Hair Transplant: What is it? Preoperative Preparation, Risks, Procedure and Techniques

Hair loss is a concern in the world today. Over the years, natural products and various therapies have been administered to prevent them from falling.

Today surgery to reverse baldness is the hair transplant and is the most common cosmetic surgery procedure.

A hair transplant, also called surgery for hair restoration or hair implantation restores the capillaries through a transplant of follicles in the areas of baldness or thinning.

It is usually used to correct baldness or alopecia. These healthy follicles are removed from other areas of the skin.

This graft is usually done by taking the follicles from the sides and the back of the head with a piece of skin or with individual strands, transferring the hair follicles from a high-density area to a low-density one.

The choice of the nape area is because there, the follicles have hormone receptors that are not affected by enzymatic overactivity and are usually less susceptible to the hormones that cause androgenic alopecia.

In this process, the follicles do not lose their functional characteristics when transplanted, so they will allow the average birth and growth of hair in the place where they are implanted.

 

The posterior and lateral areas of the head are genetically programmed to grow throughout life, so once grafted into other sites do not fall and continue to grow normally.

There are very few hair transplant cases in areas other than the scalp. However, it is possible to use this procedure to recover density in areas such as eyebrows or beards.

Only hair follicle transplants of the same individual or an identical twin have been performed.

Preoperative preparation

As is usual in all surgical procedures, capillary transplantation requires adequate prior preparation. First, an evaluation must be done to determine the exact cause of the baldness.

A review of the density and quality of follicles that have the areas where they are taken should be carried out, and an important point is an analysis of the general health conditions of the patient.

The preoperative rigor tests will be performed: Cardiac evaluation, blood count, and coagulation tests, among others.

Before the intervention, the patient must follow the following recommendations:

  • It must be protected from the sun’s rays.
  • Avoid the use of anti-inflammatory drugs and vitamin supplements and not smoking or drinking alcoholic beverages.
  • A proper diet
  • Stay away from stress.

Hair transplant risks

It is an outpatient procedure that is performed under local anesthesia. The risk of complications during surgery is minimal.

Process

The usual thing is that the surgical work is carried out in four steps:

Extraction from the donor area of ​​the follicle: Extraction of the hair follicle from the donor area is performed, usually from the neck area.

The separation and preparation of the hair follicles: This step will depend on the technique used to perform the hair transplant.

In the micro hair graft strip, the follicles are in a single strip, and each one of the follicles must be separated with the help of a microscope.

In the micrografting technique of individual hair, the follicles are already separated, and only the preparation necessary to carry out the transplant should be carried out.

Hair follicle implant: Each hair follicle is implanted in micro holes made in the scalp, less than 1 mm. Previously, a design must be made that allows the strands to be inserted and achieve a final appearance that looks natural.

Minimum age: To perform a hair transplant, the minimum age is 25 years. In general, the patient must enjoy a good state of health. The transplant results are not always adjusted to what is desired, and its repetition is necessary.

Hair transplant techniques

In hair transplants, two techniques are currently used: Micro grafting of hair in strips and micrografting of hair of individual extraction.

Microtechnique of hair graft in the strip: In this technique, an area or strip of the scalp of the neck is removed, with an approximate surface of 1 cm wide by 15 to 20 cm long. Subsequently, each hair follicle unit is removed and then implanted in the recipient area of ​​the transplant.

The incision that is made is sutured and hidden with the same hair.

The technique of micrografting of hair of individual classical extraction: In this technique, each follicular unit is removed separately. To carry out this procedure, a circular scalpel is used. Then these follicles will be implanted one by one in the scalp.

Micro-grafting technique of individual extraction hair with device: It is similar to the micrografting method of unique classical hair extraction, but an automated machine is used instead of the circular scalpel. This procedure is much more effective and minimizes damage in the donor area.

There are some advantages to hair transplant methods. Regarding the results, if it is in the hands of specialists, there are no differences. They can be equally extraordinary.

The main advantage of the micro-grafting technique of individual extraction hair concerning the method of micro-grafting of hair in strips is that there are no scars visible in the donor area.

In the same way, by not extracting the follicles in strips, the donor area maintains its density.