Clínica Arencibia is a private medical centre. We specialise in the comprehensive treatment of hair problems and high quality hair transplantation. Our medical professionals analyse each patient’s problem on a completely individual basis using various tools, such as a personal interview and trichoscopy. The objective is to issue a correct diagnosis and recommend treatment alternatives, with a corresponding budget. In some cases, certain preliminary tests (analytical tests, biopsies, etc.) are necessary, which determine the final treatment budget.
Each hair transplant operation is planned according to these needs and has different characteristics depending on the stage of baldness, the area to be covered, availability of hair in the donor area… It is a medical-surgical procedure tailored to each individual.
Common alopecia (androgenic or androgenetic alopecia) cannot be cured in the sense that the lost follicles cannot be regenerated. However, the back and lateral areas of the head are genetically programmed to grow for life: these hair follicles are not affected by testosterone or alopecia. It is hair that does not fall out.
These areas where the hair does not fall out, which we call the ‘donor area’, allow us to select hair follicles that we can graft to the recipient area (where the hair has fallen out). Once grafted, they continue to grow normally and replace the lost hair.
Although many hair transplant clinics intensively advertise the number of follicular units they implant as a lure for patients, there are two serious problems with this approach:
- Follicular units and follicles are often used alternatively, as if they were equivalent concepts. But they are not. This only manages to confuse patients, to give them the feeling that they are going to have a very large amount of hair implanted.
- The important thing in a hair transplant is not the number of UF’s that are implanted in a fixed way. Each patient is different and needs a different number of follicular units. Depending on your baldness, the area to be covered, the capacity of your donor area… If we depopulate a patient’s donor site to implant a promised number of UF’s, we could be creating a new problem where there was none.
By focusing on the amount of hair to be implanted, many clinics seem to sell transplants ‘by weight’. They forget that this is an aesthetic intervention, where the important thing is to achieve a satisfactory, safe, natural and lasting result for the patient, today and in the future.
Clínica Arencibia is a private medical centre, specialised in the treatment of hair problems and hair transplants. Our team is made up of doctors who consult, make a diagnosis and recommend different treatment options to our patients, inside or outside our clinic. Both the consultations and the treatments available to our patients have an economic cost. The same applies to any other private medical service.
Many patients with alopecia problems are suitable for hair transplantation. However, it is essential that a diagnosis of alopecia is made by a specialist doctor in order to indicate the corresponding treatment. In most cases it is androgenetic alopecia (hence also known as common alopecia). We have several treatments with scientific evidence to treat it, including hair transplants.
Hair for a hair transplant is almost always taken from the back of the head, an area where hair does not fall out. As a second (rare) option, it can be removed from any other part of the body.
It is important to know that during the first 3 months after the hair transplant, the transplanted hair may fall out. However, the follicular units from which the hair grows are still alive: within 6 months they will start producing new hair. This is a normal process and the specialist will explain it to you when informing you of everything you need to know about your hair transplant.
Contact us and we will make an appointment for your first consultation with the specialist. In this consultation with the hair specialist, there will be a short interview, an examination, a diagnosis, and the objectives and possible treatments will be agreed upon. You can book your appointment by phone, email, WhatsApp or via the web. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask our staff. We will be pleased to assist you.
In the days following the procedure, in order to ensure the best post-operative care for your hair transplant, you should observe these guidelines:
- Eat normally and take the medication that will be given to you by the doctor after the hair transplant. Follow our doctors’ instructions exactly when taking these medicines.
- Avoid drinking alcoholic beverages for 48 hours after the procedure.
- You will have to wait 5 to 10 days for sun exposure, according to the doctor’s instructions. After that time, you can wear a cap (preferably with UVA protection).
- Sleep at an angle of 30 to 45 degrees, lying on your back with a pillow under your head. Sleep on your back for the first three days.
- The first four days after the hair transplant you should rest relatively. Avoid strenuous physical exertion for the first two weeks.
- If you notice that a grafted stitch bleeds during the first 24 hours, simply compress the stitch with gauze until the oozing stops.
- You will be able to resume your normal hair care routine two weeks after the hair transplant.
- Minoxidil can be reapplied 10 days after the hair transplant.
- The hair dye can be reapplied one month after the hair graft.
- Clippers should wait up to 2 months after the operation.
Unlike other transplants that use organs or tissues from another human being, the follicles we graft in hair transplantation are not rejected because the body recognises them as its own. However, the success rate depends, among other things, on the capacity and expertise of the medical team and the aftercare. For example, smoking can negatively influence the success of transplantation.
Clínica Arencibia is a medical centre specialised in the treatment of baldness and high quality hair transplants. Our medical professionals analyse each case on a completely individual basis, to determine the needs of each patient, issue a diagnosis and recommend treatment alternatives, with their corresponding budget.
Each hair transplant operation is planned according to these needs and has different characteristics depending on the stage of baldness, the area to be covered, availability of hair in the donor area… It is a medical-surgical procedure tailored to each individual.
The implantation of the hair in the recipient area is the same in both techniques. The fundamental difference is in the way the hairs are removed from the donor site: in the FUSS technique, the procedure requires cutting a strip of skin with hairs from the donor site, which leaves a linear scar. In contrast, with the FUE technique, the hair follicles (groups of hairs) are carefully removed one by one.
On rare occasions, some areas of the hair transplant may require an additional touch-up session to increase density, reimplanting some follicular units, if your doctor considers that the objectives set with the procedure have not been met. It is a quicker procedure than the main transplant session, and must be performed one year after the first procedure. A touch-up is different from a second transplant: some patients need two interventions in order to cover all their baldness, or to modify the frontal hairline.
Hair transplantation is a surgical procedure. It consists of removing hair from some areas of the body (donor area) to transplant it in other areas where it has been lost (recipient area). It is a highly complex aesthetic procedure to achieve natural results. It also requires a good diagnosis to decide whether it is the best treatment for the patient, depending on a number of factors.
For some patients, there is not enough hair on the back of the head (donor area) to cover the full extent of the baldness. We must bear in mind that we cannot leave the donor area unpopulated because we would be creating a new problem. In these cases, transplantation may not be the best option, or may not meet the patient’s expectations. Therefore, it is important that each individual case is evaluated by a doctor specialised in hair transplantation. Only a transplant specialist can honestly advise the patient on the best possible treatments, their advantages and disadvantages, not only today, but for the future.
At Clínica Arencibia we are committed to achieving natural, safe and lasting results for our patients. Your physician will explain to you at the consultation what is the reasonable expectation of results that can be achieved, depending on your diagnosis. These are the results we are targeting. These are the results you can expect to obtain one year after your procedure.
The doctor will also show you cases similar to yours. After your transplant, in case you need to increase some follicular units in certain areas, our specialists can indicate a touch-up session. In no case is it possible to perform a second hair transplant within twelve months of the first transplant and without prior indication from your doctor.
There have only been two techniques for hair transplantation for more than fifty years: FUE and FUSS. Both procedures offer the same aesthetic results in the area where the hair is implanted. This is because the way the Follicular Units are implanted is exactly the same in both techniques. The difference between FUE and FUSS lies in the way the hair follicles are extracted from the donor area.
In the FUE technique (the technique chosen in most cases), we extract the follicles individually, one by one. With FUSS, on the other hand, a strip of skin is cut with hairs to be selected later by specialised technicians. At Clínica Arencibia we specialise in the FUE technique because of its superior advantages for the patient: it leaves no linear scar, facilitates a faster recovery and allows follicular units to be extracted from any area of the body.
The price of the hair transplant depends on the needs of each patient: state of baldness, area to be covered, follicular units that need to be extracted and implanted, if the patient requires a transplant without shaving… It also depends on the quality of the medical team and the facilities, equipment and materials with which the transplant is performed to obtain the best results.
Hair transplantation is a surgical technique that allows us to recover hair in areas where it has been lost. The operation consists of extracting groups of hair (follicular units) from certain areas of the body (donor areas) to transplant them to areas where there is no hair. The operation consists of extracting groups of hair (follicular units) from certain areas of the body (donor areas) to transplant them to areas where there is no hair. The supposedly new and revolutionary techniques that some hair clinics promote as a claim, are merely new instruments that make it easier or less easy to implant hair in certain areas and/or conditions (more hair at the same time), depending on the characteristics of the transplant.
A touch-up is a small procedure performed to increase the density in some area or to reimplant some follicular units that may have been lost. A second transplant is a new complete hair transplant operation. Some patients need it when the bald area to be covered is very large and cannot be performed in a single procedure. Other patients request modification of the frontal hairline performed in the first surgery.
The touch-up is included as part of the transplant for those patients who need it, at the discretion of their specialist. On the contrary, the second transplant is a complete new intervention. In both cases, the second intervention (either retouching or new transplant) must be performed one year after the first one.
No, hair transplantation is a painless procedure for the patient. The only time you may feel any discomfort is during the administration of the local anaesthesia.
Under normal conditions, transplanted hair does not fall out.
No special hair care is required prior to hair transplantation other than washing the hair and following the general recommendations of your specialist.
In most patients, a single hair transplant session is sufficient. However, in some patients with severe alopecia and/or a large area to be covered, two transplant sessions may be necessary, which should be performed at least six months apart.
The number of hair follicles for a transplant depends on the surface area affected by alopecia and the extraction capacity of the donor area. When making the diagnosis, your specialist will assess how many follicular units will be needed to cover your baldness with good results and if your donor area allows for the extraction of that amount of follicular units without being depopulated at the same time.
A maximum of 6000 follicles can be implanted in a single session, depending on the patient’s needs. But not everyone needs that amount of follicular units or has that amount available in the donor area without their removal leaving the area visibly depopulated. If a second procedure is necessary (provided there is sufficient donor area), it should be performed within a period of no less than 6 months.
After eight to twelve months, the patient will be able to see the definitive results of the transplant. In many cases, very noticeable results can already be seen after six months.
Hair grafting is a surgical procedure that takes between 4 and 8 hours to perform, depending on the amount of hair to be implanted in the session.
Basic recommendations for preparation before your hair transplant procedure would include:
- Continue with any treatment prescribed by another doctor that the patient may be taking (medication for blood pressure, heart, cholesterol, etc.) and inform the doctor responsible for the hair transplant. It should also mention herbal and naturopathic compounds.
- Inform the transplant specialist of any medical conditions you have, especially those related to clotting, scarring, heart disease, infections or allergies to any medications.
- In the days prior to the hair transplant, you should not take aspirin or NSAIDs (ibuprofen, naproxen, etc.). Paracetamol can be substituted, but if in doubt, please consult our doctors.
- If you use topical Minoxidil, you should not use it for 10 days before your scheduled transplant date.
- You should not drink alcohol in the 48 hours prior to the hair transplant.
- Try to get plenty of sleep the night before.
- On the day of the procedure, you should wash your hair thoroughly with your usual shampoo. Do not use hair styling products (hair gel, hairspray, gels or mousses).
- Go to the hair implant wearing a button-down shirt.
- On the day of the hair transplant, avoid coffee and tea for breakfast. And if you come to the consultation while driving, please notify our medical staff.
When it comes to finding a solution to your hair problem, the important thing is to have a good diagnosis that allows you to choose the best treatment to achieve the results you are looking for. At Clínica Arencibia, the diagnosis begins with a patient interview and a trichoscopy to identify the problem, its state of evolution and the most effective treatments. In some complex cases, a scalp analysis or biopsy may also be useful. From here, the specialist makes your diagnosis, discusses treatment options with you and issues a report compiling all this information.
Under normal conditions, and using appropriate instruments, the FUE technique leaves no visible traces of hair transplantation to the human eye. The FUSS technique leaves a linear scar, which is only visible if the hair is cut in the donor area.
The risk to the patient in a hair transplant is minimal. However, this is a surgical procedure and in any medical procedure there is a potential risk. For this reason, it is essential that the treatment is carried out by a reliable medical team with extensive knowledge.
Yes. After the hair transplant, the medical team at Clínica Arencibia will explain to you the care that you must put into practice and will give you written guidelines to follow. In addition, you will be able to contact the doctor directly whenever you need to, for any queries you may have.
For medical reasons there is no reason to stop working. However, if necessary, your hair transplant can be planned for a weekend.
Yes. With FUE hair transplantation, hair can be transplanted from the donor area to the head, eyebrows and even the pubic area.
It is not possible. If hair follicles were transplanted from other people, we would reject them almost immediately.
Not all people suffering from alopecia need or are suitable for a hair transplant, for various reasons. For this reason, when faced with a hair problem, the most important thing to do is to have a medical evaluation in order to make the correct diagnosis and consider possible treatment options.
First-line drug treatments for androgenetic alopecia (common alopecia) include 5-alpha reductase inhibitors (Finasteride and Dutasteride) and Minoxidil. These are treatments that are administered systemically/ orally.
In the case of dutasteride, it can be administered as microinjections into the scalp. This is known as hair mesotherapy. This technique has been identified by several scientific studies as an effective therapy to slow down the evolution of androgenetic alopecia (see references).
This hair mesotherapy technique attempts to obtain similar results to those achieved with the aforementioned oral 5-alpha reductase inhibitors, but minimising their adverse effects. In addition, Dutasteride injections increase the patient’s follow-up of the treatment because of their convenience: injections can be monthly, bimonthly, quarterly or even every four months, instead of having to use the drugs daily.
Yes, but a medical specialist should be consulted when choosing the most appropriate one for each patient. There are many treatments currently available on the market (vitamins, lotions, shampoos, etc.), but the vast majority have doubtful or no scientific evidence of their effects. However, we do have some treatments with proven medical results such as Finasteride, Dutasteride or Minoxidil.
