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What Do You Need To Know If You Are Considering A Beard Transplant?

You remember the first time you saw one of your friends with a beard. It was well trimmed or even let out to grow, and it looked amazing. 

You remember how much you waited for your beard to grow. You bought beard oil, tried hair food, but to your disappointment, when the beard finally grew, it was patchy and uneven. 

The beard might not have met your expectations, or worse still, the beard might not have come at all.

Well, there is some good news; with advancements in medicine and surgery, you can get beard transplants in Miami FL. 

A transplant usually involves getting an organ or tissue from one person referred to as a donor and transferring the organ or tissue to another person, usually the recipient. The donor and recipient, however, may be the same person.

A beard transplant involves getting hair follicles from one part of your body, usually the back of your head, and transferring the hair to the jawline.

What Causes Patchy Beard Or No Beard At All?

1. Hormones

You must have heard of testosterone, and its not so famous variant, dihydrotestosterone. Testosterone is the hormone that will get men through puberty, and its production will lead to the secondary sexual characteristics men develop during puberty.

An inadequate dihydrotestosterone supply to the facial area may cause a patchy beard. The latter is because hair follicles convert testosterone to dihydrotestosterone. Therefore, low testosterone levels mean even lower dihydrotestosterone levels.

2. Genetics

Genes from your father will determine how you end up looking. Unfortunately, science has not given you too much choice when it comes to genetics. Genetics plays a significant role in physical appearance, particularly beard manifestation. However, science has given you the chance to change your phenotype with a beard transplant.

3. Lifestyle

Though not a big influencer when it comes to your chances of growing a beard, certain aspects of your life can affect hair growth. A lot of stress, inadequate rest and sleep, and poor feeding habits may affect the quality of your beard.

4. Alopecia

Alopecia areata though rare for most men may cause a patchy beard. A standard confirmation would be if you also suffer patches of baldness on the scalp. The good news is that the condition is treatable.

Who Meets The Criteria For Beard Transplant

For starters, having healthy hair follicles at the back of the head is important. The back of your head is the place your surgeon may harvest hair follicles for transplant.

The next, of course, is the appearance of your beard. A patchy beard, lacking, or a beard with weak hair patches would be one to lose.

All About The Procedure

Transferring hair follicles for you may sound quite easy, but it is a rather demanding process for your surgeon. The two approaches taken are:

• Follicular unit extraction (FUE). It involves harvesting complete follicular units singly from the donor body area. Being significantly less painful, it is the preferred procedure
• Follicular unit transplantation (FUT). The latter involves cutting a small tissue strip from the head’s back and then extracting hair follicles from the tissue

A follicular unit refers to a small group of hair follicles that exit the skin through a similar point.

Steps Taken

The Harvesting

For either procedure chosen, the surgeon starts by shaving the donor area. Shaving gives the surgeon a clear picture of how the follicles appear. You will be given a local anesthetic before the actual harvesting to make the process more bearable.

The Implantation

After the harvest, the surgeon injects a local anesthetic into the recipient area. The surgeon then carefully implants each follicle into the agreed-upon area on your facial skin shaping your beard as agreed.

The Recovery

About a day is needed to recover from the surgery. Tiny crusts that flake off after a few days can form around each new hair follicle.

Your new beard should be ready for trimming or shaving after around ten days. Your new beard may also, on the flip side, have hairs falling out after two or three weeks. This should not alarm you. New hair will grow in the fallen hair’s place.

After surgery, both the donor and recipient areas of your head and face respectively will require some special care. Your surgeon may prescribe some antibiotic ointment for the face and scalp.

Your physician may also ask that you avoid:

• Smoking
• Swimming
• Getting into a hot tub or sauna
• Excessive touching, rubbing, and scratching the donor or recipient areas
• Exposing yourself to direct sunlight
• Any strenuous activity that may cause sweating

At least for a few days after the procedure.

Markers Of A Successful Procedure

After a successful transplant, the new hair follicles should be settled and growing in three or four months. Then, after about nine months, you should be able to treat your beard like it has always been around.

While rare, beard transplant failure is due to improper harvesting of hair follicles from the donor area. To avoid such terrible luck, it is worth paying a little more to get a well-experienced surgeon.

Any Potential Unwanted Effects

Your scalp and face may experience; redness, numbness, swelling, tightness, or temporary scabs and crusts.

Scarring at the donor site may also occur. The natural growth of your hair will often cover the scars up. FUE has many tiny unnoticeable scars, while FUT has a long unitary scar at the donor site. There is no scarring at the recipient areas of your face.

Procedure Costs And Alternatives

Beard transplants are primarily for aesthetics. Beard transplants, depending on where you decide to get them from, are not cheap and can cost more than $15,000 based on the number of hair grafts required.

To determine whether you meet the procedure’s required criteria and examine your face and scalp, you will need a consultation visit that may also bear a cost.

Alternatives to a transplant include:

• Topical minoxidil may be used to stimulate hair growth on the scalp and face
• Biotin supplements and L-carnitine-L-tartrate® may boost natural hair growth
• Exercise, a healthy diet, and a good night’s sleep each night may also help hair growth

Lacking a beard should not cause you sleepless nights and sadness. Instead, consider getting a beard transplant, lifestyle improvement, a few pharmaceuticals like minoxidil, and take control of your looks. You deserve to look sexy and unique.

Last Updated on June 25, 2021