What You Need To Know About Hair Transplant

A hair transplant is a procedure in which hair is redistributed into hairless or thinly haired areas. Since the hair roots come from the patient himself, it is also known as a hair transplant. New hair roots can be planted in the scalp or in the area of ​​the eyebrows, beard hair or pubic hair. Read all about hair transplant, when to do it, and the risks. Read about hair transplant costs here.

Hair Transplant: FUE (Follicular Unit Extraction)

Nowadays, the so-called FUE hair transplantation (Follicular Unit Extraction) is used, currently the only minimally invasive and therefore gentle method of hair transplantation.

Human hair grows in natural bundles that contain one to five hairs – so-called follicular units. With FUE, the doctor not only removes a hair root, but a complete FUE.

When to do a hair transplant

A hair transplant can help patients with the following diseases:

  • Hair loss caused by hormones in men and women
  • Hereditary forms of hair loss
  • Scarred hair loss (for example after accidents, burns, operations or radiation)

Many of these diseases require a hair transplant to improve body image: a receding hairline can be replenished, a back hairline be moved forward. A beard transplant can help men who are compromised, for example, from a burn from bald spots.

Hair transplant with FUE

Before the operation, the entire area of ​​the hairline is shaved. Now the doctor cuts the skin around the hair root groups with hollow needles. The hair groups are exposed with two tweezers and then pulled out. The extraction point usually does not have to be sutured with FUE; the wound that is left heals on its own.

The grafts are kept moist in cooled solutions under the microscope and prepared – because if they dry out, the hair roots die off. Unsuitable hair is sorted out. To insert the hair, the doctor creates tiny channels in the skin with a fine needle, in which he places the hair follicles. They heal on their own and do not need to be fixed.

Hair transplantation with conventional technique (strip technique)

With the strip technique, the doctor cuts a strip of skin with the hair growing on it from the patient’s scalp. He closes the extraction point with sutures or staples. The individual hair follicles are now carved out of the strip of skin, which the doctor then implants in the bald areas as with FUE.

Since the stripe technique creates a larger scar, FUE is preferred today because of its better aesthetic result.

What are the risks of a hair transplant?

Women and men who wish to have a hair transplant need to be informed of the possible dangers of the procedure. Although complications are rare with a properly performed hair transplant by an experienced doctor, bleeding can occur, for example, if the punctures are too deep. As a result, severe swellings often form in the first few days after hair transplantation, which can extend into the facial area. Swelling of the eyelids in particular is a nuisance for the patient, but not dangerous.

The human scalp is very well supplied with blood. Since germs and bacteria mainly settle in areas with poor blood circulation, the risk of infection with hair transplantation of scalp hair is only low.

After a hair transplant, many patients experience numbness or tingling sensation in the surgical area, which usually disappears on its own after two to four weeks. Sensory disturbances of this kind rarely persist for several months.

𐌢