People shown before-and-after pictures of hair transplant recipients rated men with more locks as looking more attractive and younger, researchers found. People also thought the men looked more successful and approachable after the procedure.
"It was satisfying to us," said senior author Dr. Lisa Ishii, of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. "I definitely don’t want to be doing a procedure on people that doesn’t make a difference."
Hair transplant procedures vary by doctor, Ishii told Reuters Health. Generally, individual hairs are taken from the back of the head to fill out areas of the scalp with hair loss.
"We’ve been doing these procedures for years and everyone assumes it does something for your appearance, but we never measured that," she said.
The lack of data on how much hair transplants may improve a person's image was bothersome to Ishii, because patients would ask for specific estimates.
In an attempt to get objective opinions on men's appearances before and after the procedure, she and her colleagues asked 122 volunteers - 58 men and 64 women - to view 13 pairs of images. Seven pairs showed men before and after having had a hair transplant; the other six pairs were of men who didn't have a hair transplant or any other significant cosmetic procedures between the two photographs.
The participants were asked to rate each image on age, attractiveness, successfulness and approachability.
The reviewers thought the men who'd had hair transplants looked about four years younger in their "after" photos. They also thought the men looked more attractive, successful and approachable after their procedures.
"It showed there were measurable improvements on measures that are meaningful to the patients," she said.
