In the past, the demographic of people who experience traction alopecia has been women–African American women in particular. The reason is due to the hairstyles popular among this group–women have a larger variety of grooming options available, and several of them involve the use of force on the scalp in order to create a unique look. This includes the classic tight ponytail, favored by celebrities and models like Arianna Grande and Bella Hadid, braids, and extensions.

Celebrities and models alike have popularized tight up-do’s in longer hairstyles.

Recent grooming trends in male fashion, however, have grown to include longer hairstyles, which opens up the male population to the threat of tension hair loss. The dreadlock trend of the early 00’s and the man bun trend of today has been associated with an uptick in cases of males experiencing traction alopecia.

Identifying Tension Hair Loss in Men

Traction alopecia in men might be mistaken for the beginning stages of male pattern balding, since the latter is usually signaled by a receding hairline. However, men who experience male pattern balding typically see warning signs in their family history. Tension hair loss is not limited to one area. It manifests in the areas that are pulled the most– for instance, the patient below consulted with Dr. Umar about the tension hair loss that mostly affected her left temple area.

This patient experienced tension hair loss located on her left temple area as a result of years and years of harsh hairstyles.

Solution for Tension Hair Loss in Men

Men facing traction alopecia due to extended pulling of hair into a bun or knot have treatment options. Dr. Umar treated the patient above with an advanced FUE system called the Dr.UGraft method. Using this method, Dr. Umar was able to extract 200 follicles from the patient’s donor area and carefully implant them on her bald spot. The surgery was a success, and as it can be plainly seen below, the patient met her target growth yield.

Dr. U restored the patient’s hairline with 200 grafts to her temple area using his patented Dr.UGraft system.

With the help of Dr. Umar’s UGraft Revolution, the patient was effectively cured of her tension hair loss. She is very pleased with her results and can put her hair up without feeling self-conscious.

Men experiencing hair loss around their hairline and temple points are encouraged to ask Dr.U about possible treatment options tailored to their unique situation.

Watch Dr. U restore hair loss caused by traction alopecia

For most men, going bald is all about the most dreaded phenomenon. Losing your hair, particularly for a young bald man, can be a very traumatic experience. In addition, not having the budget for treatment can lead to more stress and anguish that comes along with baldness. Often times the price far exceeds what a patient are able to afford. Even though there are hair restoration methods accessible to us in 2017, most younger men believe that these options are not available to them.

Example of a young bald man losing hair at an early age.

Even though there are lots of medications and over the counter remedies available to help slow or stop hair loss, typically efforts are futile, ending in little to no results. The situation is even more dire for young individuals that are already experiencing severe hair loss, as medications can do little to remedy your situation. Men of all ages are now turning to hair transplantation choices as a method to re-grow your own hair.

A Solution for the Young Bald Man

A proven method of hair transplantation is a procedure called Follicular Unit Extraction or FUE. This process involves harvesting of individual hair grafts and placing these busy follicles to the needed regions of your head. Of course ample donor areas are required to provide to those regressing or bald areas. More advanced methods utilize other areas of the body for Body Hair Transplant FUE processes.

Young men on budgets can choose to utilize conservative hair transplant procedures.

A young man with limited monetary resources would immediately think this type of operation is not feasible for him. Whether you are a student or just starting your career, that type of extra income can be difficult to come by. Nevertheless, viable funding options with affordable monthly payments can make it possible to afford a hair transplant.

Another option is to choose an experienced doctor and take a conservative approach to your transplantation. Particularly true for young individuals, a long-term strategy has to be factored into any decision prior to any type of treatment.

This young bald man restored his hairline and crown areas with a modest budget.

For example, this individual from Los Angeles, CA sought-after Dr. Sanusi Umar with a similar plight. He was tired of experiencing hair loss and saved up the funds to do something about it. With the help of Dr. Umar, they devised a conservative low donor graft program which would not only allow the patient to use the buzz cut hairstyle he had wished for many years but also leave the door open for any prospective procedures. The student could not have been more pleased all made possible inside his modest budget.

Watch the full video results on this patient below:

Is a Full Hair Restoration Possible for a Norwood 7 Patient?

Like many people around the world, severe baldness is a very serious and depressing issue. Extreme hair loss can strike men of all ages, even as young as your twenties or early thirties. Patients with Norwood 7 level baldness, the most sever rating on the scale, often turn to many different methods to hide their problem… such as shaving your head or wearing hairpieces. Although these attempts can mask your problem, there is nothing like full hair restoration.

Norwood 7 Patient

The primary reason full head restoration has been such a difficult procedure to pull off in the past is because of lack of available donor areas and the tools to increase them. Once a patient has exhausted all his head and nape hair, and in some cases their beard and chest hair as well, they literally do not have enough grafts to complete the restoration process. Because of advancements in body hair transplant and the innovation of tools such as the Dr.UGraft Revolution… full head restoration is now a reality.

Over 4,000 grafts pulled from beard by Dr.UGraft.

The Dr.UGraft method and its advanced FUE technology allow for hair follicles to literally be taken from anywhere on the body. Once a patient’s typical donor areas are used up, the UGraft Rotor or Punch tool can successfully extract grafts from other body areas such as chest, legs and even pubic regions. Because of this breakthrough, the ability to extract 10,000, 20,000 or even 30,000 grafts is very possible.

Full hair restoration by the Dr.UGraft Revolution system.

The pictures shown here are from a recent case in which 12,000 grafts were used by Dr. Umar to complete a full head restoration of a Norwood 7 patient. This was accomplished over two separate procedures spanning about one year. The patient was given a new lease on life with his new full head of hair. From that point forward his life changed for the better.

See the full video results on this patient below:

Does FUE work on African Americans?

Does FUE work on African Americans? As an African American, you may find yourself feeling abandoned by the hair transplant industry. Many clinics avoid doing the non linear scar forming follicular unit extraction (FUE) type of hair transplant surgery on patients of African descent. Often, patients with African hair types are offered the linear-scar causing hair transplant called strip surgery. Often times, no explanation is given as to why that is so. Ironically, men of African descent favor shorter hair styles (or the shaved look), making them the one demographic in which FUE rather FUSS. They are the one demographic in which FUSS should never be done as the shorter hair cuts would become impossible to carry as the strip scar would be exposed.

Within this reading we will discuss the differences in African hair/skin and the different tools available for an FUE treatment.

This patient has been struggling to find a solution to his scarring hair loss.*

There are a few important aspects of African hair anatomy that differ from the structure of other ethnic backgrounds. This is primarily the thickness of the skin and the curvature of the hair follicle. Generally speaking, those of African descent have particularly thick skin, this adds to the difficulty of the extraction process because it takes a stronger force from the doctor and their tools. When it comes to the hair itself, most people of African descent have very tightly curled hair. This curl unfortunately continues below the scalp, in many cases having a very extreme curve in the hair follicle. When trying to extract the follicle it can be difficult for the basic FUE clinics to extract it following the curve without damaging or cutting the follicle in half.

Now that you know a bit about the differences in the hair type, let’s delve deeper into the tools available for hair transplants and a bit more about the FUE process. Currently there are two types of FUE tools available for African American hair transplants: The basic FUE Rotor (which is used in most FUE clinics), and the Dr. UPunch Curl FUE (Which I patented recently and use in all cases of difficult FUE in Afro-textured hair).

Round tipped rotary punches are a straight, mechanical tool that uses a spinning cutting motion to score the tissue around the follicle. This allows physicians to cut into the skin in a clean movement. The downside to this tool for curly hair is in the automatic motion and straight handle of the tool.

Because of the straight structure, it is extremely difficult to extract hairs at the angle necessary for success.

On the other hand, the Dr. UPunch Curl is a manual tool rather than an electric rotary and is designed at an angle in order to be more efficient at extracting from sharp angles. This FUE tool was created specifically for black African type curly hair and has shown great success. The Dr. UPunch Curl is revolutionary in that ANY amount of curliness can be extracted safely without breakage of the follicles.

The hooked shaped cutting angle of this tool allows for Dr. Umar to extract curly hair without damage to the follicles.

The photos below showcase one patient in particular who received an FUE hair transplant using the Dr. UPunch Curl tool.

As you can see, the Dr. UPunch Curl is manually use by Dr. Umar and is able to extract from very severe angles.

Does FUE work on African Americans? The results of the FUE hair transplant for this African American male are extremely successful.

See the full video results on this patient below: