Posts Tagged: Follicular Unit Transplant

Why Should Hair Transplant Doctor Measure Miniaturization in Donor Area Before Transplant?

November 17th, 2006

Q: Why should a doctor measure miniaturization in the donor area before recommending a hair transplant?

A: Normally, the donor area contains hairs of very uniform diameter (called terminal hairs). In androgenetic hair loss, the action of DHT causes some of these terminal hairs to decrease in diameter and in length until they eventually disappear (a process referred to as “miniaturization”). These changes are seen initially as thinning and eventually lead to complete baldness in the involved areas.

These changes affect the areas that normally bald in genetic hair loss, namely the front and top of the scalp and the crown. However, miniaturization can also affect the donor or permanent regions of the scalp (where the hair is taken from during a hair transplant). If the donor area shows thinning, particularly when a person is young, then a hair transplant will not be successful because the transplanted hair would continue to thin in the new area and eventually disappear. It is important to realize that just because hair is transplanted to another area, that doesn’t make it permanent – it must have been permanent in the area of the scalp it initially came from.

Unfortunately, in its early stages, miniaturization cannot be seen with the naked eye. To detect early miniaturization a doctor must use a densitometer, or an equivalent instrument, that magnifies the surface of the scalp at least 20-30 times. This enables the doctor to see early changes in the diameter of the hairs that are characteristic of miniaturization. If hairs of varying diameter are noted (besides the very fine vellous hairs that normally occur in the scalp), it means that the hair is being affected by DHT and the donor area is not truly permanent.

In this situation, a person should not be scheduled for hair transplantation. If the densitometry reading is not clear, i.e. the changes are subtle and the doctor is not sure, then the decision to have surgery should be postponed. By waiting a few years, it will be easier to tell if the donor area is stable. Having surgery when the donor area is miniaturizing can be a major problem for a patient, since not only will the transplanted hair eventually disappear, but the scar(s) in the donor may eventually become visible. This problem will occur with both follicular unit transplantation (FUT) and follicular unit extraction (FUE).

Topic: Donor Area

Tags: / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Posted by Robert M. Bernstein M.D. at 7:43 am

What is Hair Transplant Cost for Hair Plug Removal?

August 30th, 2006

Q: I was looking at your prices for repair work and you mentioned that you charge $75 per graft removed. I had a hair transplant and received follicular unit grafts (one-hair follicles) but I think my hair loss is going to continue so I might in the future want to remove them. Am I interpreting your fees correctly, or does this price apply to people who have had the plug like transplants?

A: The fee applies to the removal of plugs and includes graft (plug) excision, suturing of the site, dissection of the plug into individual follicular units and re-implantation.

Generally the best way to reverse a procedure of follicular unit transplantation is with laser hair removal. This is particularly true if the hair restoration was done properly and the underlying skin is normal. Alexandrite and diode lasers are the best for hair removal. Typically, there are too many small grafts in FUT procedures to make excision practical.

Removal via Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) will leave scars in a cosmetically important area. As an aside, if you received all “one-hair follicles”, your procedure was NOT follicular unit hair transplantation and may explain why you are unhappy and want to reverse it.

Visit the page on hair transplant costs and consultation fees for more information.

Topic: Repairs

Tags: / / / / / / / /

Posted by Robert M. Bernstein M.D. at 5:39 am

What is History of Hair Transplant Procedures?

July 31st, 2006

Q: Dr. Bernstein, I remember Senator William Proxmire. He was one of the first sort of high-profile people who had a hair transplant probably, what, thirty years ago, and to be honest with you, it wasn’t all that great. It looked kind of funny. Have we made any progress in the last twenty-five, thirty years?

A: When hair transplant surgery was first developed in the late 1950s, early 1960s, everybody was so ecstatic that it grew – that one could actually move hair from the back of the head to the top, and it would grow – that no one really considered either the long-term implications or the aesthetic aspects of the procedure. And the fact that the hair grew is actually a problem because it never went away when it was transplanted poorly.

Over the years the grafts have gotten smaller and smaller. So where in the ’60s and ’70s they were the size of pencil erasers, they gradually decreased in size until doctors were performing hair transplants using just a few hairs at a time. The major breakthrough came in the mid 1990s when we realized that hair doesn’t grow individually but grows in little tiny groups and these groups are called follicular units.

In modern hair transplant surgery (which began in 1995) hair is taken from the back of the scalp and moved to the front and top of the scalp in these individual groups of one to four hairs.

In this way the results can completely mimic the way hair grows in nature.

See the Follicular Unit Hair Transplant page on the Bernstein Medical – Center for Hair Restoration website.

Topic: Hair Transplant

Tags: / / / / / / / / / /

Posted by Robert M. Bernstein M.D. at 9:52 am

How Do You Determine Size of Hair Transplant Donor Strip?

July 3rd, 2006

Q: I am interested in FUT. How do you figure out how large a strip to use for the hair restoration when transplanting all follicular units?

A: The length of the donor strip incision is determined by the number of follicular unit grafts required for the hair restoration.

There are slightly less than 100 follicular units/cm2, so if a 1cm wide strip is used, a hair restoration procedure requiring 1800 grafts would need a strip that measured slightly more than 18cm in length.

A 2800 graft procedure would measure slightly more that 24cm if the strip were 1.2cm wide.

The width of the strip is determined by scalp looseness or laxity.

For more information, please see the Donor Area page on the Bernstein Medical – Center for Hair Restoration website.

Topic: Donor Area

Tags: / / / / / / / / / /

Posted by Robert M. Bernstein M.D. at 7:17 am

Which Gives More Donor Hair in Hair Transplant, Follicular Unit Transplantation or Follicular Unit Extraction?

May 11th, 2006

Q: I am Norwood Class 6 and have read about both Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) and Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT). Which will give me more hair?

A: In general, FUT will give you more hair since, in FUT, the best hair from the mid-portion of the permanent zone of the scalp (also called the “sweet spot”) can be utilized in the hair transplant.

With FUE, since only the hair follicles are extracted and not the surrounding bald skin, if too much hair is removed, the donor area will begin to look thin as hair is removed. This will limit the amount of hair that can be harvested.

Although in FUE additional areas of the scalp can be utilized to some degree, this will generally not compensate for the inability to access all of the hair in the mid-permanent zone and the total amount available for the hair restoration will be less.

Topic: FUE & FUT

Tags: / / / / / / / / / /

Posted by Robert M. Bernstein M.D. at 9:07 am



Pages: «Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next»


© 2009 Bernstein Medical, P.C. All Rights Reserved.