The first hair transplants were performed in Japan back in the 1930s. In the old days of hair transplant surgery relatively large pieces of skin of four millimetres in diameter, the so called punch grafts, were transplanted from the back of the scalp to the frontal bald area. Hair transplantation procedures have evolved enormously since then and today’s hair transplants can give you an entirely natural look. This is due to the miniaturisation of hair transplants, which now contain only one hair follicle (holding between one and four hairs) and are less than one millimetre in diameter. These tiny, single follicle grafts are then implanted into the needle-made incisions in the balding area. Today’s technology enables dense packing of hair follicles, which gives you a completely natural looking frontal hairline. Gone are the days of ‘pluggy’ grafts that made you look like a toothbrush.
The two principal methods of hair transplant surgery that are used today are called Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) and Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE). The major difference between them is in harvesting hair follicles. The FUT is the older method, using strip harvesting, when a linear strip of skin of up to 20 centimetres long and 1.5 centimetres wide is removed from the back of the scalp and the opening is then sewn closed. This strip is then placed under series of special dissecting microscopes and dissected into small grafts, containing just one follicular unit each. Such follicular grafts are then implanted into the balding area. The greatest benefit of this method is its high yield, measured as a percentage of the hair follicles that are successfully transplanted into the bald area. This yield is around 98%. The weakness is that it leaves the patient with a linear scar at the back of the head. The FUT is less expensive than the FUE and it is used when a large area needs to be filled with transplanted hair in one single session.
The FUE technique uses a micro extraction technology to harvest individual hair follicles that can be directly implanted into the small needle-poke holes in the balding area. The FUE technique is the latest technology, introduced only in 2002. Its greatest benefit is the fact that it leaves the patient with barely detectable scars at the back of the head and the healing time is much shorter than with the FUT, due to the small size of the wounds. However, this technique cannot be used to cover large balding areas in one session and it is more expensive. Additionally, its yield is significantly lower, due to the transaction of many hair follicles, and since the supply of donor hair is limited, it cannot be used in patients whose baldness has progressed above NW4 level.
Potential future surgical hair restoration methods, such as hair cloning and the generation of new hairs in wounds of hair-free skin, should help solve the constraints of the limited supply of donor hair. It seems that hair transplantation will in the long future only be used for frontal hairlines and, therefore, the follicular harvesting should manage to provide a sufficient number of hair implants. However, none of the aforementioned potential future technologies is expected to become commercially available before 2013. Therefore, the immediate future probably lies in improving the harvesting techniques of the FUE in order to improve its yields and make it financially more affordable. The FUT with its strip harvesting, which started a revolution in the hair transplant industry less than two decades ago, may become history in the not too distant future.
The two principal methods of hair transplant surgery that are used today are called Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) and Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE). The major difference between them is in harvesting hair follicles. The FUT is the older method, using strip harvesting, when a linear strip of skin of up to 20 centimetres long and 1.5 centimetres wide is removed from the back of the scalp and the opening is then sewn closed. This strip is then placed under series of special dissecting microscopes and dissected into small grafts, containing just one follicular unit each. Such follicular grafts are then implanted into the balding area. The greatest benefit of this method is its high yield, measured as a percentage of the hair follicles that are successfully transplanted into the bald area. This yield is around 98%. The weakness is that it leaves the patient with a linear scar at the back of the head. The FUT is less expensive than the FUE and it is used when a large area needs to be filled with transplanted hair in one single session.
The FUE technique uses a micro extraction technology to harvest individual hair follicles that can be directly implanted into the small needle-poke holes in the balding area. The FUE technique is the latest technology, introduced only in 2002. Its greatest benefit is the fact that it leaves the patient with barely detectable scars at the back of the head and the healing time is much shorter than with the FUT, due to the small size of the wounds. However, this technique cannot be used to cover large balding areas in one session and it is more expensive. Additionally, its yield is significantly lower, due to the transaction of many hair follicles, and since the supply of donor hair is limited, it cannot be used in patients whose baldness has progressed above NW4 level.
Potential future surgical hair restoration methods, such as hair cloning and the generation of new hairs in wounds of hair-free skin, should help solve the constraints of the limited supply of donor hair. It seems that hair transplantation will in the long future only be used for frontal hairlines and, therefore, the follicular harvesting should manage to provide a sufficient number of hair implants. However, none of the aforementioned potential future technologies is expected to become commercially available before 2013. Therefore, the immediate future probably lies in improving the harvesting techniques of the FUE in order to improve its yields and make it financially more affordable. The FUT with its strip harvesting, which started a revolution in the hair transplant industry less than two decades ago, may become history in the not too distant future.
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