Q: Is artificial hair transplantation feasible? I have heard that some kind of biofibres are being used in hair transplantations for artificial hair. Is that true? I am a 23 year old student suffering from persistent hair fall for the past 3 years. My hair loss problem is due to hereditary reasons. Can you mention the hospitals in south India that perform such transplantations?

A:Biofibres have just come into existence, and are under trial. They are artificial strands, and can be implanted into the scalp. Previously, similar fibres of Nylon were implanted, but there was high incidence of infection and rejection and so it was stopped. These implanted fibres are fixed in length, do not grow and cannot be dyed. They are probably last resorts for people who do not have any donor hair at the back of the head and are totally bald. A definite better option is Hair Transplantation, which is done at our clinic by the Mini and Micro graft technique. The hair which are transplanted in the bald area are permanent, do not fall, grow like normal hair and subsequently need hair cuts. You can apply oil or shampoo on them and comb them to your desired style. The operation is done on an out patient basis and the patient goes home immediately after the operation. It takes 4 to 6 hours for one session where approximately 2000 hairs (i.e. 500 plugs) are transplanted. The charges for my team for transplanting 500 plugs is Rs. 25,000/-(@ Rs. 50/- per plug). The Nursing Home charges are Rs. 5000/-to 10,000/- for using the O.T. instruments and medicines. We have transplanted over 400 cases till now, and all are very happy. For large areas of baldness, we have transplanted upto 1200 plugs in a sitting in 6 to 7 hours. You can see photos of hair transplantation before and after surgery in my website www.cosmeticsurgery-india.com. There are no side effects of hair transplantation.