Treating Sufferers of Diffuse Hair Loss              

When a person visits a hair loss clinic to have their thinning hair assessed, they usually tend to either have lost an excessive amount within a limited sized surface area such as at their frontal hairline or within their crown; Or they have lost some hair over a very large surface area which is known as “diffuse thinning”.

When an excessive amount of thinning has occurred within a limited area these clients make fantastic candidates for hair transplantation surgery. The reason is because the total number of follicular unit grafts obtained from one procedure is always low compared to the total number of they may have lost in their life up to know. 

As an example, a male who is a Norwood 6 on the Norwood hair loss scale may have lost as many as 30,000 or more hairs. If this male was to have a hair transplant and obtain a massive number such as 6000 grafts (around 13,000 total hairs) on the day of surgery, this number will give them a significant improvement but it will not restore their density on top to even half of what it used to be. Therefore a person that has only lost hair within a smaller surface area can obtain great value from a hair transplant. This is because the graft number obtained will be sufficient to give the area a final density which at least looks comparable to what it used to be.

Excessively bald areas such as an empty section within the crown or a receded hairline will not respond to treatments such as medication or PRP because these only aim to stimulate existing weak hairs to become thicker. If there is no hair within these regions only hair transplantation will work.Diffuse thinning which is common in females is where a large surface area has lost a visible percentage of its overall density. Hair still exists but they each tend to look weaker and not contain as many hairs per square cm as they may contain within their thicker and healthier donor region.

Because a person with diffuse thinning still has a reasonable amount of hair and the fact that a large surface area is impacted, it makes treatments such as medication and/or PRP as better alternatives. The reason for this as explained earlier, is because medication only benefits existing weak hairs when it comes to the potential of adding more density. A person with diffuse thinning has many weak hairs which may increase in shaft diameter if they respond to medication or PRP. These treatments can also benefit a large surface area which makes them ideal for sufferers of diffuse hair loss.

In stating the above it does not mean that hair transplantation surgery can never be recommended by a hair transplant surgeon to a client with diffuse hair loss. It all comes down to what level of density has been lost. An earlier stage client should expect to be recommended medication and/or PRP as a positive response is likely which should satisfy the client.

A sufferer in the more advanced stages of diffuse pattern hair loss is unlikely to respond to PRP or medication to a level that will satisfy them. Therefore hair transplantation surgery is recommended in this situation.

Determining which treatment is ideal is best done by speaking with an experienced hair transplant surgeon in a face to face consultation.