Ask The Experts: Check Out Hair Transplant Forums
If you want to find out the real skinny about hair transplants, check out the hair transplant forums. Some are run by hair transplant clinics and some are independent, but they are all very informative. You can also get your questions answered by posting on hair transplant forums.
Most of the forums are moderated by someone who has had a hair transplant, so he or she has "been there." You can read through hair transplant forums and get most of your questions answered. Most even have FAQ forums. You'll probably get answers to questions you hadn't even thought of.
Hair transplant forums are a good place to get information about the costs of various procedures, how much pain is involved, what recovery is like. You'll learn the "lingo," like what Norwood stages are, and terms like "6100 FUE." You'll learn what shock loss is and how to buzz your hair.
People discuss their experience with different hair transplant surgeons, so you can get an idea which surgeon you might want to choose. They write about how the procedures went, but also how problems were addressed and how they were treated by different doctors.
People on hair transplant forums discuss new procedures and hair loss research. You can find out information about hair cloning, gene therapy, new medical treatments and new surgical procedures.
You can learn about other kinds of hair transplants from the forums, too. They discuss eyebrow, eyelash and beard transplants. You'll even find discussions about transplanting animal hair (No, it can't be done. Not yet, anyway.) There are also forums for people who have hair transplants after transgender surgery.
There are hair transplant forums specifically for women that cover all kinds of topics, such as how hormones affect hair loss and hair transplants.
Probably the most important thing you can learn from hair transplant forums is what can go wrong. It's one thing to have a surgeon explain possible risks and side effects in his clinical voice, and quite another to read what it was like for a person to experience one of those risks or side effects.
You'll learn how people deal with scarring, and what can be done about it. You'll learn about cysts, and lumpiness and unsatisfactory surgical results. And you'll learn what can be done to correct these problems, and how people cope with them. You'll learn it from people who have lived through it. You'll learn from the experts.
Glossary:
6100 FUE: Transplanting 6100 hairs through follicular unit extraction (removing each follicular unit individually)
buzzing: a very short buzz cut, usually done a few days after surgery
Norwood stages: the degree of baldness a person has. Norwood 1 is very little hair loss; Norwood 7 is nearly completely bald.
Shock loss: hair loss after surgery. This is a very common occurrence, and the hair nearly always grows back in within a few months.