HAIR TRANSPLANT & PRP ADVICE
Scott here, founder of Replique. This page is one I wanted to write personally. Most people on this site have experienced hair loss. I first started receding and thinning at the crown at 17 and it devastated me. I was still in school and being a teenager who was going bald really I lost my self confidence and looked years older than I actually was.
Since then I have tried almost every hair loss "cure" or solution and most are just hype and hope, designed to separate you from your money.
Ive helped thousands of men with hair loss options since stating Replique in 2016 and now I'm based full time in our Sydney location, and so many of my clients have spent a lot of money on hair loss medication and surgery only to still not have the results they are after. They turn to our solid solutions such as Scalp Micropigmentation or SMP or our non surgical hair loss systems, such as "Second skin" hair pieces.
I've always loved the idea of a hair transplant and can see the appeal, but I personally, and many of my clients aren't the right candidates.
Most men before Male Pattern Baldness hair loss have approximately 100,000 hairs and when we have hair fall or hair loss as we age we lose upto 60,000 hairs. It is impossible to get a full head of hair transplant if you have advanced male pattern baldness.
A hair transplant is only MOVING HAIR from one part of the scalp to another. A hair transplant isnt CREATING NEW HAIR. When a surgeon moves the hair, the client is left with bald patches in the donor site where the hair has been removed from.
The amazing hair transplants or hair implants I've seen are FUE or Follicle Unit Extraction surgery hair transplants but the client still has most of their hair in the male pattern baldness area, with just slight thinning or a slight receding hairline.
To have a successful hair transplant and maintain the rest of the hair in the male pattern baldness area, the candidate also needs a strong hair transplant donor sites and will also need to go on hair loss medication such as Propecia, which is a DHT blocker and has the active ingredient called Finasteride. Unfortunately there may be potential side effects such as a lack of sex drive, inability to have an erection and other issues. These factors, combined with the hair transplant cost, can unfortunately make hair transplants only suitable to some candidates.
Ive helped thousands of men in the last half decade at our hair loss clinic and meet so many men at our clinic in Sydney, and so many had high hopes for the hair transplants but still had to come to me for a more tangible hair loss solution.
The Best Hair of Your Life? Replique Hair Clinic in Sydney focuses on non surgical, long lasting and natural looking hairloss solutions
At Replique we specialise in very tangible male hair replacement solutions, we do not want anyone leaving our Sydney clinic without a 100% result.
Our guys finish their appointments with the appearance of a full hairline, no thinning areas on the crown or temples, a great smile and most importantly the confidence that they THEY DON'T LOOK BALD ANYMORE.
We achieve this with our most popular two products/services, SMP and Semi Permanent Hair Pieces. Both of these are cutting edge and leading the male hair replacement industry in giving men wonderful and affordable male hair loss solutions.
But I'm often asked by potential clients what I think about hair transplants for men, whether it is worth getting one, getting a hair transplant from a clinic in Australia or an overseas hair transplant.
Finding the hair loss cure that suits is a very individual journey but I do many treatments on clients who have had hair transplant surgery and have regretted it, and they come to Replique for an alternative hair replacement.
These guys generally have been left with a drastic scar from their hair transplant strip surgery, that we need to camouflage or disguise with scalp micropigmentation (a highly advanced form of scalp tattooing where we create pigment based replica follicles) or if they've had an FUE Hair Transplant, (Follicle Unit Extraction), then they have advanced thinning from the back of their scalp (above the neck), all the way to the ears, where the surgeon has taken follicles from the donor site and transplanted.
Above left. FUE Hair Transplant scarring from the donor site, Above Right, where we have used Scalp Micropigmentation to disguise and camoflague the areas in the donor site where the hair follicles have been removed. Any redness seen is temporary, it will fade to reveal pigment based follicles that are the same tone as the clients natural hair.
Below. Hair transplant in progress. This delicate and intense work should only be undertaken by a skilled and educated technician.
Hair transplants work really well if you have very thick hair, both in the donor site, and also in the crown and hairline. Ideally if you still have 80% to 90% of your hair, then there's a good chance that you’ll get a strong result from a hair transplant. But there are still two consequences to this:
One, you will still have thinning hair from the donor site, where the hair transplant doctor will be taking thousands of hairs and relocating them to another part of your scalp, and secondly, this won't reverse Male Pattern Baldness on the traditional hair loss areas.
Your old hair in the Male Pattern Baldness area will continue to fall out unless you investigate going on hair loss medication. There are several hair loss medications available, but some have very alarming consequences, such as erectile dysfunction, lack of sex drive and can even bring on mental health issues. I had one client who was prescribed a hair loss medication by his GP and didn't want to leave the house for a fortnight, so I encourage everyone who is considering hair loss medication to do a lot of homework on it.
If you have very thin hair, or advanced hair loss, then you will only get very limited results from a hair transplantation clinic. Remember, a hair transplant is just relocating hair from one part of your scalp to another part, it isn't adding new hair to your head.
In terms of deciding on whether to get a hair transplant from a local doctor, or travelling overseas for it. The hair transplant price should not be your only consideration. I personally would prefer to have any kind of surgery performed by a local doctor, who I could see if anything went wrong. Potential hair regrowth treatments are very expensive. Hair transplants can cost up to $30,000 and so getting one done overseas at a greatly reduced rate will be very appealing to many, but remember it's surgery and it's your scalp!
Hair Transplant Alternative - PRP Platelet Rich Plasma Australia
It is exciting seeing new advances in treating hair loss, but often the results are delayed or will never give clients their full density of hair back. Over the last few years in Sydney Australia, many people have been drawn to PRP or Platel Rich Plasma to attempt to regrow their hair from genetic hair loss, medication or other reasons.
Platelet Rich Plasma, or PRP is a substance that's drawn from the clients blood by a medical practitioner, it is then injected into the scalp in an effort to heal tissue matter including hair follicles. The PRP is extracted from the clients blood to increase healing capacities with the concentration of certain proteins.
This is exciting, but does it work to help clients regrow their hair and slow down further hair loss? There have only been several small studies over the last few years and some found that injections every two or three weeks over several months assisted in hair thickness and follicle root strength. These were small studies of only 10 people and so it is difficult to make a broad claim on if PRP or Platelet Rich plasma is a strong hair loss cure. The studies also pointed out that not all people had adequate proteins in the plasma to be of benefit.
Hair Transplant Alternative - Scalp Micropigmentation
If you like the buzz cut look, then investigate the World's fastest growing hair replacement solution, SMP, or Scalp Micropigmentation is a relatively new procedure where thousands of tiny pigment based replica follicles are systematically inserted to the epidermis with a tiny needles, that is the diameter of a hair follicle.
The SMP , or hair pigmentation, hair tattoo it's a relatively pain free experience, most clients fall asleep as the tiny needle is just touching the skin to make the micro perforation and create the new replica hair. This is similar to feather stroke, micro needling and nano needling technology but for the scalp.
BEFORE SMP
AFTER SMP
Hair Transplant Alternatives - Fully Bonded Hair units that are Sculpted to the Scalp
So, what are the alternatives? If you're unsure about hair loss prevention, worried about having too little hair in your donor site, don't want to have to supplement the hair transplant with medication, or are put off by the cost of the surgery, then there are many fantastic hair transplant alternatives available.
Of course, you could stick to the trusty old baseball cap but it's not going to reverse the signs of hairloss.
If you want an incredible head of full and thick hair, then you can't go past a fully bonded Semi Permanent Hair Piece, these state of the art units are fully bonded to the scalp for up to 30 days, then it's a simple process of 30 minutes to remove, clean and re-adhere. 30 days on and 30 minutes off and a brilliant head of hair. These units are a million years from the scratchy old synthetic toupees that some suppliers still promote and sell. UK company, Quiff & Co made a video of one of their Semi Permanent hair pieces that went viral and has created a huge surge in the popularity of these amazing units. The pieces are customised and hand sculpted to the scalp for an incredible bond, it really looks like hair is growing out of your own scalp due to the ultra thin membrane and advanced adhesive process.
Before and After and a close up of the incredible Thin Skin base that's sculpted and fully bonded to the scalp for an incredibly realistic hairline.
At Replique, we're all about solutions, while we don't offer client referrals to specific hair transplant surgeons, our staff are more than happy to consult and discuss hair transplants, answer your personal questions and even put you in contact with some of our clients who've had hair transplants and other hair replacement solutions so you have fully informed options on your preferred hair loss solution.
Our Sydney clinic is managed by men who have a lot of experience in male pattern baldness and hair loss solutions