Rudy Perrin’s reason for getting a hair transplant is short and sweet: “I’m nearly 60 years old and when I was 19 I lost all my hair, and I said before I die I want to have my hair back!” In February 2009, prompted by an ad in a Toronto newspaper, he visited the Seager Hair Transplant Centre for a consultation and determined that he was a good candidate for hair transplantation. A year and two procedures later, Perrin has gone from being “pretty well completely bald except for the lower part of my head,” to turning back the clock several decades thanks to a fuller, natural-looking head of hair.

Perrin’s story is just one of thousands the centre has been part of since it began performing follicular unit hair transplantation in October 1995. Much of the advancement of this procedure was done at the clinic by Dr. David Seager himself. “[Hair transplant] techniques have advanced significantly in the last 10 to 15 years so it is gaining in popularity,” says Dr. Mark McKenzie, who oversees all transplants at the clinic as medical director. “Getting away from what we call the old ‘plug transplant,’ we now do the procedure completely differently.”

Hair transplants are based on the premise that hair from the back and sides of the scalp is genetically different from hair that falls out from other areas of the head. In follicular unit hair transplantation, a donor strip is removed from the back and/or sides of the scalp and is dissected meticulously under operating microscopes. Because hair naturally grows in clusters of one, two or three, the donor strip is dissected into “slivers” that are one follicular unit wide, which are further dissected into individual micro-grafts of one to three hairs.

The hair is then precisely transplanted back into a bald area of the scalp, one follicular unit at a time, where it will grow. “We’re able to create results that look so natural that when somebody meets a friend or somebody they haven’t seen for awhile, they don’t even realize that it’s a hair transplant they have,” says McKenzie.

There are a variety of reasons why someone may lose hair, but the most common by far is androgenic alopecia — in simple terms, genetics. Most of the patients at the Seager centre are between the ages of 30 and 50, though McKenzie has performed the procedure on patients in their 20s and others in their 70s. About 90% of his patients are male, as hair loss affects men more commonly.

MIRACLE CURES?
Many of us are familiar with the various ads heralding pills or special shampoos for astonishing hair growth. However, McKenzie says, “The FDA actually looked at 300,000 over-the-counter products that claimed to grow or replace or restore hair, and they found that none of them actually work.” In fact, there are currently only two FDA-approved medical treatments for hair loss on the market, the topical drug Minoxidil (also known as Rogaine) and the pill Finasteride (known as Propecia). “They are very beneficial in helping to slow hair loss down or sometimes stop it — but they don’t claim to grow hair back,” he says. “That’s where medical and surgical treatments differ.”

Still, hair transplantation is often not a one-time procedure. “We transplant the hair and that hair will grow and it’ll keep growing, but the ongoing balding of other areas continue because balding is a genetic problem,” says McKenzie. Therefore, the Seager centre will often use medications in conjunction with hair transplants to maximize results. “If we’re able to get those patients onto medication to prevent further hair loss then often they may not need a further procedure, or they may need less in the way of further procedures.”

Taking this long-term view, says McKenzie, is an important part of the Seager approach. “The point I always like to make to my patients is a hair transplant is not a quick fix for your baldness,” he says. “We spend quite a lot of time during the consultation talking to patients about their hair loss, finding out how they feel about it, educating them about the reason that they’re losing their hair, and also getting them to think long-term about their hair loss situation and having a long-term plan.”

“IT WASN'T JUST THE FACT HIS HAIR LOOKED GREAT BUT THE FACT THAT HE SMILED WHEN HE CAME IN, HE LOOKED YOU IN THE EYE WHEN HE TALKED TO YOU — HIS WHOLE PERSONA HAD CHANGED...”

WHAT TO EXPECT
The Seager centre performs about 200 follicular unit hair transplantations a year. Because the procedure is so meticulous, it takes a good part of a day to complete. “The patient will come in early in the morning and we’ll usually be finished by mid-afternoon,” says McKenzie. During the surgery, local anesthetic, or freezing, is used along with medication to keep the patient from feeling any pain. As with any type of surgery, risks include infection and allergic reaction to the anesthetic, though McKenzie says these are extremely rare. “For a healthy person who’s coming for the procedure, the risks are very minimal.”

In the days after the procedure, most patients will experience a bit of bruising or swelling that may show up in the face, as well as some discomfort in the donor area, which can be managed with painkillers. After seven days, the patient can go out in public wearing a ballcap to hide the temporary scab from the transplanted area. After two weeks, the patient can be hat-free and back at work.

When it comes to getting the best experience, the Seager centre believes that technical skills and experience go hand-in-hand. “Clinics like ourselves who practice solely hair transplantation… because we do so much of it we get very consistently good results,” says McKenzie.

A hair transplant can do more than change a person’s physical appearance. McKenzie recalls his secretary telling him about a patient in his 30s who visited the clinic several times before his procedure. “Anytime she talked to him, his head was always down, he wouldn’t smile, he wouldn’t even look her in the eye when he was talking to her.” When the patient returned for a follow-up nine months after his transplant, it was a completely different story. “She said it wasn’t just the fact that his hair looked great but the fact that he smiled when he came in, he looked you in the eye when he talked to you — his whole persona had changed… It’s amazing how much hair can mean to someone, and often we don’t take that psychological aspect into account.  It can make a huge difference to just the way someone feels about themselves.”

Rudy Perrin counts himself among the happy customers. Because he was almost completely bald, they elected to do two procedures to give him his desired results.  Following an initial procedure last year at the top of his forehead, he underwent a second procedure in January around his crown. Perrin loves his new look — and he’s not the only one who’s noticed. “My friends are looking at me and they’re saying, ‘You look good, Rudy,’ but they can’t pinpoint why it is I look so good — but it’s obviously the hair,” he says. “I feel really good about it.” •

For more information visit seagerhairtransplant.com.