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Follicular Unit
Transplant:
The concept of follicular unit transplants is
to relocate hair and their respective
follicles from the donor area (the safe zone
in the back and sides of the head) to the
recipient areas (front, top or crown of the
head,
eyebrows, eyelashes and facial
hair).
There are currently two methods to harvest the
donor hairs: The strip method or follicular
unit extraction.
Strip method: The strip
method involves removing a small strip of
hair, which may include thousands of
follicular units. The strip is then divided
into the individual grafts (follicular units)
by utilizing the stereoscopic microscopes for
magnification. It is essential to do this step
with the use of the microscope to avoid
damaging these grafts. Each of those graft
may contain a single, two or three hairs.
This type of dissection approach allows us to
transplant thousands of follicular units and
ultimately thousands of hairs in one surgery
at one time. A session may vary from few
hundred grafts to more than 5000 grafts in one
procedure.
This method will leave a tiny donor scar that
is covered by your surrounding hair. The only
time you could see the scar is if a patient
decides to shave the whole head.
We currently employ, on all
patients, a unique way of removing the strip
and closure, known as the
trichophytic scar. The advantage of this
scar closure technique is to allow the hairs
at the closure point to grow right through the
scar. This will add camouflage to the scar and
reduce its visibility.
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