Hair Transplant

The most important point patients should not forget is that the treatments applied do not produce new hairs on the scalp. Treatment is achieved by transferring existing hairs to the hairless areas of the head. For this reason, patients who have hair on only a very small area of the scalp, or whose existing hair is very sparse, are not ideal patients for hair transplantation.

Throughout the scientific development of hair transplantation, attempts have been made to take hair roots from one area of the scalp with different methods and move them to another place. However, it has been concluded that transferring one or a few hairs together with the subcutaneous sweat gland that keeps them moisturised and oily, as a single unit (micro-follicular unit), gives the best aesthetic result.

Since the hair at the nape of the neck is the part least affected by male-pattern baldness, this part is used as the donor area (the area from which hair will be taken). In addition, since the hair at the nape will grow downwards, the area from which hair is taken will also be covered by the growing hair.

The FUT (follicular unit transfer) technique is an older technique. A strip of hair-bearing skin measuring about 10×1 cm is surgically removed from the nape, and preparation of the hair grafts (micro-follicular units) begins on a separate table. Meanwhile, the surgically incised site is stitched closed by the other surgeons in the team. Since the transplantation can be performed while the hair grafts are being prepared, the hair transplant procedure can be completed in a shorter time. However, its disadvantage is that a 10 cm long incision scar remains in the nape area. Since the width of this scar will not exceed 1-2 millimetres, it will not be visible when the hair grows, but it is nevertheless the most important reason why this technique is no longer used by patients and physicians.

In the FUE (follicular unit extraction) technique, the hairs to be taken are again taken as micro-follicular units in bundles of two or three. However, no incision is made in the scalp at the nape; each hair bundle is taken one by one with 0.6 and 0.7 mm punches. Holes of 0.6 and 0.7 mm remain where each hair bundle was taken, and these holes heal by themselves by contracting (shrinking further) without leaving a visible scar. With this method, described as a “minimally invasive” method in hair transplantation, no scar at all remains on the nape. However, since the procedure takes place in two stages, first harvesting the hair grafts and then transplanting the harvested grafts, transplanting the same number of hair roots takes longer than with the FUT technique.

Whichever technique is used, there are points to be considered during the transplantation. First, the hairs to be transplanted must be planted in the direction of the natural hair. Another point is that the hairline must be planned in the right place and in the right shape. A hairline brought too far forward to be filled in behind leads to unnatural results. In addition, if the patient's existing hair at the front continues to fall out, what the hairstyle will look like in the future must also be taken into account. In some patients, rather than trying to fill the gaps at the sides, increasing the density of these areas by transplanting between the existing hairs may be a more appropriate decision for maintaining the current situation in the future.

Although hair transplant procedures are generally procedures in which the result can be achieved in a single session, it is beneficial to inform patients before starting the procedure that more than one session may be needed. Using hair care products before and after the surgical procedure will increase the success of the procedure.