A standard hair transplantation procedure involves the removal of donor
strip of hair from the back of the head from where the follicular unit
grafts are dissected under a microscope. These grafts are then
preserved in saline and are then transplanted on a bald patch on the
crown area of the scalp.
Given the time consuming and tedious nature of this procedure, a hair
transplant surgeon is often able to transplant only about 500 to 600
follicular unit grafts per day. However, thanks to the recent hair
transplant advances, this technique is often replaced by the follicular
unit extraction (FUE). The cost per graft of FUE is typically twice the
cost of the standard follicular unit hair transplant procedure
discussed above but it is comparatively faster and minimally invasive. Some hair transplant advances
In a typical FUE procedure a small round punch is made in the donor
area to directly extract 1, 2, 3 and 4 hair follicular unit grafts. The
follicular units extracted using this process is typically referred to
as "blunt dissection" where a punch is made to envelope the entire
follicular unit separating it from the surrounding soft tissues.
Once the underlying follicular unit is separated from the surrounding
tissues, it is easily extracted using a small forceps. The small holes
left behind after the follicular unit extraction gradually heal over
the next few days and are not detectable to the naked eye once the
patient's hair grows out. The healing time is much less than the donor
strip extraction procedure.
While the FUE procedure has been adopted by most hair transplant
clinics, the standard strip excision method is still the most popular
hair transplant procedure because it is more economical than the FUE.
Moreover, due to some recent hair transplant advances such as the use
of trichophytic closure technique, the linear donor scar created by the
strip excision procedure is now often rendered almost undetectable to
the naked eye. This advancement in the hair transplantation technique
has made FUE procedure relatively less appealing. Hair transplantation research
Besides the hair transplant advances in the transplantation procedures,
a lot of research is also underway to clone the hair. If the hair
transplantation research is successful it will be possible to make
several copies of donor hair in the laboratory. The application of this
technique would be used in the form of hair transplantation. In the
traditional procedures, the biggest limitation is often the donor which
is not able to meet required density. However, hair cloning promises to
overcome this problem by having the amount of hair required to be grown
in a laboratory from a single donor hair and then implanting it into
the scalp.
Hair transplantation research for cloning is very difficult and there
are many hurdles that have to be overcome regarding the safety and
cosmetic characteristics of the cloned hair. Some hair transplantation
research has also provided breakthrough for some hair loss medication
like Dutasteride.
About the Author
Michelle Hudson is involved with research on hair transplantation.
She regularly writes articles to inform people about the latest
advancement in hair transplantation. More information on the topic can
be found at www.hairtransplantation.info.
