Q: I am 24 years old and just starting to thin. I was told by another doctor that it was too early to have a hair transplant, but the hair on the back and sides of my scalp seems really thick. Shouldn’t I have a hair transplant now, just in case I am not a candidate in the future?

A: The most important criteria in determining who will be a candidate for a hair transplant is the presence of sufficient permanent donor hair. When hair loss is early, it is often hard for the doctor to determine this, since early on the donor area can appear very stable. It is not until the front and/or top of the scalp has significant thinning that the donor area may also show thinning. Therefore, it is only at this time that the stability of the donor area can adequately be assessed.

Click here to read the full post.

Q: Can I tell before I start to bald if I will be a candidate for a hair transplant.

A: Usually not. The main reason one is either a candidate or not is the stability (permanency) of the hair in the back and sides of ones scalp – the donor area. Since the top of the scalp usually thins first, if the top has not started to thin, the donor area will always appear to be OK. It is only when you have significant thinning on the front or top of your scalp can we actually begin to assess the stability of the donor area with any degree of accuracy.

Q: With the ARTAS^™ robotic system, by Restoration Robotics, what part of the FUE hair transplant procedure can actually be done by the robot?

A: The ARTAS System is a computer guided method of harvesting follicular units in the donor area during FUE. The initial phase of FUE, where the follicles are selected, scored and separated from the surrounding scalp is done by the ARTAS System. All other phases of the procedure including; actual follicular unit graft removal from the scalp, hairline design, recipient site creation and placement of the grafts into the balding scalp are done by the surgical team.

In the near future, improvements in the ARTAS System should allow it to be able to actually extract the separated grafts from the scalp. Eventually, the engineers hope to be able to increase the capability of the system so that it can create recipient sites and implant the extracted grafts into them.

Q: How does the ARTAS^™ robotic system actually work?

A: The ARTAS System for Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) combines several features including an interactive, image-guided robotic arm, special imaging technologies, small skin punches of two different sizes, and a computer monitor. After the system is positioned over the patient’s donor area of the scalp, ARTAS is capable of identifying and isolating follicular units from the surrounding scalp.

After the robotic arm is aligned with the follicular unit, a sharp 1-mm punch is used to cut through the upper part of the skin (the epidermis and upper dermis).

Immediately following this, a duller, 1.3mm punch is used to separate the deeper part of the follicular unit from the remainder of the dermis and subcutaneous fat. Once separated by the robot, the follicular units are manually removed from the scalp and stored until they are implanted into the patient’s recipient area.

Q: I hear you leave staples in sometimes up to three weeks. Why do you leave staples in that long?

A: My reason for leaving some staples in longer is that the tensile strength of the wound continues to increase (significantly) during the first three week period after surgery — actually, it will continue to gain strength for up to one year post-op. To give the wound the best chance to heal, on average, I take out alternating staples at 10 days and the remaining staples at 20 days.