Ex-All Blacks Rugby Player Israel Dagg Talks Hair Transplants

Football players and cricketers are perhaps the most high profile sports stars that come to mind when it comes to hair transplant surgery.

Now, former All Blacks rugby player Israel Dagg joins the ranks of Wayne Rooney and Shane Warne after going public with the results of his own hair restoration.

Two thousand grafts in eight hours

Thirty-year old Dagg opened up about his hair loss, discussing the "big procedure" he underwent in 2018, during an interview broadcast on New Zealand's The Hits radio station.

The Crusaders fullback admitted to the radio show hosts that he had "had some hair treatment done", before explaining his experience of the hair transplant process.

"They take little hair follicles from the back of your head, replant them into your head, and then it takes

like seven months for it to grow," he advised.

The procedure lasted for eight hours and involved a total of 2,000 hair follicles being harvested from his donor area and replanted into areas of thinning hair.

The reason donor hairs - those follicles which are taken and moved to thinner areas - are taken from the back of the head, or the sides, is that hereditary hair loss only affects the top of the scalp, from crown to hairline.

For people with Male Pattern Hair Loss, follicles in this susceptible area have a genetic sensitivity to a substance known as DHT, which causes the gradual thinning, receding and eventual balding associated with this common condition.

The hair follicles located beneath this area, around the back and sides of the scalp are immune to DHT's effects. As such, once they are surgically removed and grafted into areas of the scalp traditionally susceptible to DHT, they are able to grow hair normally due to this immunity.

As Dagg puts it, "it's normal hair, it just grows - it's going to grow forever".

Hair transplant aftercare

One crucial element of post-hair transplant care which Israel Dagg does not mention in his interview is the on-going role that hair loss treatment plays.

Original follicles in the whole vertex area remain susceptible to DHT.

This binds to them, slowly causing them to produce increasingly thinner hair through a process known as follicular miniaturisation, which also slows down hair growth.

This does not affect transplanted follicles but the original ones are still subject to this process.

As such, the hairs surrounding these grafts may continue to thin over time unless preventative steps are taken.

This is why many surgeons and hair loss specialists recommend using clinically-proven medications for preventing baldness and the unnatural results that shedding around the grafts may cause.

For anyone experiencing unusual levels of shedding or a drop in the normal volume of their hair, whether they are considering surgical intervention or not - after all, it is not necessary in many cases of men's hair loss - a consultation with a specialist can provide not only a professional diagnosis, advice and personalised treatment recommendations - it can also provide peace of mind.