The most common method of surgical hair restoration involves removing bald resistant donor hairs from the back and sides of the head and transplanting them to the bald areas. Such hair restoration procedures are relatively minor surgeries that are done on an out patient basis and require only local anesthesia.
Scalp or Alopecia reductions are efficient ways of moving hair into the balding areas but they are more invasive surgical procedures. They can produce dramatic improvements for a carefully selected minority of hair loss sufferers. However, the risks involved with these major scalp surgeries in inexperienced hands are higher than the standard hair transplant procedure.
Given the excellent results that can now be achieved using much less invasive hair transplantation, many physicians who did perform scalp surgeries no longer do so. Here is an overview of Scalp – Flaps, Reductions, Lifts, Rotations, and Extensions. Some of these major surgeries include scalp – reductions, lifts, rotations, flaps, and extensions/ expansions. These procedures generally work by removing sections of balding scalp and or moving sections of bald resistant hairs into the balding areas.
When done properly and on carefully selected patients, these procedures can produce dramatic and positive enhancements. But in the past they were often over used and some times poorly performed by inexperienced surgeons. This resulted in some patients getting minimal long term benefits or worse becoming disfigured or in chronic pain. These complications, due largely to poor patient selection and inexperienced surgeons, have led to a decline in the popularity of these major scalp surgeries.
Yet in the hands of a highly experienced surgeon, the right candidate can achieve dramatic improvement. Generally the best candidates for major scalp surgeries are patients with very elastic scalp and good donor density.