Candidacy for Hair Transplant

Hair transplant has gain popularity owing to its natural looking permanent result. More and more persons want to get it done but there are certain criteria which suggest whether the person is a good candidate for this procedure or not.

General basic criteria are:
- The person is having androgenetic alopecia (male pattern baldness) or any other condition that can be treated with hair transplantation.
- The person is having hair loss in which medical therapy is not giving the result. Like the hair loss is more than Norwood stage2.
- The person should have adequate donor follicles to give optimal result and to also cover the need if there is any future hair loss.
- The patient should have realistic expectation about the result that can be achieved.
- The scalp should be healthy and free from any kind of infection.

Every patient is different in its own way so there is no thumb rule that fits for all patients. These criteria are general but every case is to be taken differently. The younger patients should be examined and managed in a fully different manner because:

1. The extent of hair loss in future may be very difficult to predict.
2. The boundaries of safe zone may be difficult to define.
3. The expectation may be totally different and may be quite high in younger age group.
4. If the hair loss begins early and if there is family history of hair loss then the baldness may be more extensive.

So, it is advisable to treat the hair loss in young age medically and not to treat it aggressively with hair transplant. Doing hair transplant over enthusiastically may cause more problem than good. If the hair transplant is done in front and hair loss continues to persist then there may be a low hairline with area behind it being empty, this will be aesthetically not acceptable and will not look good. So, it is advisable to delay the procedure till the actual picture of the hair loss can be ascertained.

In female majority of hair loss seen is diffuse thinning and not a proper patterned hair loss. This may be due to the different DHT across the scalp. There may be instability of the donor follicles due to this also.

Woman may be a good candidate for hair transplant when:
- There is androgenic alopecia.
- There is patterned hair loss.
- Hair loss is due to traction alopecia.
- Cicatricial alopecia due to injury or scarring.