Type of Surgery
Information
Last updated: 11/24/2009
Hair transplantation surgery is performed by a physician with specialty training in plastic surgery or, less commonly, dermatology. Each surgery lasts two to three hours during which approximately 250 grafts will be transplanted. A moderately balding...
man may require up to 1,000 grafts to get good coverage of a bald area; consequently, a series of surgeries scheduled three to four months apart is usually required. Individuals may be completely awake during the procedure with just a local anesthetic drug applied to numb the areas of the scalp. Some persons may be given a drug to help them relax or may be given an anesthetic drug that puts them to sleep.
The most common transplant procedure uses a thin strip of hair and scalp from the back of the head. This strip is cut into smaller clumps of five or six hairs. Tiny slits are made in the balding area of the scalp, and a clump is implanted into each slit. The doctor performing the surgery will attempt to recreate a natural-looking hairline along the forehead. Minigrafts, micrografts, or implants of single hair follicles can be used to fill in between larger implant sites and can provide a more natural-looking hairline. The implants will also be arranged so that thick and thin hairs are interspersed and the hair will grow in the same direction.
Another type of hair replacement surgery is called scalp reduction. This involves removing some of the skin from the hairless area and "stretching" some of the nearby hair-covered scalp over the cut-away area.
Health insurance will not pay for hair transplants that are performed for cosmetic reasons. Insurance plans may pay for hair replacement surgery to correct hair loss due to accidents, burns, or disease.
It is important to be realistic about what the final result of a hair transplant will look like. This procedure does not create new hair. Rather, it simply redistributes the hair that an individual still has. Chest hair has been experimentally transplanted onto the scalp. As of 2003, this procedure has not been widely used.
Advertisement
A physician shows the "up close" results of hair transplant surgery using the scalp of a patient. The hair replacement approach used mimics the natural direction of the hairs and shows the typical spacing of hair follicular units transplanted in the procedure.
In a hair transplant, plugs of hair and supporting tissues are removed from a donor area at the back of the head (A and B). Pieces of skin are removed at the front of the head, and grafts are placed (C). (Illustration by GGS Inc.)
Search
Other Information
Hair transplantation is a surgical technique that involves moving skin containing hair follicles from one part of the body (the donor site) to bald or balding parts (the recipient site). It is primarily used to treat male pattern baldness, whereby grafts containing hair follicles that are genetically resistant to balding are transplanted to bald scalp. However, it is also used to restore eye lashes, eye brows, beard hair, and to fill in scars caused by accidents and surgery such as face lifts and previous hair transplants. Hair transplantation differs from skin grafting in that grafts contain almost all of the epidermis and dermis surrounding the hair follicle, and many tiny grafts are transplanted rather than a single strip of skin.
Since hair naturally grows in follicles that contain groupings of 1 to 4 hairs, today’s most advanced techniques transplant these naturally occurring 1 – 4 hair "follicular units" in their natural groupings. Thus modern hair transplantation can achieve a natural appearance by mimicking nature hair for hair. This recent hair transplant procedure is called "Follicular Unit Transplantation."
Find a Qualified Specialist
Looking for a specialist?
Please enter your zip code.