Head
A hair transplant, which moves hair from one place to another on your head, can be done in several ways. The most common way is grafting. To be a good candidate, you’ll need to have thicker areas of hair on your head. Permanent hair loss can happen due to several reasons, including types of alopecia.
How does a hair transplant work?
The healthcare provider takes grafts, or small pieces of skin, from areas of the body that contain healthy hair. Healthcare providers call this area the donor site. It’s usually on your head, at the back of your scalp where hair tends to be thickest. The healthcare provider moves the grafts to hairless parts of the scalp. Once the transplanted skin heals, it should continue to grow hair.
How is grafting performed?
Hair grafting is the most common type of hair transplant surgery. A healthcare provider cuts tiny pieces of the scalp containing healthy hair. Sometimes they use a small, round punch to remove skin that contains about 10 to 15 hairs. People used to call these grafts “hair plugs.” Micro-grafts contain one to two hairs.
The procedure can take several hours. Most people stay awake during the surgery, but they receive medication to numb the scalp. You may need several procedures depending on how much hair your provider needs to move. Your scalp will need to heal for a few months between procedures.
How is scalp reduction performed?
Providers also call scalp reduction alopecia reduction. During this procedure, a surgeon removes a small area of bald skin from the scalp. They loosen nearby skin containing hair and pull it over the bald area. Then, they stitch it in place.
Scalp reduction is ideal for bald areas on the top and back of the head. These sections are usually surrounded by skin with hair. Sometimes providers use scalp reduction and hair implants together to achieve full coverage. Like grafting, scalp reduction usually only requires numbing medication on the scalp. This means you don’t need general anesthesia.
How is flap surgery performed?
Your surgeon may recommend flap surgery if you have large bald areas near the front of your scalp. Flap surgery occurs in several phases over a few weeks. The surgeon makes superficial cuts around three sides of donor site. The fourth side remains attached, maintaining its original blood supply. This technique helps the surgeon cut the flap and lift it over bald areas. Flap surgery requires general anesthesia.
(Modern technique of hair transplant) Follicular unit extraction (FUE). This approach is done by harvesting complete follicular units one at a time from the donor area. FUE is less painful, which may explain why it’s the more commonly performed procedure
Follicular unit transplantation (FUT). For this approach, a surgeon cuts a small strip of tissue from the back of the head and removes the hair follicles from that tissue.
A follicular unit is a small grouping of several hair follicles that may emerge through the skin through the same exit point.
Both procedures take anywhere from 2,000 to 5,000 hair follicle grafts or more from the back of the head, usually level with your ears, or a little lower, and implant them on the face.