Hair Transplant Surgery – Louisiana
Contemporary hair transplantation offers results that are natural and undetectable. The procedure works by taking advantage of the fact that hair follicles in the back of the scalp remain thicker and grow for a longer period of time than hairs in the front, which tend to thin over time.
With today’s advanced techniques, experienced hair transplant surgeons like Dr. Nicole Rogers are able to achieve a level of naturalness that is undetectable from the patient’s original hair. Once the hair is transplanted it will continue to grow exactly like it did from the original donor area.
Hair Transplantation For Men
One of the most crucial aspects of hair transplantation for men is hairline design. Artistry and care must be used to decide where the grafts are placed. For men, this involves angling the transplanted hair forward and in a pattern that is consistent with the existing hairline. Single hair follicular units are placed along the frontal 1cm to allow for the most soft and natural results. Larger follicular unit grafts are placed behind this softer hairline to provide increased density. Your results will be as natural as the hairs that previously existed there.
One of the most frequently asked questions is how many grafts will it take? The answer is it depends on how much coverage you desire and how large an area is affected. Depending on the amount of donor hair available, it may be preferable to fill in one area first (frontal scalp) before moving to other areas (crown/vertex). Hair provides an important frame to the face. Without this essential frame, some men can look unnatural with their crown filled in when hair is still missing in the frontal part of the scalp.
Many men request treatment of their ‘bald spot.’ This area is technically amenable to hair transplantation although it may leave an unnatural-looking island of transplanted hair if the bald spot enlarges after the procedure. Transplanting this may use up valuable donor that would be better used in the frontal ½ of the scalp. For this reason, it is safer to hold off on transplanting the vertex until men are at least in their 50’s or 60’s. At this point we have a better understanding of how your hair loss has progressed and what your future pattern will look like.
In the field of hair transplantation, we distinguish between two techniques, FUT and FUE. The main difference between the two lies in the way the follicle units are extracted. In an FUT, the strip technique is used, by which a strip of the scalp with hairs on it is taken from the back of the head, with its hair follicles subsequently being extracted. Using FUE, individual follicular units are extracted directly from the scalp.
The dominant feature of both techniques is the extraction of the smallest natural hair groups, the so-called follicular units, or FUs for short. Each of these anatomical units generally consists of 1 – 4 hairs. Both techniques – FUT and FUE – make use of these natural units.
The extraction method is one of the most important and decisive factors in any hair transplant. The focus is not on extracting as many grafts as possible, but on the quality of the hair roots, as they play a decisive role in determining whether the grafts take root.
FUE & FUT: the donor area and scarring
The two extraction techniques – FUE and FUT – differ with regard to the scarring left in the donor area. Whereas strip extraction (FUT) will leave a narrow linear scar on the back of the head, all that can be seen after an FUE transplant are micro-scars looking like little dots.
The appearance of the scar in the donor area is therefore a criterion for patients wanting to wear their hair very short. As scarring differs from patient to patient and is also dependent on the type and number of previous and future transplants, the in-depth and well-prepared consultation of a hair surgeon is an absolute “must”. Special closure techniques such as trichophytic closure are beneficial for obtaining minimum scarring after FUT strip extraction.
Transformational Results
For Women
Restoring hair thinning in women requires an appreciation of the unique features that characterize female pattern hair loss. In female pattern hair loss, the frontal hairline is usually intact. The area most in need of increased hair density is located in the frontal 1/3-1/2 of the top of the scalp. We transplant hairs in and among the existing hairs to add fullness and density to an area that can be otherwise bothersome to women because it is see-through. Some women may have a slight telogen or shedding of the surrounding hairs when we transplant very closely. Women can be reassured that this hair will grow back in along with the transplanted hair.
Some women request coverage of scars from facelift or browlift (See bottom before and after image to the right). Hair transplantation can be a very helpful technique to cover these (See Before/After Gallery). Likewise, thinning in the temporal recessions can also be addressed with hair transplant surgery.