Hair Grafts

When it comes to hair grafts there are several types to choose from, so it is best to consider which may be best for you before deciding to go ahead with the procedure. As with any form of cosmetic surgery, some of the hair grafts available are superior to others, so educate yourself about the various types of procedures and be sure to ask your plastic surgeon which is best for your personal situation and why this is the case.

The very first type of hair graft developed was the punch graft technique. Basically this is where circular or square plugs, consisting of ten to twenty hairs each, are removed from the hair bearing site and planted, one by one into small cylindrical or square holes in the balding region of the scalp. This is quite an old and outdated hair graft method which fails to duplicate the appearance of a natural, hair-bearing scalp.

Following on from this method of hair grafts were minigrafts or micrografts. In the case of minigrafts, the surgeon uses the scalpel to remove thin strips of hair-bearing scalp from the back and sides of the head and cuts them into small rectangles or circles of three to eight follicles each. These plugs are then inserted into shallow, already prepared, incisions on the scalp.

From minigrafts evolved micrografts, which involves one to three hairs being inserted into needle holes. This procedure has a number of advantages over the larger punch grafts, for example, less clumpiness on the scalp, faster healing and better hair growth, less scarring and more versatility. Both of these procedures are used to soften the front hairline and are meant to mask the “doll’s hair” appearance of larger hair grafts. The idea is that the fewer hairs per graft, the easier it is to achieve a more natural look. These procedures have also been shown to be safe and without serious complications.

Another procedure it that of linear or line grafts which involves the surgeon removing three to four milli-meter strips, or lines, of donor hair from the backs or sides of the scalp and transplanting these into a trench which has already been prepared in the bald area. The entire donor strip or a major part of it is then grafted onto the bald area. It will normally require several sessions to complete the procedure.

The newest and most advanced method of hair grafts is a procedure known as follicular unit transplantation. This is based on the fact that your hair grows in natural clusters of one to four terminal - normal - hairs each. These clusters are known as follicular units and each unit contains one or two vellus hairs, sebaceous glands, fat tissue and some collagen. In this type of hair graft the surgeon harvests hair in these naturally occurring units and grafts them to balding sections of the scalp. The aim is to place and distribute these units in such a way that cosmetically pleasing results are achieved, and with the patient receiving fuller looking hair, faster healing times, better hair growth, no pluggy, doll-like appearance and natural looking results.