5 Things every hair stylist should know about coloring transplanted hair

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As early as the 1800′s, so-called “scalp flaps” where used to address natural balding. Today, hair transplantation has grown widespread for both men and women. While natural hair loss is more common among men, women are often faced with the challenges of dealing with hair loss too. Hair loss in women has been a fast growing problem for both the individual and their chosen beauty professional as the population has been aging, and medical advancement has been developing highly effective treatments for specific diseases that have proven to compromise other aspects of patient’s health such as their hair, transplantation has become a more and more popular option.

Hair thinning and balding of men and women

While there are some common characteristics of male and female hair loss, there are even more important differences. Most notably, hair loss has a much greater psychological impact on women than it does on men. While society generally accepts male baldness, female baldness shoulders the burden of being less feminine and therefore more difficult for society to associate with women. This is probably because baldness has traditionally been associated with the male hormone testosterone and its interaction with enzymes in the hair follicle converting it into the more potent androgen known as DHT which inhibits hair growth.

Today, experts have a better understanding of the causes of baldness in women but it will likely take more time for society to break the association. Another difference in female baldness is that it often leaves the front hairline in place while affecting the broader scalp in general causing thinning and sometimes patchy spots. When baldness is caused by medical procedures, the physical manifestations are more similar between the genders.

The growing popularity and effectiveness of hair transplants

There have been many attempts to overcome or manage baldness in both men and women. Over the past few years, hair transplantation procedures have proven to become the most highly effective way to combat hair loss in both men and women. The rapidly decreasing costs coupled with the advancement of technique, technology, and process; especially the progress made to virtually eliminate the recovery time and make hair transplantation an outpatient procedure, has made hair transplantation a quite common and popular solution for baldness for both genders. This popularity has caused the rapid proliferation of transplanted hair, and thus the need to color and care for such hair. This has presented a unique challenge for beauty professionals to deal with on an almost daily basis.

Information every hairdresser should know about treating or coloring transplanted hair

While primary cosmetology education has been struggling to keep up with this unprecedented important change in the characteristic of so many of our client’s hair, the responsibility for us as beauty professional to properly treat their special needs still falls squarely on our shoulders. The following list of must-know information regarding the professional color and care of transplanted hair represents the top five (5) things every beauty professional, especially those working with hair color, must know about treating transplanted hair.

1. The flow of blood to transplanted hair follicles is a result of surgical grafting which can pose different exposure risks when dealing with chemicals. Modern methodologies of hair transportation employ highly sophisticated and advanced techniques to harvest hair follicles from a donor site on a patient’s scalp and grafting them in the desired targeted areas. After grafting, the follicle cells reside in micro incisioned holes, similar to pin holes, created by the surgeon.   These micro-incisions may result in a new man-made risks of exposing the blood stream, complete with its own unique set of characteristics, to the chemicals found in hair coloring products. Research has shown that some chemicals found in many professional hair colors can be found in the blood stream within hours of applying them to a client’s scalp. The unknown access to the blood stream created by the transplanted hair follicles grafted to the scalp during a hair transplantation procedure is a difficult variable for a beauty professional to mitigate.  Therefore, special consideration should be exercised when determining the products applied to transplanted hair. We highly recommend strictly limiting the hair color products used on client’s with transplanted hair to those which openly disclose their full ingredient list.  As importantly, a beauty professional should understand the ingredients which they are applying to their clients scalp.  Organic Color System has their complete list of ingredients, along with the originating source each ingredient is derived from and the purpose and reason for including the specific ingredient in the product, published on their website. Organic Color Systems is also manufactured in the United Kingdom and uses Certified Organic Ingredients which stand up to the stricter scrutiny of the UK’s standards and regulations.
2. Transplanted hair follicles tend to be more vulnerable and sensitive to chemicals. It is common sense that transplanted hair follicles have endured more physical trauma than their naturally located comparable follicles. Because of this, these follicles will naturally be more sensitive to any irritants. Moreover, because of the simple and undeniable reason that these follicles have been intentionally grafted to their transplanted location, these follicles are irreplaceable and reside in a valuable location to the client. When treating these follicles, proper care should be exercised to protect them especially considering their sensitive, valuable and irreplaceable characteristic. Organic Color Systems uses a unique treatment delivery system that coats the hair shaft and follicle with oil and uses heat to deliver the color application.
3. Over time, transplanted hair can thin or demonstrate different characteristics than naturally-located hair in the specific area of the client’s scalp. Healthy looking hair is never more important than when dealing with transplanted hair. Despite the tremendous success of hair transplantation, variations in follicle angle, texture decided by the body’s DNA, and growth patterns can result in some thinning and change
   in the characteristics of the hair grown by the transplanted follicle. This makes it absolutely critical to minimize damage to the follicle and cuticle during a color treatment. ammonia is a corrosive chemical, used by many hair colors to corrosively open the surface of the cuticle so that the coloring pigment can attach to the hair shaft, which can damage the cuticle. When a cuticle’s surface is broken open, it is damaged causing hair to be more difficult to style, treat, and control. Organic Color System’s unique oil-delivery system has replaced the need for ammonia by gently swelling the cuticle rather than damaging the surface. Organic Color Systems maintains a healthier cuticle which makes it easier for beauty professionals to manage the variables introduced to a client’s scalp by hair transplant procedures.
4. Clients who have undergone hair transplant procedures will often present thinning in other parts of their scalp. There are specific techniques that beauty professionals may employ when dealing with transplanted hair which is often characterized with additional areas of the scalp that is or will be thinning in the future. For example, avoiding haircuts longer than shoulder length, choosing a hair color that will not impose a strong contrast with the scalp, and using highlights to add the appearance of movement, volume, and thickness are all methods successfully employed by the most skilled beauty professionals to deal with thinning hair. Organic Color Systems provides an ammonia-free and highly versatile full range of color, care, and curl products providing an incredible range of tools enabling professionals to exercise a refreshing degree of flexibility to yield the best possible results for their clients.
5. Clients with transplanted hair will be extraordinarily loyal once they find the right stylist. Remember, these clients have already made a significant investment in their hair and will expect and appreciate their selected beauty professionals to exercise due care when treating it. Such clients will appreciate, and pay for, products and services that address their distinct needs. Because hair transplantation clients will be among your most loyal and profitable clients, it is important that the products you use cannot be purchased through a retail chain or outside the salon environment. diversion of professional product is among the top reasons why salons lose valuable clients every day. Organic Color Systems is a professional-only product range which has never been sold to retail chains or anyone other than licensed beauty professionals. Please read our Non-Diversion Pledge for more details.

Whether the result of a medical treatment, a disease like anemia or thyroid disorder, or simply age; transplanted hair will become a more and more common challenge facing beauty professionals every day. As any challenge, it is also a tremendous opportunity. The sooner a salon prepare themselves for the specific needs of this high margin, extremely loyal type of client; the sooner it can capitalize on this unique but rapidly expanding market niche and associated opportunity for success.

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