October 15, 2021
Getting a Hair Transplant After a Divorce
There are a lot of difficult times in our lives when stress can be overwhelming. During those times, it can sometimes feel like everything is hitting at once. At the Hair Restoration Institute, we often hear how stressful situations have been made so much worse by hair loss. What’s more, noticing thinning hair can become even more upsetting after going through a divorce, for many reasons. Thankfully, there are several effective hair loss solutions that help you take control of your life, such as hair transplantation.
So why does hair loss seem to happen during the most stressful times of our lives? It’s because stress can actually be a factor in hair loss. Here’s how.
The hair growth process
The first step to understanding why stress can cause hair loss is understanding the hair growth process. It all happens in the hair follicles, where the root of the hair is nourished by blood flow. New cells are formed that become the hair strand, which is pushed out past the surface as new cells grow.
Every hair follicle goes through stages that begin with hair growth, resting, shedding, and finally back to hair growth again. Stress alters the nourishment those hair follicles receive, and in extreme cases, they can even revert back into a resting phase. During this phase, hair no longer grows and detaches from the root, so it will eventually shed. When too many follicles are resting and shedding and too few are in the growth phase, thinning can start to become apparent.
Other reasons for hair loss
Genetics play a huge role in hair loss for millions of people, and hormones, which can affect hair follicles, also can cause hair loss. For others, medical treatments like chemotherapy temporarily cause hair loss or mental health conditions sometimes cause habits like pulling that exasperate the problem.
Although there are some more common causes that result in hair loss with similar patterns, not everyone’s hair loss experience is the same. In some cases, there are several factors that work together to create hair loss.
Reasons to treat hair loss after divorce
Divorce is just one example of a stressful life event, but we’ve found that many people decide to seek treatment for their hair loss after a divorce. The reasons vary, but may include:
- To regain confidence when returning to the dating scene
- To overcome hair loss that happened as a result of stress
- A desire to appear younger after becoming single in mid-life
- As a personal transformation – finally doing something just for yourself
- FUT or FUE hair transplantation
- Laser light treatments
- Custom wigs
- Scalp micropigmentation
- Hair loss prevention products
- Dermal Lens hair replacement systems
- PRP treatments
- FUT hair transplantation. FUT, or follicular unit transplantation, uses a strip of hair from the donor area and repositions it into the thinning area. The strip generally leaves a scar that can be seen only very close up, and since they’re taken from thicker areas of hair, they’re generally not visible.
- FUE hair transplantation. FUE, or follicular unit extraction, uses thin grafts with only one to three hair follicles from the donor area and meticulously transfers them into those thinning areas. FUE is generally more appropriate for people who wear their hair in very short buzz cuts since there is no visible scarring at all.
