Hair transplant: lasting, fuller hair — using your own
A hair transplant relocates your own, loss-resistant follicles into thinning zones. Here you'll find who the procedure suits, how it works and what you can realistically expect.
What is a hair transplant?
In simple terms, a hair transplant is a surgical procedure that involves moving hair follicles (hair roots) from a "donor" area (usually the back and sides of the head) to bald or thinning areas often in the hairline, midscalp or crown. It is most commonly used to treat male and female pattern baldness, but can also restore beards, eyebrows, or cover surgical scars. With a hair transplant, it is often misconstrued that moved hairs grow back in the donor, this is incorrect as the roots are moved and hence these follicles now grow in a new location. Hence, the hair transplant procedure largely depends on enough supply to meet the demand (enough hair in the donor to meet requirements of the recipient area).
The procedure is typically performed under local anaesthetic in a minor surgery theatre within a clinic that is CQC registered. The surgery is completed in a day and the patient can return home the same day to complete two weeks of aftercare with instructions explained by the clinic before departure. Duration depends on the size of the surgery but typically ranges between 4 and 8 hours.
The Two Main Techniques
- Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE): The surgeon shaves the back of the scalp and extracts individual hair follicles one by one using micro-punches. This leaves numerous tiny, barely noticeable scars rather than a linear scar. Careful extraction ensures minimal damage and undetectable scarring to the donor area. The incisions are made in the recipient area by the surgeon, and skilled technicians proceed to implant the follicles one by one into the sites.
- Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT): Also known as the "strip method," is performed by the surgeon removing a narrow strip of scalp tissue containing hair follicles from the back of the head and the wound sewn back together to leave a linear scar. The size of the strip depends on the number of follicles needed and density of the donor site. The tissue is divided it into individual hair grafts or follicular units by skilled technicians and subsequently implanted into incisions made by the surgeon into the recipient area.
How It Works
In a nutshell, modern procedures utilise natural groupings of one to four hairs, known as "follicular units". These are implanted into tiny incisions made by the surgeon in the thinning area. The extracted hair follicles are removed from areas genetically resistant to balding and therefore in their new recipient areas, they do not follow the balding process that native hairs in those areas are subjected to. They continue to grow without thinning or miniaturising over time.
Recovery and Results
The implanted hairs undergo a short period of growth for 3-4 weeks, followed by a shedding period whereby the roots remain under the scalp but the hair shafts fall out. They enter a resting phase whereby healing occurs involving neovascularisation and tissue repair. Only when they are healed and rested do they begin to grow hair shafts again, which usually begins with a few hairs growing from month 4, and increases in number each month until a full and final result is achieved around 12 months, extending occasionally upto 18 months. The new hairs undergo maturation with consecutive hair growth cycles and the hair shaft becomes more supple and texture improves as the transplant matures over a year to two after surgery.
Variability between patients
Not one hat fits all. This essentially means results vary depending on amount of donor hair available, hair quality and thickness of each strand, and amount of surface area to be covered. Sometimes more than one surgery is recommended for best results as excessively large surgeries (high graft number required) can result in excess trauma and damage to the scalp resulting in permanent damage to the donor area even in follicles that are not harvested, and poor results in recipient due to excessive damage to underlying blood supply and vasculature. A bespoke treatment plan will be set out during the consultation that best addresses hair loss whether active or stable, and numbers of follicles required relative to the donor availability to advise what results can be expected and achieved.
The Journey
The hair transplant journey is broken down into 4 steps to help you understand what a surgery with us at Geneve entails:
Free consultation and hair analysis
Overview of treatment options and in depth information of suitable treatments, medical examination of donor and recipient areas, an honest assessment and binding quote.
Pre op: consent and planning of graft placement
Review and signing of necessary paperwork on the day of surgery, followed by a discussion in detail with your surgeon to design a finalised plan for your hair restoration surgery.
Intra op: Incisions, extraction, implantation
The process of the hair transplant consists of incisions made by your surgeon to form the blueprint for where every single follicle will be placed, extraction of required number of follicles from your donor area, followed by implantation of each graft/follicle one by one by our team of skilled technicians.
Post op: aftercare, scheduled reviews, final result
Intensive two weeks of guided aftercare following your surgery to ensure flawless healing and recovery, and followed up by meetings at set intervals over the course of 12 months with your patient advisor to monitor progress until your final result is achieved.