Hair transplantation is a surgical procedure in which the following procedures are performed hair follicles are extracted from an area of the scalp known as the “donor area” and implanted in an area of the scalp with alopecia or thinning hair, known as the “recipient”. The goal of hair transplantation is to improve the appearance of hair and hair density in the recipient area. We share with you in our article some facts about What is hair transplantation?
Hair is extracted from areas where there is no genetic hair loss, such as the nape of the neck and sides of the head, and transplanted to bald areas of the scalp. This procedure is known as hair transplantation or hair grafting.
Table of Contents
- Introduction about What is hair transplantation?
- Initial stages of hair transplantation
- Advantages of undergoing hair transplantation
- First meeting with the surgeon.
- How should you prepare for the intervention?
- Where is the intervention performed?
- Description about What is hair transplantation?
- Why is the hair transplant procedure performed?
- How is a hair transplant performed?
- Pros and cons of hair transplants or hair grafts
- Surgeons with experience in capillary implantation
- Setting reasonable goals for hair implantation
- Having a hair implant requires surgery
- What is the recommended number of sessions?
- Recovery
- Conclusions about What is hair transplantation?
Introduction about What is hair transplantation?
Hair transplantation is a surgical procedure in which hair follicles are removed from a donor area of the scalp and placed in a recipient area where hair loss has occurred. The goal of transplantation is to improve or restore the hair growth pattern in the recipient area. The extracted follicles are individually placed in the holes made in the recipient area, allowing the hair to grow naturally. Hair transplantation is an option to treat baldness or alopecia.
Initial stages of hair transplantation
In the first stage that considers 2 to 3 weeks after the hair graft, the hair will grow and will fall again. The transplanted hair grows back in 2 to 6 weeks, the grafted hair maintains the same color and characteristics of its original area. The effects are long lasting and permanent, you will be able to style your hair as you have always done.
Hereditary baldness is often treated with hair transplantation, which consists of:
- Extract follicular units from the sides and back of the head, where the follicles are not genetically charged and weakened, and implant them on the top of the head. It is essential that the physician is able to explain to each patient what expectations can be achieved given the surface to be covered and the available donor area. Just because someone has hair on their sides and back does not mean they are aware of what they are capable of.
- Male and female hair loss is a serious aesthetic and emotional problem. However. Hair grafting can also be used to restore eyelashes, eyebrows, beards, body hair and to fill scars left by accidents, burns or surgery. In the case of androgenetic alopecia, or typical male baldness, it implies an older appearance and loss of facial proportion, and recovering this aesthetic proportion is the main objective of this procedure.
The most avant-garde methods consist of taking the hair as it is being born and implanting it. This technique is known as F.U.E. (follicular unit extraction). With this technique, the follicular units, which have one to four hairs, are extracted.
Because local anesthesia is used to numb the extraction and implantation sites, there is no pain associated with the transplant procedure. The FUE technique is one of the most popular methods and one of the most offers better results because the follicular units are extracted and implanted one at a time, ensuring a natural-looking result.
But the final result of the transplant depends largely on the amount, density and strength of the donor area, the tools used (sapphire technique) and the level of experience of the experts performing the transplant.
Hair transplantation is a fast, easy and safe procedure with the guarantee of effective and realistic results. Since local anesthesia is used to numb the extraction and implantation sites, as mentioned above, the procedure is painless.
In our clinic, patients can play their favorite music to help them feel as comfortable as possible during the procedure.
Scars are practically imperceptible, as long as the procedure is performed by experts using the appropriate tools. Both the execution and the results will be of high caliber.
Advantages of undergoing hair transplantation
- People with ongoing hair loss, particularly men with advanced or moderate baldness.
- Hair loss in women due to hormones.
- Those with baldness caused by scars or hair conditions.
- Patients who wish to fill out their pubic area, beard or eyebrows.
- In patients with incipient baldness or with poor or scarce donor areas compared to the area to be covered, hair transplantation is not recommended.
First meeting with the surgeon.
A complete medical history of the patient will be obtained during the initial consultation for a hair transplantation, and the surgeon will evaluate the quality and quantity of the donor area, as well as the degree and progression of baldness. in the case of Kbapel you will be able to see with a micro camera the quality of the follicles because although the appreciation by the common sight is sufficient, the micro camera could reveal in greater detail future complications.
It is recommended to bring photos of the original hairline because he will also examine it. Based on all this, he will choose the most appropriate time for the intervention. With this, the treating physician will be able to make a drawing of where the hairline started and based on the shape of the face, will be able to make a design as close as possible to the original. All this information is very useful to understand more clearly what is hair transplantation?
How should you prepare for the intervention?
To help the skin receive oxygen and heal properly, it is recommended to take any medication that has an impact on blood clotting or bleeding.
Where is the intervention performed?
In the hospital, hair transplantation is performed as an outpatient procedure. We use a muscle relaxant and local anesthesia.
Description about What is hair transplantation?
- A hair transplant involves moving hair from a densely populated area to areas with alopecia.
- A physician’s office is where most transplants are performed.
- Your scalp is numbed with local anesthesia.
- Shave the donor area, to be able to visualize the follicle root correctly, this is essential to avoid damaging any follicle as they are not renewable.
- They are manually extracted one by one and hydrated in blood plasma that keeps the follicle hydrated during the procedure.
- They are then grafted by doctors who must have optimal training and experience to mimic even natural swirls or direction of the beard, this will generate that the final result is natural, since natural follicles tend to have specific inclination and uniform density.
- The cleaning is performed on the areas to be grafted that will receive these healthy follicles. The receptor sites are what we refer to as these regions of the scalp.
- Healthy follicles are carefully inserted into the micro incisions. Hundreds or even thousands of hairs can be transplanted during a single treatment session, but it responds to the density that is possible to generate with the amount of hair in the donor area, this prevents the donor area from becoming excessively depopulated.
Why is the hair transplant procedure performed?
People who are balding or losing their hair can look and feel much better after receiving a hair transplant. This process cannot produce new hair. The only option is to move the hair you already have to the areas where you have alopecia.
Most patients who receive hair transplants have some degree of alopecia divided into 1, 2, 3, 4 male or female pattern, with hair loss on the top or front of the scalp. In order to have enough hair follicles to transplant, you must still have abundant hair on the sides or back of the scalp.
Hair transplants are occasionally used to treat people who have lost their hair due to lupus, trauma or other health problems.
How is a hair transplant performed?
Most hairs emerge from the scalp in groups of one, two or three hairs. Only 15 percent of the hair is single and the remaining 15 percent is in groups of 4 or 5. The basis of the transplant is formed by these discrete groups of hair, known as follicular units or follicular groups.
The whole process usually takes 4 to 8 hours, depending on the number of hairs to be grafted.
Pros and cons of hair transplants or hair grafts
The first thing to remember is that not everyone can have a hair implant or hair transplant. The first requirement is that the hair loss has been stopped, either naturally or by means of hair nutrition treatments that can be oral and topical, but these must also be prescribed by trichologists.
Alopecia manifests itself differently in men and women; while in men hair loss is concentrated in specific areas, in women it is distributed throughout the entire scalp. This makes gender another factor that affects the success of this procedure, in the most common case of alopecia known as androgenetic alopecia in men.
In addition, women’s hair does not respond uniformly to hair transplants that increase hair density because there are fewer hair follicles available for implantation and there is less hair present in different areas of the body.
Although most men are good candidates, this does not apply to women unless the alopecia affects small, clearly demarcated areas such as a scar or eyebrows and for all the reasons listed above.
Finally, it is important to point out that patients with dark, thick or curly hair will notice the results much more, as long as this curly hair is not extreme as in the case of patients with African descent, in that case they are practically never good candidates since the follicle tends to be curly and it is very difficult to extract it without damaging it, in the rest of the cases it is better since it gives the appearance of a denser capillary network.
Surgeons with experience in capillary implantation
Since many factors can affect the success of the procedure, the hair transplant must be performed by a very experienced and highly qualified surgeon and team. In the case of Kbapel, we have a team of doctors who own the clinic and love their work, and who have more than 10 years of experience performing the procedure and being international speakers at the international hair grafting association and trainers for other clinics worldwide. This helps us to ensure that the majority of follicular units survive both before and after the implantation procedure, it is essential to use the correct extraction technique and treat the extracted follicular units before reimplanting them. In addition, if the transplanted follicles are not distributed according to specific aesthetic criteria that allow the new hair to look completely natural, they may not be placed in the correct amount and location or at all.
Setting reasonable goals for hair implantation
A good specialist should fully inform the patient about the possible outcomes given his or her characteristics, avoiding unrealistic expectations on his or her part. And for women, this is especially significant.
This will be determined by the number of donor follicular units that are available and the amount of male follicular units that need to be repopulated.
The ideal hair density to obtain good results should be between 30 and 90 follicular units per cm2, and depending on the technique used, between 1,000 and 5,000 units may be needed in each session.
To obtain follicles from the sides in men with extremely severe alopecia, the strip extraction technique can be used and even combined with FUE. However, it cannot be expected to uniformly cover the entire alopecic surface.
With the technique used in Kbapel F.U.E. Sapphire is expected 98% survival of the transplanted follicles, in addition to this, the hair that grows in these areas will no longer fall out.
Having a hair implant requires surgery
Surgery is required for hair transplantation, but it is not painful because it is performed under local anesthesia. Postoperatively, however, it can result in complications such as infection, inflammation that can even cause pain or minor scarring in the region where the implant was performed. The postoperative period is much shorter with current techniques such as the F.U.E. technique and in a matter of 3 days the patient can return to normal daily activities, as long as sun exposure is minimized to less than 20 minutes in the first 2 weeks at least, and it is advisable to keep it that way for at least 3 months.
You should also note that, two to three weeks after the procedure, the hair from the transplanted follicular units usually falls out. However, since new hair will grow in three months and the roots will have become stronger, it should never be a cause for alarm and shock to the patient.
What is the recommended number of sessions?
The type and severity of baldness determines the number of sessions. A single session is usually sufficient for minor baldness, while two or three sessions are necessary for major baldness. The sessions should be spaced six to twelve months apart since the final result of a graft is 100% visible one year after the procedure. In some clinics it is advisable to do it in shorter periods but it depends 100% on each case which must be evaluated by a physician.
Recovery
Small scabs initially appear on the recipient areas and fall off after a few days. No sport should be practiced while the scabs are still present, and the grafted area should be washed only by dropping warm water with the bath in the first ten days.
After this period, the patient resumes his or her routine and can use shampoo, hair dye and other styling tools. During the first two or three days, the pain is manageable with standard analgesics. No bandaging is required and recovery is immediate.
You may not be satisfied with the appearance of the transplanted hair, so doctors should be very clear about the possible results of this procedure, and you need to be in good health if you intend to have a hair transplant.
Follow your doctor’s advice for scalp care and other personal care techniques. In order to ensure healing, this is especially crucial.
After the procedure, you may have a large surgical dressing or a smaller dressing that can be covered with a baseball cap for a day or two.
Your scalp may be extremely sensitive while recovering from surgery. Maybe you should take some painkillers. Although hair may appear to fall out after hair grafts, it will actually grow back.
After surgery, you may also need to take antibiotics or anti-inflammatory medications.
Conclusions about What is hair transplantation?
Generally speaking, hair transplantation is a safe and effective procedure, but as with any surgery, there is a risk of complications such as infection, bleeding, scarring or problems with hair growth. It is important to speak with a plastic surgeon or hair transplant specialist before deciding if this procedure is right for you. In addition, the result is not immediate, the hair growth process is progressive, it will require time and patience to notice the results.
Perfil del Autor
- Manuel es un Diseñador Gráfico con una sólida formación en marketing digital y analítica web. Graduado de la Universidad La Salle, posee una Maestría en Marketing Digital y Analítica Web de NeetWork Business School. Además, ha fortalecido sus habilidades con un certificado en Advanced Search Engine Optimization de la Academia SkillUp de SimplyLearn. Apasionado por el mundo digital, Manuel destaca por su interés en el Copywriting y la investigación profunda de diversos temas y áreas. Disfruta creando contenidos atractivos y relevantes que no solo son agradables de leer, sino que también cumplen con las mejores prácticas de SEO. Manuel está comprometido con la excelencia y la constante actualización de sus habilidades para brindar siempre la información más actualizada y efectiva. Siempre está dispuesto a ayudar a los visitantes a alcanzar sus metas en línea y a crear estrategias digitales exitosas.
