Hair Transplantation in Women

Hello,

First of all, I wanted to thank you for this informative blog. I thought I was the only woman going through hair loss. But here I have found I am not alone.

I have always had very fine and thin hair. I never really had a lot of hair, but I had enough that I didn’t notice it thinning. That was until I was 20 years old when my hair started to fall out. It would fall out a lot when I showered or combed it. So, it go to the point where I was afaid of even touching my hair. I went to the doctor and they ran some tests and I was told that it was a hormone imbalance and I was put on birth control to correct this. My hair stopped falling out and I didn’t notice it for the next five years.

That is until last year when I started noticing that I could see my scalp more. And I would have to make a consious effort of styling my hair so that it didn’t look too thin. I went to my doctor (a new one since 2000) and she ran tests. She said there was nothing she could do, but told me to take iron pills (since my iron was a little low) and to use Rogaine. I have been doing this for 6 months and I have realized that my hair is thinning out a lot more. As you can imagine this has seriously depressed me. Especially with our socity’s obsession with big hair on women.

My question, is there something else I should try besides Rogaine? I will be scheduling another appointment with my doctor and maybe see a dermetologist. However, I have started looking into hair transplants. But my question is, how does the new transplanted hair not start to fall of just like the old hair? And why do some women’s hair never thin out? My mom has a full set of hair at 56 yrs old and my dad is balding, but that started more when he went through chemo.

I will be going to my doctor to discuss my hair loss. Can you please let me know what tests should be run and what questions I should ask? The first time I went, I was a novice and was told to just use Rogaine & take iron pills. But since then I have tried to become more informed.

Sorry for rambling!

Beware of hair transplant doctors who specialize in female hair loss and transplanting many women. The truth is, female hair loss is complex and is very difficult to treat with a hair transplant. Although we do perform hair transplants on women, in all honesty we turn down many women because most are poor candidates for transplantation. What makes them poor candidates is that the rich donor supply area we find in men is heavily miniaturized in most women with female genetic hair loss. That means that a transplant will move ‘sickly’ hair from the back of the head to where it is needed. If miniaturization is 80% in the ‘donor area’ (the area where the hair is taken from), that means that 80% of the hair that is moved is of a poor quality and in the transplant only 20% of the hair has good value.

Minoxidil (Rogaine for Women) may work, but more importantly, you are also doing the right thing by seeing a dermatologist. A good dermatologist can check your blood work or check the health of your hair under a microscope to map your hair loss for miniaturization. If that leads you to a dead end, you can make an appointment with a good hair transplant doctor, but keep in mind what I said at the beginning of this answer. Most women just do not have good donor hair, so a good doctor knows this and does not recommend surgery just to make a buck. As you indicated that you are in the Los Angeles area, I would like to invite you to setup a free consultation with me at my LA office. You can call 800-NEW-HAIR or request a consultation online.

Thank you for the compliments on the site and good luck.