Hair transplantation:Introduction
Hair transplantation is a surgical technique of medicine which involves movement of an individual’s live hair follicles with active hair roots from a body part called ‘donor site of hair grafts’ to ‘recipient site of hair grafts’.
Prior to a hair transplant procedure, a hair transplant surgeon determines the hair loss and marks the donor site with good hair growth and recipient site with noticeable hair loss on body parts of an undergoing hair transplant patient with a dark removable ink marker. It shows where to transfer hair grafts and where they are to be taken from individual’s body parts. We want to make it more clearly by giving you an example for it. Suppose a male individual contains good hairs on his posterior head but faces absolute hair loss on his crown. We mark his posterior head with good hair growth as ‘donor site’ for hair grafts and crown as ‘recipient site’ for hair grafts. If in a case the individual have no hairs on his head or experiencing total baldness then we consider recipient sites on his other body parts including beard or chest. Beard hairs are around three times thicker than scalp hairs, so they are good for head hair transplantation for male hair transplants.
It is a very first step of hair transplantation which is known as determination of donor and recipient parts of hair grafts for an individual. A computerized sketch of donor and recipient body parts for hair grafts of hair transplantation undergoing patient is also kept in records for further treatment information.
Hair transplantation was primarily used to treat male hair loss or male pattern baldness, however it is now implemented to cure all hair transplants through FUE hair transplant technique including beard hair loss, mustache hair loss, male eyebrows hair loss, female eyebrows hair loss, male eyelashes hair loss, female eyelashes hair loss, beard reconstruction, mustache reconstruction, eyebrows reconstruction, eyelashes reconstruction etc. This is hence used not only to baldness but also several hair transplants nowadays. It is also used to hair transplant in cases of accidents; face lifts, cosmetic surgeries of face and head.
Hair transplantation is quite different from skin grafting or cosmetic surgery as hair grafts contain all epidermis as well as dermis covering a hair follicle and several tiny incisions are made on recipients site to transplant these hair grafts rather than a strip of skin.
Each hair follicle in a hair graft usually contains one to four hairs and they grow naturally. There are two methods of hair transplantation depending upon extraction of hair grafts and their transplantation called FUT hair transplant technique and FUE hair transplant technique. FUT hair transplant technique is called Follicular Unit Transplant HT technique which involves extraction of a strip of skin usually one to two and half cm wide and ten to fifteen cm long with healthy hair grafts under a surgical operation. The hair graft on the strip of skin then separated through minute dissection and then transplant to recipient parts. FUT is now an old technique of hair transplantation and is used at rare hair transplant centers or hospitals across the world. FUT is also called Strip harvesting method of hair transplantation.
FUE hair transplant technique is known as Follicular Unit Extraction technique which is performed using punches with very minute diameters for extraction of live hair grafts from donor parts. These hair transplant punches are however very costly but efficient enough to prevent bleeding, scars and pain.
A hair transplant procedure
After determining the donor and recipient parts of a hair transplant patient, the hair transplant surgeon tells about the cost of hair transplantation which is generally based on number of hair grafts to be transplanted and surgical expenses. After agreeing to undergo a hair transplant procedure, the surgeon fixes the time for hair transplant surgery. If the hair transplant surgery requires up to 3000 hair grafts transplantation then it is performed during single sitting otherwise it is done in second sitting. One sitting of hair transplantation takes three to six hours, however second sitting is usually recommended next day. Prior to undergo a hair transplant procedure a patient must take preoperative precautions including prevention of alcoholic drinks, smoking, some medication etc. After hair transplant procedure the patient must have taken postoperative precautions of hair transplant at our Walia Hair Transplant Center-Walia Hospital, Ludhiana-India.
Hair transplant surgery
Hair transplant operations are performed on an outpatient base at our hospital under local anesthesia using FUE technique and mild sedation which generally takes around six hours. The scalp of the patient with hair loss is washed with clean water and shampoo and then treated with antibacterial liquid finally. Micro diameter hair transplant punches are then used to extract out healthy and live hair grafts one by one from donor parts in such a manner that leaves no any scar after extraction of the hair grafts on donor sites. Generally one out of four to six hair grafts is extracted out with the help of punches or robotic device and then transplanted to recipient parts making minute incision in desired direction to give hairs a natural look.
In surgical operations under FUT technique we take a strip of skin from donor parts and then make stitches on it to join the skin where the strip was taken surgically under mild anesthesia. We recommend FUE technique to our patients. FUE is quite good than FUT for several reasons.