How Hair Restoration Surgery is Performed

If you would like to learn more about my story and how a hair transplant procedure can regrow your hair, feel free to email me or contact my patient educator Steve Cook at 305.416.8418 as well as steve@mcgrathmedical.com.

The term hair transplant is a misnomer; it’s actually a follicle transplant, hence the name follicular unit transplantation. 

I had a 31.05 square centimeter (12.22 square inch) strip of scalp from the back of my head was excised via a scalpel and technicians whittled down the strip under a microscope into individual follicular unit grafts.

After the donor site is sutured and recipient sites are created in my frontal hairline and temples via scalpel, the grafts are then implanted into my receding hairline and temples. Throughout the procedure I am awake and talking under a mild sedative and local anesthesia.

1s-2s-3s-and-slits

Single, one-haired micrografts on the left are placed in front to create a soft, natural hairline. Most follicular units (the two grafts in the middle) range from two to four hairs and are placed behind the micrografts to create density. On the far right is a multiple follicular unit that can have from 5 to 7 hairs and are also called slit grafts. The slit grafts are placed behind the two- and three-hair follicular units to create maximum density. (photo credit: Northwest Hair Restoration.com)

grafts-2

The multiple follicular unit on the left is also called a slit graft which comes from the donor strip on the right. Unlike the old-school “plugs” from the 1980s that had 30 hairs in one graft, slit grafts/multiple follicular units are naturally occurring bundles placed in the vertex and crown for maximum density. (photo credit: globalcindy.com)

A follicular unit is a naturally growing bundle of hairs that average 2.2 hairs but can have anywhere from one to four hairs growing out of it. Most people have 200 hairs per square centimeter and multiplied by the length of the donor strip, a full strip surgery can yield up to 6,000 individual hairs.

Small, one-hair micrografts were placed in the frontal hairline to create a soft, natural appearance while the larger two- and three-hair grafts were placed behind the one-hair grafts to create density.

Multiple follicular unit grafts also called slit grafts that can have up to 8 hairs to create maximum density. Unlike the pluggy, doll’s head look from the 1980s, the multiple follicular units are placed how your hair naturally grows making the surgery undetectable.