05 / 31 / 16

How Do Hair Transplants Work?

Question:

I am a 29 year old male who suffers with very thin hair on top. I often wondered how exactly hair transplants worked.

Answer:

To understand how hair transplants work, it helps to understand some basic hair anatomy. A typical hair consists of the shaft, the part you can see above the skin, and the hair follicle beneath the surface.

  1. Hair tends to grow in small bundles called follicular units.
  2. A follicular unit consists of 1-4 hair follicles with full sized hair, 1-2 fine vellus hairs, sebaceous glands, a small muscle, nerves, and blood vessels. Each follicular unit is surrounded by a band of collagen, and each unit can be seen as independent structures when a cross section is viewed under a microscope.
  3. At the surface, the follicular units appear as a tiny group of hairs growing together.
  4. Hair transplants relocate intact follicular units from a safe donor zone at the back and sides of the head to balding or thinning areas. Follicles harvested from the donor areas are not genetically inclined to go bald, and once transplanted, they will continue to grow like normal hair throughout the individual’s lifetime.

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