Even though the hair loss is considered to be a problem that mostly men suffer from, it has started to be an issue that cannot be accepted and needs to be avoided for today’s modern women who care about their looks. The hair loss that starts to be intensively seen especially in women over 60 may also trouble the women at their 20-30s (especially when there is a genetic hair thinning and loss problem in their families) as well.
The rate of women who received a hair transplantation operation since 2004 has increased 24%, and the rate of women who prefer hair transplantation in the world has reached 14,2%. In women who could not get over their hair loss problem with medical therapy, good results may be achieved with hair transplantation operations. However, they should be examined beforehand and checked to see whether they are a suitable candidate, there is an underlying cause for a disease or they have enough donor sites available. For some skin diseases, performing a hair transplantation might not be favorable.
It is important to get a more detailed family history of the patients: It should be known when and who among the women in the family suffered from hair thinning and loss, and in what amount and what type of losses were they. It should be discussed what types of treatments need to be tried after finding genetic reasons as the cause for the hair loss (female type alopecia?).
It is necessary to have surgical skills and experiences, and good examination and diagnosis in order to have optimal results in female hair transplantation. It is difficult to say that all women are suitable for a hair transplantation. The cases that make the hair transplantation inapplicable as a treatment method in women are as follows: The cases where the hair loss is seen widespread in all scalp and there are not enough donor hair follicles for transplantation are the cases where the patient expectation is high and the woman has a desire to 100% recover her hairs as they were before the thinning hair. Hair transplantation should not be performed on such cases.
The “patterned” hair loss in women is where there is opening in the frontal and vertex sites as it is in men, and seen rarely. In other words, the hair loss and thinning are not widespread, and seen only in some parts of the hair but not completely. Under such circumstances, there is no hair loss or thinning seen in the nape and temples, and the hairs are thick and healthy. This case provides a healthy donor site for the surgeon that they can harvest hair follicles just like it is in men. This type of female hair losses is perfect for hair transplantation and hair restoration surgery. “Diffuse type” hair loss is a type of hair loss where there is hair loss in all parts, and thinning and shedding can be seen widespread in women. In this case, since there cannot be found any healthy hair follicles without thinning for transplantation, the hair transplantation cannot be performed.