Hair loss affects a small area of a scalp or an entire body in both adults and children. Hair fall is a common problem of most of peoples. This problem occurs due to many reasons such as fungal infections, stressful events, overuse of antibiotic drugs etc. Hair fall concerns can be temporary or permanent as well, hence it require treatment in order to reduce or fix hair loss issue in individuals. Hair transplant treatment aids in treating hair loss not only this it also promote hair growth in some cases. It is a minimally invasive surgical procedure, which transplants healthy hair follicles to the area of the scalp without hair follicles. The body areas, which contain healthy hair are grafted by the healthcare provider or the surgeons.

These areas are located at the back of the scalp, which are known as donor sites. The grafts are moving to hairless parts of the scalp. Hair transplant surgery involves moving hair follicles to balding or thinning. It can be performed in different ways in which the most common is grafting. A good candidate must have thicker areas of hair on the head.

Types of Hair Transplant

This surgery can be performed in two different methods. These include the following:

1. Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT)

This procedure involves removing a strip of skin with hair follicles. After that, it is transplanted into bald or thin areas.

The steps needs to be performed for FUT procedure are as follows:

A surgeon uses a scalpel to remove a piece of a scalp from the back of the head. The size of the strip can be stretched from ear to ear. It is usually 6 to 10 inches long.
After that, the scalp gets removed with stitches and the area is getting closed.
A surgeon and their assistants can split the scalp strip into 2000 pieces known as grafting. Some of them contain one hair each.
The small hole is made into the scalp with a needle or blade.
The hairs are inserted from the removed pieces into the puncture hole.
After that, the surgical sites are covered with bandages or gauze.

2. Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE)

The FUE procedure is performed in several steps. These include the following:

A hair must be shaved off at the back of the head.
After that, the individual follicles are taken from the scalp skin. You will observe that the tiny marks are shown at the removal of each hair follicle.
The small holes are made in the scalp and a surgeon grafts hair follicles into them.
The surgical sites are covered with bandages or gauze after grafting.

3. Direct Hair Implantation (DHI)

This method is performed in several steps:

A surgeon will apply local anesthesia after shaving the head.
The hair follicles are extracted from the back of the head with a micropunch tool.
After that, a pen-shaped tool is used to load the hair follicles. It then implants into the balding part of the scalp.
After implantation, antibiotic creams and bandages are applied to all sites.

Advantages of Hair Transplant

The advantages of this procedure are as follows:

It is less expensive as compared to other hair loss treatments.
This surgery is helpful for pattern baldness, where hair loss occurs in specific areas.
It also provides protection to people who lost hair due to accidents or injuries.
This procedure increases hair density and covers bald spots.

Risk and Complications

This surgery leads to several risks, which include the following:

Graft failure
Scarring
Itching and Discomfort
Swelling and Bruising
Infection
Unnatural appearance of hair loss

How the Surgery is Performed?

Hair transplant surgery can be performed in four different ways. These are as follows:

1. Tissue Expansion

A tissue expansion surgery is performed for scalp baldness or disfigurement due to burns. This involves several steps:

A balloon-like expander is inserted in the hair-bearing area of the scalp.
After several weeks, the skin can be stretched by inflating the expander gradually.
An expander is removed after the skin gets stretched.
The bald area gets cut and removed from the scalp. It is then covered with newly grown skin.

2. Scalp Reduction

In this procedure, a small area of bald skin is removed from the scalp. The hair gets loosen and then it pulls over the bald area. After that, it gets stitched in place.

There is no requirement of general anesthesia for scalp reduction. A surgeon performs this procedure through local anesthesia on top and back of the head. Sometimes, hair implants and scalp reduction are used together for full coverage.

3. Grafting

Hair grafting is a common hair transplant surgery, which involves cutting a scalp into small pieces. Sometimes, a healthcare provider removes 10 to 15 hair from the skin with a small and round punch. These grafts are called hair plugs.

Several hours can be taken from this procedure. During surgery, most individuals stay awake and the medication is received to numb the scalp. Several procedures need to be required to move hair follicles from the head. During these procedures, a scalp needs to be cured for a few months.

4. Flap Surgery

This surgery is recommended for people with large bald areas near the front of the scalp. It can be performed in several phases. The superficial cuts are made around the three sides of the donor site. An original blood supply is maintained from its fourth side. This method is helpful for surgeons. They fix the flap over bald areas after cutting. This type of surgery requires general anesthesia for surgeons.