Throughout history, the human being is looking for solutions to the hair loss, through the most diverse formulas. More than a significant part of his appearance, hair is, for both men and women, a symbol of beauty and youth. The majority of cases of baldness will develop through the progressive loss of hair in the scalp (called androgenetic alopecia). Two factors are crucial: hormonal and genetic. Today we know that the hair follicle, that is the unity of the hair, behaves in a different way depending on the place where it is. The hair follicles at the back of the head (the nape region) present less sensitivity to the hormonal activity and that is why they remain throughout the life of the individual. On the contrary, the hair located in the front areas, or in the crown of the scalp, suffers from a process of gradual fall. The progress in capillary transplant is a good solution to the problems of baldness. Currently, the advances of the techniques in cosmetic surgery, microsurgery, the improvement of the instrumentation and the scientific knowledge allow you to make hair autotransplant, obtaining a satisfactory volume and density.

What is Hair Transplant?

Hair transplants are a surgical procedure in which, from a back or side area of the head (area that is called donor), a fragment of skin and hypodermic cellular tissue is obtained which includes hair follicles. The multiple and careful subdivision of this fragment allows us to obtain grafts that are called mini-grafts, if they contain four to eight hairs, and micrografts if they contain one or two hairs. On the other hand, in the previously planned receiving area, small holes are made in which we put the grafts obtained. The donor area is stitched and is hidden by the patient’s own hair, later the stitches are removed after a week or 10 days. A compression bandage can be left in the area for a few hours.

How many hairs can be grafted in one session?

From three to four thousand hairs in one session, this usually takes between three or four hours.

How many sessions are necessary?

Depending on the importance of the baldness, it will be needed more or less sessions. Although a session can last more or less hours, according to the number of grafting to be implanted, there are limitations with regard to the amount of self-transplant that is possible to carry out.
The advantage of the hair micrograft is that once it is grown, it does not fall off. It is the patient’s own natural hair, although we must take into account that this is not a valid technique to fill in abundance and density a complete baldness. It is a suitable treatment to fill areas with low-density of hair follicles and to avoid the baldness. The implanted hair begins to grow, generally, after the third month of the implantation. Once the hair has grown, you can wash it, brush it, cut it, comb it, curl it and dye it without any problem.

Is it performed under local anesthesia?

Yes, although the patient should previously do a complete medical history, the appropriate preoperative screening and the preliminary photos in the area to be treated. The patient may go home after the operation without any problem.

What post-operative rules one must follow?

In the first days some rest is recommended, having in mind not to carry out physical activities that require much effort. Apart from this the patient can follow his normal life, taking into account that there may be a swelling in the forehead, and in some cases it can come up to the eyelids. Even so, small crusts will be formed in the implantation stitches which will fall spontaneously in about ten days. The hair can be washed after the first cleaning. During the days when the crusts are visible, the patient may use a cap or scarf to hide the signals of the operation until these disappear. Despite the swelling, the recovery of the operation is painless, although the head can hurt a bit in the first night. It can be solved with a mild analgesic and an anti-inflammatory.

Will the final aspect be natural?

Absolutely. With the current technique nobody notices the difference between the transplanted hair and the one that has not been transplanted, and because the donor and the recipient are the same person there will never be problems of rejection.
The technique in which the tufts of implanted hair were like those of a doll, the punch  technique, has been at present outdated and it is no longer applied. The hair, although natural, were grafted in large groups of hair very separated from other groups of hairs. The result was neither natural nor pleasant, like the implantation of artificial hair of synthetic origin, which gave many problems of rejection and half of them use to fall.