Hair Transplant | Introductive Article

Hair transplants represent the surgical solution to hair loss.

The hair doesn’t grow in singular units but in groupings called “follicular units”.
During a hair transplant the surgeon harvests the grafts from a “donor area” and places them into microscopic incisions created in the so-called “recipient area”.

The procedure is characterized by three main phases: graft harvesting, creation of the recipient incisions and graft placement. Every step is essential to carry out a successful hair transplant.

The aim of the surgeon is to meet the patient’s expectations by obtaining a natural and dense look.

Over the last 10 years every aspect and detail of the procedure has been developed and modified to offer satisfying results.

As we said before, the first step of the hair transplant is the extraction of the grafts from the donor area. This procedure can be performed using two different methods: FUT (also called Strip) and FUE.

In case of FUT procedure, a strip of skin is removed from the donor area. It is essential to carry out this operation very carefully so as not to damage the grafts and aiming at creating the smallest scar possible.

First of all it is necessary to identify the safe area, that is the area where the hair is meant to last forever. At this point it is necessary to shorten the hair and it is possible to remove the strip.

The FUE extraction is different from the FUT extraction because of the way the grafts are obtained from the donor area. Through this procedure each follicular unit is extracted individually using a micro-punch, whose dimension ranges from 0,7 mm to 1,0 mm. The punch creates a small circular incision around the upper part of the follicle so that it can be extracted from the skin leaving a small hole.

The surgeon does this operation over and over again until they have enough grafts.

The second and third steps are basically the same for the two techniques.

The second step is the preparation of the recipient area. The surgeon’s experience, skills and artistic sense play a fundamental role during this phase. Naturalness and density are defined during this phase since the surgeons plans the grafts’ distribution by evaluating the quantity of grafts, the dimension of the recipient area and the patient’s expectations.

Besides carefully evaluating all these aspects, the surgeon has to successfully create thousands incisions. The aim is to allow the grafts to survive without damaging the existing hair and paying attention to creating the right angles.
These incisions are created using blades whose dimension varies according to the characteristics of the follicular units of the individual.

Some surgeons use a tool called “implanter pen”. It extracts the follicular unit and makes it possible to place the graft without the need to create an incision.

The final step of a hair transplant is the graft placement. Also during this phase the surgeon’s ability and experience play a fundamental role to avoid traumas and damages to the grafts.