Latest Technologies in Hair Transplant

Facing hair loss issue is not limited to any region, country, cast, or gender; rather it is one of the universal problems the world is suffering from.  Since hair loss has become a common phenomenon and a large number of people around the world suffer from it, science has discovered many effective methods to deal to restore the lost hair.  

Today, there are plenty of advanced technologies used for hair transplant of men and women both. These technologies take little time and potentially help to combat hair loss. Some of the most advanced and successful treatments are given below:

Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) Hair Transplant:

FUE hair transplant is one of the latest and successful methods of today and a large number of people have been treated successfully through this method during some past years.  In this technology, follicular units are extracted from that part where there is hair and then the units are planted in the recipient area where there is hair loss problem to restore hair.  The donor areas face no side effects or visible scars and the recipient area tends to restore hair successfully. Though this type of surgery takes many hours to complete, the results are quite adequate and satisfactory.  

NewGraft Restoration:

NewGraft restoration is also the advanced form of FUE hair transplant. In NewGraft, the process of extracting and planting follicular units is automated. By doing this, the process becomes more easy, comfortable, timesaving, and lesser traumatic harvest. To make this automatic process successful, a tiny surgical pouch is used to extract follicular units.  During the whole process of this hair transplant surgery, the patient is able to listen to music, talk with people, drink and eat anything, and perform other activities.

Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy (PRP):

PRP treatment is one of the advanced treatments of hair transplant.  In this technology,               autologous blood is taken from the patient’s body and then injected to bald parts of the scalp. By doing this, regeneration of tissues is occurred resulting restoring of hair on bald parts of the scalp. This type of treatment is done automatically and manually both but the manually treatment has been more successful than the automatic one because automatic treatments always have some side effects and risks.

Since science has no end and it advances with the passage of time, more and more studies are being done on this particular area of work to make it possible that every person on this earth can experience the beauty of hair and live with style.

Major FUE instruments of the hair transplant and their usage

Latest developments in instrument technology and improvements have now made the complicated follicular unit extraction (FUE) a method competitive with the common strip harvesting procedure for getting natural donor hair for the transplantation surgery.

In FUE method, a surgeon removes one particular FU - or follicular unit, at one time, aiming those grafts that appear most possible to increase and produce natural hair in a recipient site. It needs more ability of the surgeon and more charge from the transplant patient compare to the strip harvesting method. The FUE is an advanced and safer method than strip harvesting technique. Here are some FUE instruments, which are used for the FUE technique.

The Manual Punch Tool: The manual punch Tool is a round hollow sharp scalpel with a total diameter of 0.7 to 1.2 millimeter. This tool is the original FUE instrument. The tool’s punch is positioned over the visible part of a follicular unit's hair on the scalp, and pushed downward with normal manual rotation to cut the skin around the follicular unit and properly free it from surrounding hair tissue. The follicular unit is then extracted by the forceps.

The SAFE System: A special three-step manual procedure called The SAFE System. In the first step, it utilizes a sharp round punch to cut the skin around the follicular unit, now in a second step, a special blunt circular punch to release the follicular unit from surrounding tissue and in the last step is extraction.

Powered SafeScribe® Tool: The Powered SafeScribe® Tool is a handheld electronic gadget to remove the follicular units from the donor area with the minimal possibility of damage, and reserve for transplantation. A wide range of different punch sizes and types is easily available in the market. In skilled hands, this tool can decrease the total time of FU extraction procedure sessions, decrease the possibility of scarring, and give a high rate of intact FUs.

RotoCore Tool: This tool automatically rotates over the FUE as it cuts the skin around the follicle. The tool permits the surgeon to pre-set the punch to incise to a selected depth.

The Feller Instrument Tool: The tool combines complicated FUE procedures into a solo instrument to assist the surgeon work faster and more professionally.

NeoGraft Tool: This is a motorized device that gives a rotating sharp punch to cut the follicular unit, and a suction tool that extracts the FUE safely for the hair transplant surgery.

FUT VS FUE

Hair transplantation field has gone through several changes in past few years. Various hair transplant clinics and centers have been using a number of methods but FUT and FUE are most widely used hair transplant techniques that include transferring individual follicular units in their genetic form. Follicular Unit Transplantation is considered as traditional hair transplant methods that has now replaced by Follicular Unit Extraction. The basic difference between both procedures lies in extraction method while implanting process is almost same in both type of hair transplantation.  

FUE is advancement in Follicular Unit Transplantation in which hair are extracted from donor area in the form of follicular units. Follicular units are group of three to four hair. A small needle punch is utilized to separate follicular units from the surrounding tissue and creates small circular incision in the skin. The follicular Unit is then extracted directly from scalp which leaves a small open hole. Then, follicular units are placed onto recipient sites.

Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) involves extraction of strip of hair and tissue from back of the scalp. The, hair transplant surgeons dissect hair bearing strip into individual follicular units. The dissection is done under fiber optic equipped microscopes to prevent the application of heat to the grafts. Then, they are implanted onto bald region where the surgeon has made recipient sites. The suture or staple are used to close the wounds.        

FUE has a number of advantages over FUT hair transplant as it does not result in linear scarring. The healing time is fast. With minimally invasive nature, it produces hundreds of tiny scars in the donor area that are hard to detect. 

FUE hair transplant is the most refined approach to hair transplantation and best for those who want to wear short hairstyle or scalp is too tight or has existing damage. Pain and discomfort in FUE after the surgery is less as compared FUT hair transplant.

FUE can be repeated after one month but FUT cannot because it takes much recovery time. FUE is length and time consuming process and requires experienced and trained hair transplantation surgeons and standardized instruments.   

Comparative Study between different techniques of FUE Hair Transplant

Hair transplant techniques have improved significantly in the course of time. with the help on cutting edge technology and latest advancements in the information technology sector, scientists have employed this along with the most diverse knowledge of the process of hair loss; resulting in more advanced techniques which give promising results. The chronological placement of these techniques place FUT at the bottom of pyramid. 

FUT was the breakthrough that mankind was waiting for a long time. at that time, it was the dream treatment that one could get and people used to opt it significantly despite of the risk of getting scars in the donor area which were irreplaceable.

FUT did its job as the one and only permanent solution to hair loss for as long as there was not any significant procedure developed to succeed this method. Then came along the modern gold standard of hair transplant surgery. FUE involves removal of singular hair follicle and this basic unit is then transplanted into the donor area. This had many advantages for the person who is getting his hair transplanted as well as the surgeon who is performing this technique. Minimal invasive technique was the name called to FUE and hence it promised minimal scars in the donor area leaving it natural looking and without any bizarre marks that the patient had to hide afterwards.

With the passage of time, a need of more  enhanced surgical procedure was felt. This led to the development of large scale FUE and another procedure which comprised of combination of FUE and FUT side by side. Large scale FUE is used to implant larger number of hair follicles in a single surgery and hence the need of multiple surgeries is eliminated. Also the tools used for excision, separation and transplantation of hair follicles are now more precise and smaller in size. This has also minimized the duration of recovery and that is why the transplanted follicles start to grow and cover the once bald spots rapidly. 

Newly developed software also help FUE practicing surgeons to develop a simulated version of the resulting scalp which allows the hair transplant surgeon to foresee and complication that may arise beforehand . FUE techniques and the newly incorporated changes in the basic process work hand in hand and hence it is hard to tell one from the other on the basis of efficiency. It depends on the best judgment of the surgeon and the severity of the case which leads to the selection of particular FUE technique to be used.

Pre and Post hair transplant procedure

Pattern baldness becomes a common problem in adult men. It occurs due to genetic problems that are passed down through a person’s inborn DNA. The genes normally passed through parents. However, in the old decades, the process of hair transplantation was slightly different and less innovative. With the passage of time, contemporary world becomes technological and experts introduced latest ways of hair transplant that is somehow expensive as well.

The factor upon which all hair transplant procedures are comprised is known as “donor dominance”. This idea that hair retains the tactics of the donor area, when it is moved to another place and will keep on growing, was concocted in 1959 by the New York dermatologist. Unfortunately, getting the most recent transplanted hair to develop is not by any means the only issue. For quite a long time, the strategy was carried out utilizing different grafts that look counterfeit. With the progression of time, the grafts got became more diminutive; however, with this technique, specialists were not qualified to perform an entirely natural look.

Fortunately, these days, hair is transplanted as single follicular units characteristically happening groups of 2 to 4 hairs. With the help of follicular units with comparison to larger grafts enables a perfect designed hair transplant to look entirely imperceptible. This hair transplant system was imagined in 1995 by Dr. Bernstein and Dr. Rassman known as Follicular Unit Transplantation.

In Follicular Unite Transplantation, the hair is harvested from a giver strip by utilizing the microscopic methods. FUT also comprises nerves, a tiny muscle and sebaceous glands. In FUT, these tiny units permit the surgeon to protectively transplant hundreds of grafts in one session, which make best use of the cosmetic impact of the process. It is basically an advanced way of hair transplantation in old times, but offer unnatural look to the patient. 

This process creates the excellent quality grafts and the best yield of hair, it leaves a scar in the area where hairs get transplanted that can be appear, if the hair is cut very little.  Due to this apprehension, Dr. Ray Woods from Australia produced a procedure where single follicular units could be vanished from the scalp easily.

Sadly, Dr. Woods did not share his procedure with other medical community. In 2002, Dr Bernstein and Dr. Rassman start working on it and called it FUE (Follicular Unit Extraction). In the same year, they talked about their research in the peer reviewed journal Dermatologic Surgery. Since that invention, there have been many changed to the procedure plus FUE starts to evolve with Robotic Follicular Unit Extraction as one of Dr, Bernstein’s major concerns.