Hair Transplant Procedure

Step by Step Procedure

The procedure begins with the surgeon removing a donor strip from the donor site, which is often located on the back or side of the scalp. The donor strip is further cut into 3 sizes of grafts — the micrograft, the follicular unit, and the bi-follicular unit. The grafts are inserted into pre-cut micro slits that are strategically designed to aesthetically improve the density of your existing hair, lower the hairline, and fill in balding areas.

Please click on one of the following links to get detailed information about a certain part of the procedure.

Preparation of the Donor Site.

We shave about 1/2 an inch for donor harvesting. Leave your hair at least 1 inch long to cover up the suture site immediately after surgery, don’t cut your hair too short or you will have a problem covering the incision line right after the surgery.

Harvesting the Donor Area & Suturing

NHT Medical Center prides itself on using what we call the “Twilight State Anesthesia” technique to provide our patients with the safest and most comfortable procedure. We have the patient in the sitting position during donor harvesting. Then we close the donor site with a suture.

Donor Strips

The hair grows in groups. It may yield one to four hairs. These groups are called follicular units. A single follicular unit will contain 1 to 4 hairs. If a patient has a lot of hair then they will have a lot of 3 to 4 hair follicular units. If a patient has very thin hair, typically this patient will have 1 or 2 follicular units. 

Hair grows for three to five years then it will shed. After three to five months it will regrow again. During this period we can’t see the hair by just looking at it. When the strip is removed, then we are able to see the follicles. These are the small dots in the tissue. This is about 10 to 15 percent of the total hair. So if the grafts were cut too small, a lot of the hair follicles will be removed. This is why we will use bi-follicular units often to yield as much hair as possible. Studies compare chubby grafts and skinny grafts.

Cutting Under the Stereoscope

NHT Medical Center uses the latest state-of-the-art, MANTIS stereoscopes. These stereoscopes provide our skilled surgical technicians with detailed visibility when cutting the grafts. This follicular dissection technique provides the greatest quality of grafts, as well as prevents the least damage to the hairs.
Our surgical team has one surgeon and four technicians. Other hair transplant clinics typically only have 2 to 3 technicians.

Sizes of Grafts

We use three types of grafts.
The surgical technicians divide the donor strip into three sizes of grafts.
A combination of each of these types of grafts will provide a natural and dense-looking result.

Making the Slits

For the Hairline and Frontal Area

There are two different types of slits, horizontal and vertical.

The horizontal slits are made for one or two hair grafts. This creates a softer and more natural hairline. The next three lows of vertical slits are for 2 to 3 hair grafts. Then behind those rows, there will be 3 to 4 hair grafts to create the thickness and dense part of the hairline.

For the Vertex

The cowlick/vertex area is the center where the slits will be made by the surgeon in a circular/spiral direction. All the silts are made for 3 to 4 hair grafts.

Implantation of Grafts

Depending on the size of the coverage area, two to three surgical technicians implant the grafts. The technicians use micro forceps to pick up the grafts and insert them into the pre-cut slits. The direction of the slit is decided and created by the surgeon.

Immediately After the Surgery

Immediately after the surgery, the patient will have to wear a bandage over his/her head to provide pressure to the donor incision site.
Patients can wear a hat to cover up the bandage.
After 24 hours, the patient may remove the bandage themselves.

Immediately After the Surgery

These pictures were taken after the surgery.
The first picture was taken right after the procedure. Take a look at all the transplanted hairs on his scalp. In about 7 to 10 days after the surgery, the scabs begin to come off.
The second picture was taken two weeks after the procedure. Note that all the scabs are gone.

Undetectable Donor Area Scar

The surgical technique to reduce the appearance of the donor scar has improved remarkably in the last five years.
A lot of patients will have nearly invisible donor scar results, as the photos show below. Each person’s skin is different, so we can’t guarantee that each individual’s results will be perfect.
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