Hair loss may occur for a number of reasons. Age, genetics, stress, tight hairstyles and medical conditions like thyroid imbalance and low vitamin D levels can all lead to unwanted hair loss. If you’re experiencing progressive hair loss due primarily to genetics and age, there are two main techniques in hair transplant procedures available to fill in and restore growth to bald areas.
Types of Hair Restoration
Both popular forms of hair restoration begin by taking graft follicles from a donor site, usually the back of the head, and transplanting them to cover areas of hair loss. You must have enough healthy hair at the donor site to be a viable candidate for a transplant. Occasionally these hairs can come from the beard or chest, using a specialized BHT (body hair transplantation) technique.
In follicular unit transplantation (FUT), the surgeon takes a strip of skin from your scalp and separates it into 500 to as many as 2,500 grafts. This procedure is sometimes called follicular unit strip surgery (FUSS)and leaves a fine linear scar where the donor tissue is removed.
Follicular unit extraction (FUE) is performed with a special tool designed to extract individual donor follicles one at a time. The procedure is more exacting than FUT but leaves less visible scarring in the form of small dots covered by the remaining hair at the donor site.
In both procedures, local anesthetic is used on the recipient site and grafts are insertedto complete the transplant.
Choosing the Best Hair Restoration Technique
Whether FUT or FUE is right for you depends on the type and extent of hair loss you’re experiencing. FUE is almost always the best technique, due to its main advantage of no linear scar. However, FUT is sometimes performed on women who do not have to worry about the fine line scar ever being visible as their surrounding hairs will conceal it. FUE has a quicker recovery, as there are no sutures.
Underlying medical conditions should be addressed first to ensure further loss doesn’t occur following the procedure. To support the highest possible rate of success, you must follow all post-surgical recovery advice.