hair transplantation involves taking strands of permanent-growth areas from around your head and transplanting them onto areas with sparse or no hair growth, commonly called bald or thin spots on your head.
Modern techniques use the extraction of individual follicular units grouped naturally, creating a natural look for hair restoration and guaranteeing that any new growth follows its original direction.
Donor Area
Hair transplantation involves transplanting healthy full-size and vigorously growing follicles from your donor area – known as your donor zone – into areas of balding or thinning, such as your frontal hairline, using carefully chosen grafts matching color, texture, and density.
Your surgeon uses binocular stereo-microscopes to trim off a strip of hair-bearing scalp from the back and side of your head, which will then be microscopically divided into follicular units for transplant into areas where hair loss has taken place. They may use various methods of extracting these follicular units from your scalp – for instance, strip extraction (Follicular Unit Transplantation or FUT), needle punch grafts, or cutting into thin slits (slit grafts).
Your surgeon may perform flap surgery on the donor site to increase the number of follicles available for transplanting, known as flap surgery. With this technique, three sides of the donor area will receive superficial cuts while leaving one intact for blood supply reasons; then, this flap can be lifted over areas that need restoration, such as bald or thin spots on your scalp.
Preparation
As part of your preparations for hair transplant surgery, one of the most essential steps is washing your scalp thoroughly to eliminate any dirt, oil, or debris that may prevent healing after the procedure.
Before surgery, it is advisable not to cut your hair. This allows the total growth of your locks after the procedure to cover any stitches left by surgeons and cover any scarring that might result. Furthermore, hairstyles that pull tightly on the scalp or force surgeons to use razor blades could increase scarring significantly.
Follicular Unit Strip Surgery (FUSS)
Follicular Unit Strip Surgery (FUSS) is an increasingly popular hair restoration technique. Under this process, your physician removes and sews closed a 6-to-10-inch strip from your scalp before sewing it closed with stitches – leaving a fine line that won’t show through even with shorter haircuts. Following that procedure, microscopically divide the strip of tissue containing one to three hair follicular units between one and three or more hairs in each follicular unit containing multiple follicular units containing one to three or more inches per follicular unit strip surgery Extraction.
Extraction
Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) is the practice in which individual hair follicles are removed from your scalp using a sterile surgical punch of millimeter size; then, these extracted units are implanted into areas with bald or thin spots. FUE has become increasingly popular, allowing people to keep their hair short without leaving noticeable scars behind.
Our surgeon employs the latest motorized follicular unit extraction device, which is significantly advanced from previous punch technology. This enables us to extract many more daily grafts that would have been difficult or even impossible using manual techniques alone.
Recent advances also enable surgeons to minimize buried grafts that lie dormant under the skin but must be extracted for optimal results. This feature is essential for patients who have already undergone strip surgery and now bear wide or thickened linear scars that must be addressed effectively.
Transplantation
Once your hair restoration surgeon has assembled the grafts, they’ll use a blade or needle to create tiny holes or slits in your scalp before carefully placing each graft. This process may occur during one treatment session alone and could involve placing hundreds or even thousands of grafts!
As part of their efforts to help your scalp heal, doctors typically cover transplanted areas with a bandage or cloth for at least 48 hours; some doctors allow their patients to recover without wearing anything.
Older harvesting methods would have caused a linear scar from cutting away at your scalp’s bald section, leaving behind an ugly linear scar that was left behind only where necessary. Modern techniques allow your hair restoration surgeon to harvest using more petite strips of skin while transplanting individual follicular units in natural groupings, leaving only fine linear scars behind where necessary – This method also maintains your original hair growth pattern; multiple hair transplant sessions may be required to achieve your desired results.
