Hair transplantation is the surgery wherein the hair lost inthe areas of scalp/beard is replaced by the hair taken from posterior aspect ofscalp/beard/chest/shoulders/abdomen/lower limbs. It is important to understandthat this definition is most recent of all. This was not possible few yearsback in the era of strip surgery as it was and is still not possible andscientific to take the strip from chest/shoulder/abdomen/lower limbs.
In Hair Transplantation only auto grafts (the grafts fromone’s own body) are used. Allografts (the grafts from different person) are notpossible till now. This limitation and the fact the number of donor hair graftsis finite means that this surgery should be meticulous, accurate, artistic, nowastage of grafts and more natural. The grafts once removed are not supposed togrow back once again and hence the grafts harvested should be handled withutmost care and placed cautiously.
There are different methods of doing this surgery which arebeing performed throughout the world. There were many techniques which wereused in past but are obsolete now, I won’t go into the details of thosetechniques. Currently, Follicular Unit Extraction (commonly known as FUE) &Follicular Unit Transplantation (commonly known as FUT) are the most commonlyused techniques. FUE is more commonly used technique & is preferred by mostprospective patients. The results of this technique are surgeon dependent.However, this stitch less technique has grown enormously in last decade.Robotic hair Transplants are also based on the principle of FUE. The results ofFUT are also great & surgeon dependent but many patients are little scaredof this technique & decline this technique in the first consultationitself. I would like to emphasise that the results of both these techniques aresurgeon dependent and also stress upon this fact that few patients fit into FUTcategory and FUE cannot be an option for them and vice versa, these aspectsshould be discussed with your treating doctor.
After this brief introduction I would like to discuss theartistic aspect of this surgery. To make this understand better consider thatyou have got different sizes of blocks which fit into each other and you areasked to make a beautiful house out of it. Making a perfect design needs betterunderstanding and & skill to execute it. The grafts are just like theseblocks & the arrangement of these grafts in more natural manner makes thehair transplant look more natural & aesthetically pleasing. As the hairgrows in follicular units, nature has provided us single, double, triple andeven more haired grafts. These different haired follicular units are just likedifferent sizes of blocks which are needed to make the beautiful outlook of thehouse. The proper placement of single hair grafts is exceptionally important toproduce a natural looking hairline zone. The depth at which the grafts areplaced is also very critical to get the aesthetically appealing result. Theplacement of double, triple, and multi haired grafts is also important andshould always be behind the single hair grafts in the hairline zone. The angle,direction and curl are also very important factors to determine the finaloutcome of the hair transplant. Theangle of the hair can be coronal or sagittal. The direction of hair depends onarea of the scalp & is forwards with increasing angle as we go backwardsfrom hairline. The curl of grafts should always be downwards as seen naturally. Combined all these adjustments makes theresults of this surgery most attractive and unnoticeable.
Keeping all these factors in mind the prospective patientsshould look for a qualified & experienced hair transplant surgeon to makethe best out of the surgery.
Dr Ummer Yaseen is working as Assistant Professor in theDepartment of Dermatology, GMC Anantnag.