately.

In 2021, roughly 703,183 hair transplant procedures had been carried out globally, with 149,254 of those within the USA and Canada, based on the Worldwide Society of Hair Restoration Surgical procedure (ISHRS). 

The market is anticipated to develop from $11.55 billion in 2024 to $44.79 billion by 2033, representing a compound annual progress fee of 16.25% from 2025 to 2033. 

Chatting with The Submit, Texas facial plastic surgeon and hair restoration skilled Dr. Samuel Lam confirmed hair transplant surgical procedures had been “positively on the rise.”

“With elevated consciousness on social media and by celebrities, I’m seeing much more sufferers coming in,” mentioned Lam, who can be a board member of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgical procedure (AAFPRS). 

Celebrities like Joel McHale, Queer Eye’s Bobby Berk and English soccer star Wayne Rooney have spoken publicly about their hair transplants, thereby normalizing a process that was as soon as seen as considerably shameful. And it’s not simply the lads anymore.

“Along with males, I’m seeing a rise in girls who are available in for transplants and so they make up a big proportion of my affected person base,” Lam famous. 

Whereas nearly all of male hair transplant procedures are carried out on males (87%), girls make up 12% of the market, based on the ISHRS. 

A hair transplant includes transferring hair from one a part of the pinnacle to an space that’s balding or thinning. 

The 2 main strategies used at present are Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) — through which hair follicles are individually extracted earlier than being transplanted — and Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) — through which a strip of scalp tissue is eliminated earlier than being divided into grafts. 

However what many individuals don’t understand about hair transplant surgical procedure is that it really typically takes a number of procedures to realize the specified end result — a consideration any accountable medical skilled has to take when advising sufferers. 

“A very powerful moral consideration when working with younger males is whether or not to carry out a transplant for them since a surgical procedure commits them to a necessity for extra surgical procedures down the road and is rarely scarless whether or not it’s an FUT or FUE process,” Lam mentioned. “Medical remedy needs to be an essential a part of each session, particularly for the younger male.”

Granted, this can be altering resulting from technological developments. Based on a 2022 ISHRS survey, 68% of members carried out a mean of just one process in 2021, down from 3.5 procedures in 2019 and 5 in 2016.

However this doesn’t imply the longer term for hair transplants is completely vibrant, or that it isn’t with out its risks. 

“An alarming development is sufferers who now go to carry out a hair transplant by a doctor who doesn’t seek the advice of the affected person about his or her hair loss neither is he actively concerned within the surgical procedure,” Lam mentioned.

“That is really an enormous downside within the business and may cross authorized points the place unlicensed people are performing the surgical procedure with out satisfactory supervision or the place the surgeon will not be even concerned with the process.”

He famous that this troubling follow is “most rampant” in Turkey — the place hair transplant surgical procedure has exploded resulting from its relative affordability — however it’s “additionally extraordinarily prevalent within the US, sadly.”

Cosmetic surgery for males, or “man-esthetics” has been on the rise lately. Based on a current survey by the AAFPRS, 92% of its surgeons handled male sufferers final 12 months, up 5% from 2023.

Dr. Patrick J. Byrne, president of AAFPRS, beforehand instructed The Submit, “Males, like girls, wish to keep a youthful, wholesome and refreshed look and with so many minimally invasive choices, extra males are embracing discreet, quick-healing therapies than ever earlier than.”