DHI: The Revolutionary Treatment Restoring Egypt's Hair

We all care about our hair, but some unfortunate souls start losing their hair as they enter adulthood, making them feel older than they actually are. Unfortunately for citizens in developing countries, aesthetic medicine can be inaccessible, unless you’re a billionaire heir/heiress who can afford to seek treatment abroad. Good news! There is an end in sight to the Egyptian excessively-shiny-sweaty-bald-spot syndrome, as Egypt welcomes its first DHI Medical Group franchise licensee. Wanting to learn more about about baldness in Egypt is a growing or receding trend, we reached out to Professor of Plastic Surgery at Cairo University, Harvard Medical School Fellow, and DHI Egypt Medical Director Dr. Ibrahim Naguib. With over 45 years of research, the global franchise’s patented and most medically advanced hair transplant technique, Direct Hair Implantation, has helped millions of people restore their heads of hair, including former Barcelona footballer Ronald De Boer. According to a Palacky University study, baldness affects 30 percent of 30-year-old men, 50 percent of 50-year-old, and 73.5 percent of men older than 80 years of age. Research also shows that around 45 percent of women will suffer from some degree of female pattern hair loss by the time they hit the big 50. And even though some shrug it off, especially men who content themselves with the belief that baldness is a sign of virility – which isn’t always the case, there is no silver lining to hair loss. Between 2004 and 2008, the number of people seeking professional treatment for hair loss more than doubled, going from 361,077 to 811,363. Dr. Ibrahim Naguib has practiced plastic surgery in Egypt since 1986, and although perfectly qualified to treat baldness and hair loss, the ecosystem never really helped. “A lot of patients would come to me seeking hair implantation but we never really had the technology here in Egypt, so most of them would travel abroad to get the procedure done,” he says. Hair transplants in Egypt usually result in toupée-looking shiny plasticky hair à la Donald Trump; “there is some kind of artificial hair on the market called biofibre that’s implanted in the scalp and it gives plastic results,” Dr. Naguib explains, adding that synthetic hair implants have actually been banned in most countries with the exceptions of a few countries, including yours truly!Unlike biofibre transplants, direct hair implantation guarantees natural-looking results as the painless procedure consists of implanting the patients’ own follicles into their bald spots. Another reason why your eyes would totally miss it is the level of precision and infinite meticulousness applied in performing the procedure, and the fact that it leaves no scars. “To have normal-looking results, the most important area is the hairline. Hair doesn’t grow at full density at the front of the scalp, it starts with rows of thin hair then the density increases,” he explains. “This is very important in the DHI technique, so that you never know that this hair is implanted.”Sounds awesome? Well, that’s because science is awesome! In most cases, only 50 percent of the implanted hair is guaranteed to survive, results that are acceptable by the medical community, but DHI guarantees a 90-95 percent survival rate. “This is not just a figure, this is a measured guarantee, because we measure the density of the hair before the procedure and one year after, so it’s based on that,” Dr. Naguib states. “This is due to proper diagnosis and proper selection of the patients, we don’t just take on anyone because the procedure is not going to work for everybody.”

The procedure can only be performed by certified doctors. According to DHI Egypt Managing Director Naguib Rizk, only certified doctors are licensed to operate on a patient. “All the doctors who perform the procedure are certified by the London Hair Restoration Academy, which DHI owns,” he asserts. “They have to perform a minimum number of procedures before they’re allowed to treat DHI patients.”Sadly, as with everything in life, not everyone is an eligible candidate for the procedure. If the back of the scalp doesn’t have enough hair follicles to transplant from, for instance, Direct Hair Implantation is not possible. So an alternative therapy would be Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP), which is performed by drawing platelets from the patient’s blood, activating, then re-injecting them into the scalp. “They are what we call the factories of growth factors in the body, they stimulate cell growth,” Dr. Naguib says. “They improve the condition of the hair and of the scalp itself, and enhance the growth cycle of each hair.”   

Another treatment available at DHI Egypt is micropigmentation, by which the scalp is pigmented to match the patient’s hair colour. “This is for people who aren’t candidates for hair implantation. Micro pigments in the empty areas of the scalp reduce the appearance of baldness.”

So, whether you have little or no hair, and whether you are going for a big hairdo or the rugged - and hopefully reformed - skinhead look, DHI offers solutions tailored around your needs and wants, and one that is based on a thorough diagnosis. 

No hair? Check out DHI Egypt on Facebook and through their website.