Hair loss reveals the state of your health

Mariecar Jara-Puyod, Senior Reporter

Hair transplantation is no longer an exclusive of the aging as young men and even young women have been going for the procedure at least in the last one-and-a-half years.

The observation was by Ayesha Munir who recently spoke with Gulf Today on the latest hair transplantation technique or method called “direct hair transplantation” or DHI which the aesthetics clinic, Maison Lutetia in Dubai has been employing for their multi-ethnic patients.

Hair transplantation is basically a surgical procedure whereby baldness is addressed by the harvest of hair follicles from parts of the body—normally above the nape or the back of the head which rarely thin or go through hair loss—and grafting or implanting these follicles into the affected area.

Munir is the Maison Lutetia-DHI head and through the course of the discussion on the nitty-gritty of the procedure discovered by Greek Konstantinos Giotis, “Father of Modern Hair Restoration,” she stressed that while hair transplantation or implantation is mainly for aesthetics, “we have to make sure that the person who wants it, fully understands what he/ she wants, what he/ she would be going through.”

Munir mentioned this repeatedly, attributing hair loss by both men and women to stress, genetics and autoimmune diseases.

It could be that hair thinning for women is also caused by hormonal changes.

Meanwhile, it was learnt that the autoimmune disorders proved to result in hair damage such as permanent hair loss are alopecia, lupus (widespread skin inflammation), Hashimoto’s Disease and Graves’ Disease (both thyroid concerns), Crohn’s Diseases (inflammatory bowel disorder), and psoriasis.

“We are seeing men and women in their mid-20s coming to us for hair transplantation for receding hair, thinning, and temporal hair loss,” Munir said, adding that a support they are giving to them alongside all their patients are medical examination and detailed orientations on DHI.

Munir explained that in contrast to the traditional hair transplantation methods of follicular unit transplant and follicular unit extraction whereby the harvested hair follicles are implanted in the pre-incisions on the balding area/s, DHI, with the use of a “titanium punch slowly softens hair follicles from the donor area (source of hair implants) which are (then scooped, immersed) in hypothermasol, also used in organ transplantations, for a certain period of time before injecting these in the recipient area (balding portion/s).”