A
standard hair transplantation procedure involves the removal of donor strip of
hair from the back of the head from where the follicular unit grafts are
dissected under a microscope. These grafts are then preserved in saline and are
then transplanted on a bald patch on the crown area of the scalp.
Given
the time consuming and tedious nature of this procedure, a hair transplant
surgeon is often able to transplant only about 500 to 600 follicular unit
grafts per day. However, thanks to the recent <A Href= http://www.hairtransplantation.info/hair-transplant-procedure.shtml>hair transplant advances</A>,
this technique is often replaced by the follicular unit extraction (FUE). The
cost per graft of FUE is typically twice the cost of the standard follicular
unit hair transplant procedure discussed above but it is comparatively faster
and minimally invasive. Some
hair transplant advances
In
a typical FUE procedure a small round punch is made in the donor area to
directly extract 1, 2, 3 and 4 hair follicular unit grafts. The follicular
units extracted using this process is typically referred to as "blunt
dissection" where a punch is made to envelope the entire follicular unit
separating it from the surrounding soft tissues. Once
the underlying follicular unit is separated from the surrounding tissues, it is
easily extracted using a small forceps. The small holes left behind after the
follicular unit extraction gradually heal over the next few days and are not
detectable to the naked eye once the patient's hair grows out. The healing time
is much less than the donor strip extraction procedure.
While
the FUE procedure has been adopted by most hair transplant clinics, the
standard strip excision method is still the most popular hair transplant
procedure because it is more economical than the FUE.
Moreover,
due to some recent hair transplant advances such as the use of trichophytic
closure technique, the linear donor scar created by the strip excision
procedure is now often rendered almost undetectable to the naked eye. This
advancement in the hair transplantation technique has made FUE procedure
relatively less appealing.
Hair
transplantation research
Besides the hair transplant advances in the
transplantation procedures, a lot of research is also underway to clone the hair. If the hair
transplantation research is successful it will be possible to make several
copies of donor hair in the laboratory. The application of this technique would
be used in the form of hair transplantation. In the traditional procedures, the
biggest limitation is often the donor which is not able to meet required
density. However, hair cloning promises to overcome this problem by having the
amount of hair required to be grown in a
laboratory from a single donor hair and then implanting it into the scalp.
Hair transplantation research for cloning is very difficult and there are many
hurdles that have to be overcome regarding the safety and cosmetic
characteristics of the cloned hair. Some hair transplantation research has also
provided breakthrough for some hair loss medication like Dutasteride.
