HAIRLAB founder, Robert Angelino, founder of HairLab, a medical and natural hair restoration center located in Beverly Hills, California, explains in detail exactly what a modern day hair transplant procedure entails:
- After a full evaluation and careful planning, we go into the back of the scalp where the occipital bone is located. This is what is known to us as the “safe zone.” You have to take follicles from that precise ring of hair that never will fall out. You can’t go too high or too low because then you are accessing hair that is susceptible to hair loss. The hair that runs in that ring from one ear to the other is not susceptible to DHT and therefore hair loss. We take the hair for the transplant from there because once we implant that hair, it won’t ever fall out. Your hair will be in there for life.
- Based on elasticity of the client’s scalp, we can determine how many grafts we can do. We mark where we will remove the grafts from, shave the head and a strip of hair and skin (including the tissue and hair follicles). This strip of hair is handed off to a team of technicians while the surgeon brings the graft tissue together and seals up the scalp. This leaves a very small and fine line scar that is covered with hair when it grows back. While the surgeon is working, a full team of expert technicians do a dissection. The strip of hair-growing tissue is dissected under microscopes and each and every follicle is dissected and separated into individual hair follicular units, each of which grows one, two, three or four hairs apiece. We then separate all these follicular units and once we have enough, they will be divided up and put on ice and into saline solution.
- Then the surgeon creates the hairline — a slow, creative and artistic process. Each person’s hair grows out at their own angle and direction. Every hair and part has its own unique direction and angles. The crown and back has to be circular. The front has to be down or to the side. The surgeon can see the unique direction of each patient’s former hair line and uses a needle to carefully craft the direction that the hair will be transplanted in.
- Usually the surgeon will use an 18-gauge needle to make the fine angled punctures into the client’s scalp — the same-sized needle that is used for drawing blood. However, we may use a different size depending on characteristics of the client. African-American hair is different from Caucasian hair. Eyebrow hair is different than the hair that grows on your head.
- After the surgeon makes the angled punctures, the technician is able to use a fine forceps to slide those grafted follicular units right in with the tissue fully intact. These tiny holes immediately heal , and within 5 days they have fully grafted into your scalp and are now fully a part of you. You now have hair that will naturally grow the way it used to that will never fall out again.
The information in the article is not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your healthcare provider. We encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care with an appropriate healthcare provider.
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