Surgery

Surgery to cover bald areas of the scalp may be used to treat hair loss. If successful, surgery may be a permanent treatment for hair loss.

Surgery choices

The most common types of surgery to treat hair loss include:

• Hair transplant surgery. During this surgery, your doctor will move small grafts (pieces of skin with hair follicles) from areas of your scalp with full hair to areas of your scalp that are bald or thinning. The grafts may include single hairs or up to 30 hairs in one graft. This is the most common type of surgery used to treat hair loss.
• Scalp reduction. Scalp reduction involves removing large areas of bald scalp from the head. Sections of the scalp with growing hair are then stretched and sewn together to fill in the bald areas.
• Scalp flaps. Scalp flaps involve moving a large section of scalp containing hair from the side and back of the scalp to a bald area. One side of the flap remains attached to the scalp as the section of scalp with hair is moved to cover a bald area. The complication rate of this procedure is higher than other procedures because of bleeding, scarring, and infection after surgery.

What to think about

Surgery may be a more permanent solution than medicines to treat hair loss, but it is expensive, it involves surgical risks, and there is a chance that not all hair follicles will remain healthy.

Other Treatment

Other treatment for hair loss includes:

• Wearing hairpieces. Hairpieces are made from human or synthetic hair that is implanted into a nylon netting. Hairpieces may be attached to the scalp with glue, metal clips, or tape. But hair weaving, which involves sewing or braiding pieces of long hair into existing hair, is not recommended because it may cause permanent hair loss.
• Hair care products and styling techniques. Hair care products or perms may make hair appear thicker. Dyes may be used to color the scalp.
• Behavior modification, if hair loss is caused by compulsive pulling of your hair (trichotillomania).

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warns consumers that other than FDA-approved minoxidil (Rogaine), there are no over-the-counter creams, lotions, or other products that can help new hair to grow or cause hair to become thicker. Also, shampoos that claim to promote hair growth by unclogging follicles have not been proved to work. But there are some products that may make hair appear thicker and others that may cover bald spots.

Limited research on the dietary supplements saw palmetto and beta-sitosterol shows they may help men with inherited hair loss (androgenetic alopecia) regrow hair.