Kensington – Manchester – Nottingham – Liverpool – Glasgow – Birmingham – Cardiff – Sheffield – Essex
Hair loss within the African-Caribbean community is a growing problem both for men and women, however for the latter it can be a more emotional subject which is something we are very sensitive about.
We have now started to perform more and more transplants for Afro hair and are one of very few hair transplant clinics that specialise in it.
More often than not, men with Afro hair seem to prefer to shave their head if they have extensive baldness, however sometimes the look does not suit everyone’s face. It also seems that the vast majority of females with Afro hair will look to wear a wig to cover baldness which can be particularly irritating during warm weather or when doing sports. Other than for aesthetic reasons, this is another reason that more Afro-Caribbean people are considering having a hair transplant procedure.
For people of African-Caribbean ethnicity, the hair transplant procedure is more complicated than for those of other ethnicities due to the curly shaped hair and the root itself. We understand that it is very important that your chosen hair transplant clinic has the right experience and level of understanding to accommodate for this.
Now, modern hair styles are becoming shorter and as such, the FUE extraction method is becoming more appealing for African-Caribbean men but in most cases, this method is not appropriate to use. Afro hair also curls under the skin and not just outside of it, meaning that the hair follicles take up additional space. For this reason, the FUE extraction method is not always suitable for Afro hair, especially in larger areas.
If we were to use the standard small FUE instruments to extract the hair, the follicles could be damaged and would not be suitable to be implanted to another area. If we were to use larger instruments instead, we are able to extract the follicles without damaging them, however this provides a greater risk of having scars on the back of the head. The curly nature of the hair and follicles means that the individual extraction is difficult and usually impossible to perform on Afro hair.
If the area that is balding/thinning is only a small area, an FUE extraction could work, however before this could be looked into you would need to book a consultation appointment. In addition to this, we can also perform a test to see if the individual FUE extraction could work without damaging any follicles or scarring the scalp.
Afro hair needs to be extracted with great amounts of precision and the method we use for this is the FUT or “strip” method. After extraction and preparation, we can then implant the follicles individually and place them in a manner that matches the existing angle of the hair.
Cultural sensitivity and a knowledge of both the physical and anatomical sides of the Afro hair follicles are crucial for a successful transplant. The procedure itself usually poses very distinct challenges for a transplant clinic:
- Firstly, the shape of the hairline is different and seems to be much straighter with a closed off frontotemporal outline than is seen in other ethnicities.
- Secondly and as mentioned above, the nature of the follicle can make the procedure very challenging to individually extract the follicles without damaging or destroying them.
- Thirdly, during follicle preparation the hair transplant clinic needs to have a highly skilled transplant surgeon but also needs to have skilled, qualified and experienced assistants. The combination of these will ensure that the correct tools and technology are utilised to separate and clean the follicles which in turn will make them suitable to be implanted.
- Finally, during the implantation process, the transplant surgeon needs to use both their technical and artistic skills to mark the area in which the hair follicles will be implanted. They need to consider exactly how close each hair will to any others due to the curly nature of the hair, but also need to ensure the use of the correct instrument/s to ensure that no big incisions are made which in turn will minimise the risk of scarring.
Because of these challenges and characteristics, this type of hair transplant needs more time to perform.
Afro hair transplantation can be incredibly rewarding for men and women as the natural curliness of the hair will provide the impression of incredible hair density. This can be very beneficial following the transplant as the result will be much better than an equivalent transplant procedure for other hair types.
Aside from the challenges and difficulties that come with this type of transplant procedure, hair restoration for African-Caribbean hair can be equally successful as any other ethnicity, provided it is performed with the correct tools and a high level of expertise.
If you feel that you could benefit from one of our revolutionary hair loss treatments and would like to schedule a consultation with us, please let us know using the form below!