Wigs: Their Benefits - David Hansen

Certainly not a Johnny-come-lately, the wig has been around for centuries.

      It first gained popularity with the Egyptians who, due to their dislike for natural hair, made shaved baldness,  covered by wigs, the accepted custom. Their wigs were purposely designed to look false in order to show Egyptian contempt for all that was hairy.

     Throughout the decades, wigs have developed a history of their own. One century has supported them;

the next banned them. In this country, they were very acceptable during our formative years. In fact, powdered periwigs were worn by many of our most respectable forefathers.

       Today men's wigs are used more as a change of hairstyle rather than for ornamentaion. Basically, their popularity is confined to young men who want to temporarily change the look of their hair from an acceptable business style to a more sporty and "with it" look during their hours of socializing. For this purpose, they usually serve the wearer well.

      In spite of the many years of existence, however, they have not yet been perfected enough to be truly practical. Furthermore, although great advances have been made in the production of women's wigs, those designed for men are not a comparable quality , and thus, have a shorter life span.

     A wig covers  entire scalp, and consequently, most of the scalp's breathing room, In the cases of a man who is losing his hair, this coverage is unnecessary. Only his balding area needs to be hidden.

     Unfortunately, most men's wigs are still detectable  and often the cause for many a man to be subject of ridicule. They can also be quite warm and uncomfortable for the average wearer.

    Therefore, as a full-time cover up, the wig has little demand.

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Hairpieces (hair replacement)

Years ago, fear of being humiliated by a slightly askew hairpiece was enough to keep all but the baldest of America's males in their medical state. Today, hundreds of thousands of men in the business world confidently wear custom-made hairpieces that are completely undetectable to their colleagues and acquaintances.
Compared to the aforementioned techniques in this blog, the hairpiece ranks first. It does not require surgery, and the client is not in any physical danger. Finally it is a much more practical and sound investment than any other method of hair replacement. Cleansing your scalp and allowing it to breathe are no longer problems. And most important of all, it is the one procedure that comes with a guarantee. If you are dealing with a reputable professional, you must be satisfied with your custom-made hair replacement before his work is complete.
Keep in mind, however, that I am not speaking of just any hair system, but rather of only custom-made, human-hair pieces. There are many synthetic, machine-made, imitations around that just don't measure up. The secret of securing a good hair replacement system is to understand the construction, the many choices available, and what you can expect from each type. I have learned this myself over my 50 years in the business. I fell in love with the business very young. It was both fascinating and fun. It allowed me to put hair on heads of men who lost theirs. I help make men look good, feel good and have fun doing it. Being as passionate and fascinated by the business I experimented with every base material, every hair type, density, wave, and patch material. That is honestly the only way you can get undetectable results. You need to know how to cut hair first. Than you need to know exactly how to design the hair piece and what product to use. The main reason to wear hair replacement is not for everyone to know you are wearing it. It is to create art, to make the hair replacement so realistic and blend so well no one knows you are wearing one. Then, people complement you on how great your hair is not how good you look in your hairpiece. These facts are important to understand before you make your purchase. The remainder of this blog, therefore, has been written to assist you in that study.
There is no reason to provide further information on hair transplants, hair weaving, anchors under the skin, etc. Those techniques are all a part of a small, specialized segment of the hair restoration industry, and anyone soliciting such methods will be more than happy to go into further detail. (If you do select one of those methods, however, please keep in mind the facts presented earlier in this blog. They are valid facts, and if the the person you deal with refuses to acknowledge the risks and disadvantages along with the benefits, perhaps you should look for a more hones practitioner before investing your money.)
The hairpiece, on the other hand, is the most popular method of hair replacement available. And since this manual is designed to help the greatest majority, there exists a need to go into this subject further. Here, then, is your guide to hairpieces, a guide designed to aid you in your selection of a truly effective weapon against hair loss.
David Hansen
www.davidhansen.com

Hair Transplants

If you are looking for a permanent type of hair replacement, something that can become a part of you, chances are that someone will recommend a hair transplant.

Its greatest advantage is that you'll be able to say it's your own hair--because, in effect, it will be. It is the most permanent type of hair replacement available. Once it is completed and your system has accepted it, you can work, play, sleep, and even swim, and never have to remove your hair.

It may sound tempting, but a transplant is not something you should jump into blindly. It is strongly recommended that you look, and look carefully, before you leap. It may be for you, but if you find out that it isn't and you already have had the initial steps performed, it could be a disaster!

A transplant requires more of an investment, both in time and money, than any other method of hair replacement; and although it can be quite attractive if properly carried out, there are no guarantees.

A transplant is a minor operation carried out under local anesthesia in a doctor's office. The patient can usually sit upright in a chair while healthy hair from the back of his scalp is transferred to the balding areas on the top and top and front of his head.

With the use of a circular punch, the doctor bores out plugs of bald scalp and switches them with plugs of scalp that are capable of bearing hair. (Various shape punches have been known to be used, but the circular punch remains superior.) The entire operation requires more than one session, so the patient returns for more punching and plugging at two-week intervals.

It is important to realize that the newly transferred hair stubs will shed within a few weeks. It takes as long as 10 to 20 weeks after the operation before new hair begins to grow, because the hair roots go into a resting stage after the trauma of being transplanted. The patient goes through a period of nearly a year of having the transplanted area resemble cornfield stubble much more than it does hair.

Blonde hair, grey hair and red hair gives less impressive results, since they do not have the appearance of being as thick as dark hair of the same thickness.

No matter how minor the operation, a transplant is surgery, and one must be concerned with the usual surgical questions such as wound healing, clot formation, bleeding tendencies, etc. In addition, there is also a possibility that patients having diabetes could develop hypoglycemia associated with the stress of the procedure, and those who fail to admit to underlying cardiovascular ailments may also be in great danger.

Usually, a certain amount of pain can be expected when the anesthetic wears off, and patients must often put up with black eyes, tearing, swelling, etc., after each session. Itching and a discharge of sebaceous matter at the donor site are also common nuisance. For this reason, if a man is being forced to get the operation by a wife or girlfriend, the minor discomfort may turn into major problems as a result of the psychological trauma.

The procedure is open territory for anybody in medicine who feels qualified, be he a dermatologist, a general practitioner, a head and neck plastic surgeon, a psychiatrist, a pathologist, etc. According to the American Hair Loss Association “It is also important to note that surgery should always be your last resort after all attempts to stop the progression of your hair loss have been exhausted. Currently in the United States the field of surgical hair restoration is completely unregulated by both the government and the medical community. In the US any licensed physician can legally perform hair transplant surgery without any prior surgical training or accreditation of any kind. Every physician, MD or DO, has the legal right to pick up a scalpel and proclaim him/herself a qualified hair transplant surgeon”. in some cases much of the work is entrusted simply to technicians. As you can imagine, with such a variety of operators, many of whom have never shown any surgical aptitude before, the results are sometimes failures, and the patient suffers severe emotional and physical scars.

If the procedure is not planned properly before it is begun, failures can result. Perhaps a patient really does not have enough healthy hair left to donate to the balding area. The fact must be accepted that progress in balding of the scalp will require additional transplants to the newly naked areas.

Doing transplants in the frontal area of a man in his twenties may commit him to transplants for the rest of his life as male pattern alopecia progresses. No one can guarantee that he will have sufficient healthy hair left for subsequent operations required. Furthermore, grafts of hair-bearing scalp taken from an area which is becoming bald will themselves bald at the same time as the area of the scalp from which they were removed.

Failures can also result if the procedure is not executed properly by the physician. Some doctors are not realistic about what a man's natural hairline should look like, and they are seen devising new hairlines never before seen in the history of human nature!

The size of a graft must be no larger than 4mm to survive. However, since skin punches are available in large sizes, a number of surgeons are tempted to use them. Then, there is little or no hair growth. Several of grafts become red, granulating, and ulcerated, because the epidermis did not survive. All that remains is scar tissue, just as occurs when a technician goofs and puts the grafts in backwards or lets them dry out before they are planted.

To make matter worse, if the transplants do not take, the patient will then not only have surgical scars on the bald area.

Perhaps the most prohibitive factor in selecting this method of hair replacement is the cost. Plan on investing at least 5,000 to 10,000.

It is only fair at this point to acknowledge that numerous hair transplants have been successfully completed. But when you consider what is involved in order to achieve success, the fact remains--it is a gamble. many have bet on it and have come out winners. Only you can decide if you want to take the risk. The stakes are high. the jackpot is a tempting target. But to lose could be quite a financial, a physical and an emotional set-back!

The hair doctor David Hansen
www.davidhansen.com