The Rise of Technology in Hair Transplants

The Need for Hair Transplant Procedure

Hair is a protein filament that offers warmth, protects the dermis, and enhances a person's physical beauty. Women with lush, flowing hair are found attractive in many cultures, and well kempt hair style improves the appearance of men.

However, Modern lifestyle choices, stress, and disease-related medications have led to an alarming rise in the number patients with hair loss in both the male and female populations.

Hair loss can be permanent or temporary, and one of its serious consequences is male pattern hair loss or baldness.

Women too experience hair thinning due to various factors including menopause, aging, and hormone replacement therapies.

Hair transplant is a surgical procedure that restores hair in more than 90% of male population with baldness, hair thinning, or male pattern hair loss.

According to experts, a small percentage of women, about 2% to 5%, are also good candidates for a hair transplant surgery.

Hair Transplant Surgery

Hair replacement procedures such as hair transplant offer an effective solution for patients with permanent hair loss. The best hair transplant doctor offers a range of replacement solutions including micro-grafting, slit-grafting, punch grafting, and scalp reduction treatments.

Hair transplant research started in the 1930s, and modern techniques have come a long way since the 1970s and 1980s, which were famous for a common technique involving hair plugs.

All the surgical techniques basically involve removing hair or tissue from the scalp's donor area and implanting them on the recipient area with bald patches.

The various procedures require an experienced surgeon, support staff, operating room, anaesthesia, surgical tools, and microscopic devices, computerised and robotic technologies.

Modern Hair Restoration with FUT

The standard technique for hair restoration since the 1980s is known as follicular unit transplantation (FUT) or strip harvesting. In this procedure, the surgeon removes a strip of hair from the back or side of scalp and extracts what are known as follicular unit grafts (FUGS with one to four hairs). Subsequently, Micro blades or needles are used to replant these FUGs in the balding area.

The main disadvantages of this procedure include scars, clumpy hair growth, and slower recovery period. 

In recent years, experienced surgeons have come up with more innovative and efficient hair restoration techniques. The advanced technological methods lead to a natural blending of implanted hairs with the surrounding areas (non-donor areas), that are untouched during surgery.

The Versatile FUE Technique

In follicular unit transplantation (FUT), the surgeon harvests donor hair from the scalp through a thin and long strip.

Stereo-microscopes are used to dissect the strips into implantable individual follicular units. In contrast, the follicular unit extraction (FUE) involves direct removal of individual follicular units from the donor area through round and tiny incisions.

The FUE method also evolved over the years and surgeons work with anaesthesia, fine needles and small punch grafts of 0.6 mm to 1mm in diameter.

The advanced FUE methods may be expensive and time-consuming, but they are also very efficient in eliminating pain and post-operative scarring.

Thanks to celebrity endorsements and treatment efficacy, More than 80% of hair transplant patients have shifted from FUT to advanced FUE procedures in recent years.

Rise of Technology in Hair Transplant

Technology has played a significant role in the popularity and success of follicular unit hair transplantation procedures.

The success of the surgery depends on large numbers of grafts and scalp laxity or looseness. Due to this reason, the surgeon relies on initial planning and performs tests for accurate determination of the patients’ donor reserves.

In addition to aesthetic decisions regarding graft placement, angling, and distribution, the following technical skills are applied before the surgery for assessing the donor area:-

Densitometry Studies

The surgeon or the lab technician performs a densitometry study to estimate size of individual follicular units, total amount of movable hair, and the degree of miniaturization in donor and recipient areas.

A state of art surgery requires cutting edge instruments, and hair transplant cost in Mumbai is determined by the usage of magnification devices such as Hair densitometer and Video densitometer.

Hand-Held Gadgets and Robotics

Although the skill of a surgeon is necessary for aesthetic goals, Innovative technologies also produce improved results.

The latest technology and tools such as robotic systems and hand-held grafting devices are making inroads into FUE hair transplant procedure. A programmed robotic system known as ARTAS is used for hair assessment, follicle selection, and ideal harvesting of donor area.

The modern FUE procedures are also being accelerated as experts rely on hand-held gadgets known as Neo-grafts for hair follicle extraction.