A receding hair line is best treated by hair plugs because of the importance of a good hair line if you want to comb your hair straight back. You can’t have some funky toupee or other hair piece here because it just doesn’t look right. You will be much happier with hair plugs which will grow right out of the scalp and look completely natural. They look natural because they are actually the patient’s hair which has been transplanted from one area of the scalp to another.

Hair plugs were originally tried in the 1950’s with not very good results. At that time there was no such thing as micro-surgical techniques so it was necessary for the surgeons to actually remove entire portions of scalp with growing hair and then place these scalp chunks into the balding area where incisions had been made. The surgeon would use a tool which removed a round plug of scalp with about 10 to 15 hair still growing in it. These plugs were removed from the back or the scalp where there is less hair loss and the removal is less noticeable.

If you notice the majority of men who have hair loss do so above the forehead, which is called the receding hair line, or on the vertex of the head which is called a classic bald spot. This is because of the cause of the hair loss in the first place. 95% of men who suffer from balding issues are suffering from a condition called male pattern baldness. MPB is a genetically derived medical condition in which the man’s own body attacks his hair follicles (hair roots) and causes them to stop producing hair shaft material. There is a substance in the body called DHT or dihydrotestosterone which is a metabolite of the male testosterone hormone. This DHT bonds with receptor on the hair roots and causes a stoppage of the nutrients and oxygen flow to the root. This causes the root to slowly stop producing keratin and thus the hair shaft gets thinner and thinner. Eventually the shaft is just a wisp of hair. Eventually it falls out and the hair follicle goes dormant. Eventually the follicle is encased in fibrotic material and will never function again.

Once the hair falls out, the chances of getting the hair follicle to start producing hair again is close to or at zero. The only option if you want to have growing hair again is to replace these dead roots with vibrant ones from the back of the head. When a man suffers hair loss from male pattern baldness he does not generally lose the hair on the sides of the head and back or posterior section. This is because of how the DHT attacks the hair. For some unknown reason, the substance will not kill the follicles in these two areas which is good news because it means you have a good donor site for the hair plugs.

Actually, the term hair plugs is really a misnomer any more. Surgeons do not remove entire sections of scalp using either the hair plug or hair strip methods. Instead, they will generally use the hair follicular unit extraction method to remove individual hairs and their support structures and then insert these into groups of one to three follicles into the bald area. This is much less messy and allows the patient to leave the office at the end of the day without bandaging. There is usually some irritation for a few days but it quickly goes away.

A more common name used today for this procedure is hair implants or hair transplants. These are both based on the follicular unit extraction and placement method of hair restoration and really are the same procedure under a different name.

Getting hair plugs as a way to treat your receding hair line is a great idea because you can actually have the hair growing right out of your scalp. Hair piece manufacturers claim that you can comb their hair straight back with no problems but you still have fake hair on your head. No, I think the only way to get hair growing in this area is to have hair plugs inserted and allowed to grow naturally.

If you are looking for a quick hair loss treatment that is effective most of the time then you should look at having a hair transplant. In this method a surgeon removes hair follicles from one area of the head and reinserts them in the bald area. This is where the term hair plugs came from. When this procedure was first developed the surgeon would remove a fairly large piece of scalp containing hair and reinsert it in the bald patch. These fairly large patches would stand out because there was still bald areas around each insert. This gave the vision of a doll’s head and was less that great when it came to men trying to cover up the fact that they were losing their hair and going bald.

Hair Plugs

Current hair restoration techniques have become much more advanced in both the harvesting of the hair sections and in the placement of the sections on the scalp. Some people claim that increasing hair vitamins will stimulate hair growth but there has not been very much good data to support this notion. If you are looking for a quick remedy for baldness then hair plugs, or the current hair transplant procedures, are your best bet.

There is a lot of money spent every year on hair regrowth products. It is a many million dollar business. But unfortunately most of the substances that are sold to combat balding are completely ineffective. A current device being sold is the laser comb. This is supposedly a low light laser that stimulates hair growth in bald spots. There has been only one scientific test of its use and that study was funded by a laser company. The results of the test were spotty at best. If you are looking to combat male pattern baldness a surgical hair treatment may be what you need to consider.

The use of hair plugs or newer surgical techniques is increasing as the baby boomer generation ages. These men came of age as we were being force feed the idea that imagine is more important than substance. How we look, especially our hair loss, takes precedence over most other aspects of our lives.

Most men are concerned when they start to see a receding hair line in the mirror. They fear that the hair loss means they are losing their virility. One study in England found that women preferred men with a full head of hair 5 times more than balding men. If you are experiencing male pattern baldness you may want to consider hair transplants. Getting back a full head of hair would be great for your self esteem and the new techniques of hair plugs may be the choice you need to make.