Follicular Unit Hair Transplant is the most evolved process in hair transplant. After several primitive stages of hair plant procedures, now the world is standing on the most fine-tuned process of hair transplant and that is the FUE Hair Transplant. FUE involves the least invasive technique using state-of-the-art equipment compared to other procedures like FUT which needs a scalpel to remove the donor strip. It does not involve any suturing, leaves no visible scars, post-op pain is minimal compared to other procedures, faster recovery, you can expect to get back to your normal routine activities within days. The donor site option is not limited to just head but body hair can also be used. FUE Hair Transplantis the best method to go for as results are extremely great. Hair in the front and top of the head are lost because it is genetically hormone susceptible. Hair on the sides and lower back are genetically immune to hormone sensitivity and are genetically programmed to grow a lifetime , It will continue to grow even though it is transplanted to different site. This is the medical fact and has been repeatedly proven for more than forty years.
Follicular unit transplantation gives permanent hair replacement of lost hair with new roots that grow normal hair. The new hair can be cut, shampooed and treated like natural hair. Under local anaesthesia, donor hair are harvested from the back and sides of the scalp. These hair follicles are then grafted into the bald area. Grafting of follicles is technically demanding and requires high level of artistic skill. In 3-8 weeks, the transplanted hair are shed, leaving the intact root in the skin. In 3-6 months, the transplanted follicle begins to grow new natural hair and continues to grow at half an inch per month for the rest of the life.
You may have heard that the process is very painful. but with the proper technique in the application of an anaesthesia, it does not remain a painful process at all. It all depends on how the surgeon applies the anaesthesia and our clinic uses the least painful process available for the comfort of our patients. For a hair transplant process, every surgeon uses a nerve blocking local anaesthesia. General anaesthesia is never used in this case. Any pain at all during our procedure would be during the initial needle injection. Our clinic uses several techniques to reduce even this minimum pain. The anaesthesia is warmed to reduce the reaction time. The skin is pre – numbed before each localized shot and the finest gauge needle (30gauge) is used to minimise this pain. Initially, the patient is given a sedative through an IV medication. This sedative puts the patent into a relaxed, “twilight zone” state to minimize any pain there might be from the subsequent injections.
Most patients have informed us that the process was less painful than a routine trip to the dentist. In addition, the day after the hair transplant process 50% of our patient do not require any pain relievers at all and the other 50% will take pain killers for only a few days until the discomfort is gone.
Several important factors are taken into consideration before deciding on how many sessions of hair transplant are required. These include determining the area to be covered that depends upon the stage of hair loss a patient is in; i.e. if it is the initial stage, intermediate stage, or the advanced stage. After the area is determined, next pivotal stage is to decide the number of grafts needed to cover the area. You may use our graft calculator to estimate the number of grafts your condition requires. Another important aspect is; if we can harvest the required number of grafts from your head alone, or do we need to go for other parts of the body for the donor.Apart from these important aspects, the characteristics of your hair, the density that you desire,the complexity of the procedure,and your budget cumulativelydetermine the number of sessions you will require. If it is a front and corner recession, it might take less number of grafts and a single session; however, if the hair loss is in an advanced stage, the surgeon might need to first reconstruct the hairline to establish a permanent frame to the face and cover the frontal area in the first session and wait for a few months for the next session. The gap of 10-12 months is given to check for the growth of the first hair transplant and to notice the texture, length, and diameter of the hair after the hair transplant and once the hair has reached the styling length, the doctor can make an appropriate aesthetic judgment for the next session.
After the hair transplant, do not panic if the transplanted hair starts to fall off because that is what is supposed to happen and it is the normal process. Within 3 weeks almost all the transplanted hair will fall and only around 10% of hair may remain. You can start to notice the fresh growth of hair at around three months after the surgery. The hair that grows initially will be like baby hair, thin in quality, so again do not panic, it is normal. Also sometimes initially when the new hair grows, it can be curly and it will straighten out after a year or so. Even the color of hair may differ, initially it maybe dark, but later on, you will get your original hair color.
At 6 months you can expect 70-85% of hair growth when your hair will start growing normally. Within 8-12 months you can see the 100% expected growth.
Basically, the transplanted hair is the hair from the back of the head, so even though it is transplanted, it will still have the same life span. Normally, the transplanted hair follicle sheds every three to six years and then grows back from the root. The transplanted hair continues the same life circle.