What is Hair Transplant Surgery? Some Terminology:
Hair transplant surgeons occasionally use other terms in lieu of hair transplantation, including “hair transfer surgery” and “hair transport surgery,” since a transplant procedure involves transferring or redistributing hair from one area to another. Other self-explanatory terms include “hair implants,” “hair implant surgery,” Hair loss surgery, or “hair implantation,” as well as “hair operation.” However, hair operations can include other hair restoration surgeries like scalp reduction and hair flap surgeries.
Hair transplant procedures are governed by a principle known as Donor Dominance. Dr. Normon Orentriech articulated this theory during the 1950s and is now considered the father of hair transplant surgery. He stumbled upon the basic principles of modern hair restoration during his clinical studies on a skin disease known as vitiligo. When transferring a punch-shaped skin graft (which happened to have some hair growth ) from one area to a region affected by vitiligo, he noticed that the hair continued to grow in the new location. In 1952, he applied his observations to a patient who wanted to reverse his hair loss. He formulated his Donor Dominance theory from his studies and results, stating that transplanted hair will maintain its original traits, like color, thickness, texture, and length, in its new environment.
In today’s practice of hair transplantation, doctors now transfer hair grafts from the patient’s scalp to regions of baldness or thinning. Additionally, with the advent of highly specialized advanced FUE devices like Dr.UGraft™, it is now possible to harvest other hair follicles, such as hair from the beard, neck, nape, legs, chest, back, and abdomen. This is advantageous when a larger quantity of grafts is needed to achieve better coverage or when more delicate hairs are required to recreate natural details needed for eyelashes, eyebrows, and hairlines.
Why Consider Hair Transplant Surgery?
Men and women suffering from hair loss often feel shame and embarrassment due to cultural stigmas involving baldness. Anxiety can make men and women feel self-conscious whenever they look in a mirror. People worry that a receding hairline or severe baldness will become their most noticeable feature. Doctors recognize hair loss as a source of frustration, nervousness, and even depression.
Getting older may be inevitable, but no one should look older than they would like. Fortunately, concealing patchy and thinned-out areas of hair has an easy solution with hair transplant. Modern hair transplant methods offer a more permanent option to restore full, natural-looking, and natural-feeling locks. With Dr. Umar’s revolutionary, state-of-the-art techniques using Dr.UGraft, a successful hair transplant with natural results has become easier than ever.
Choosing the Right Doctor for Your Hair Transplant Surgery
The quality of results from a hair transplant surgery will vary depending on the surgeon’s skills. A proper hair transplant surgery within the right conditions often results in minimal hair surgery side effects. The right doctor must extract the correct number of grafts to produce desired growth and coverage. Also, they must create detailed insertions to replicate natural hair growth patterns. Knowing what information to look for during the hair transplant consultation process is essential to selecting the best practitioner.
Outdated Hair Transplant Surgery Methods: A Brief History
Hair transplant surgery has come a long way since its first implementation in the 1930s and 1940s. Historically, Japanese dermatologists first developed the original “punch graft” method for transferring hair. However, cosmetic concerns left this procedure in the dust due to the results. After this early surgery, patients often had a doll-like appearance resulting from pluggy-looking hair. Other outdated methods include the “flap” surgery, whereby a surgeon twists a flap of skin from over the ear to the hairline, creating the appearance of hair. Similarly, in a scalp reduction surgery, a surgeon would remove hairless skin from the head, then stretch the sides of the head, which still bore hair to cover the crown area. Doctors no longer recommend flap or scalp reduction surgeries because of the invasive nature and scarring.
Advancements in Hair Loss Surgery
After decades of scientific and technological advances, hair transplant surgery has evolved into a relatively pain-free procedure with successful, natural-looking results with little to no hair surgery side effects. Doctors and scientists continue to refine many unnatural issues from past transplant issues. Refined and more precise techniques enrich each procedure for the best results possible. Today, hair restoration surgeons use two main methods for hair transplantation, including Follicular Unit Strip Surgery ( FUSS ) and Follicular Unit Extraction ( FUE ).
How Does Hair Transplant Surgery Work: FUSS Vs. FUE
Follicular Unit Strip Surgery (FUSS)
Once known as the most commonly practiced method for hair transplantation, surgeons no longer preferred using FUSS after the innovation of FUE. The FUSS method takes an elliptical strip of hair from the back of the head and splits it into smaller grafts. A surgeon then places them in the needed area, sewing them to the head. With FUSS, doctors commonly take the grafts from 1 cm above the top of the ears.
FUSS Hair Transplant Surgery Side Effects: Due to the deep surgical incisions and transplantation needed to achieve this technique, this process inevitably leaves a scar and causes stretching, making the scarring of the donor area evident in those who wear short hair.
Even with the FUSS innovation of using the trichophytic closure method, whereby hair grows through the scar tissue, the problem of unsightly stretched scars remains a vexing issue for the recipients of FUSS.
In trichophytic closure, the surgeon cuts a 1mm ledge of the outer layer of skin for use as an edge on the donor site before closing the wound. This ledge creates a sort of overlap between the two flaps of skin, somewhat akin to an envelope. Doctors use this method to minimize scarring, though it cannot prevent the formation of a hair transplant surgery scar or disfigurement. Indeed, many patients continue to develop noticeable scars after undergoing the trichophytic closure method.
Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE): Basic FUE VS Advanced FUE
FUE Hair Transplant Surgery Side Effects: There are little to no hair transplant surgery side effects under the proper hair surgeon and the suitable FUE medical device or equipment, with minimal scarring for the patient.
Receiving a hair transplant using the follicular unit extraction, or FUE, involves revitalizing the balding areas on the head or body one unit at a time. The FUE method takes individual hair follicular grafts, or departments, from the back of the head. A surgeon cuts around each follicle using a specialized machine and removes them. As the procedure uses only 0.8-1.2mm punches, this modern method has become the most preferred, as no linear scarring results from it.
There are two types of FUE: Basic FUE utilizes the hair from the middle of the back and sides of the head. Doctors often perform essential FUE using robotic hair transplant surgery, which yields unnatural results.
By contrast, the advanced FUE by Dr.UGraft method also allows for using hairs from the body, beard, nape regions, and head hair. Advanced FUE by Dr.UGraft also marks another breakthrough. The procedure has proven very efficient in extracting very tightly kinked Afro-textured hair—a hair type once thought untreatable with FUE. Basic FUE tools had inefficient and inconsistent results when using nape, body hair, and tightly curled hair.
The video below profiles the use of hair transplant surgery for men:
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Understanding Hair Transplant Yield: FUE Hair Transplant Surgery VS FUSS Hair Transplant Surgery
The video below illustrates what to expect with the yield (how many grafts grow from the implanted follicles) in FUE. It also contrasts the results of FUE hair transplant versus follicular unit strip surgery hair transplants:
Strip VS FUE hair transplant: scarring and Yield, which is better?
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While the FUE method becomes increasingly popular, the procedure results ultimately depend on the surgeon’s skill. Only an experienced and highly qualified surgeon should perform the technique, which requires more time and intensive labor for the best results.
Getting to Know the Advanced Dr.UGraft FUE by Dr. Umar
Why Choose Advanced FUE with Dr.UGraft?
The video below details some of the most impressive features of Dr.UGraft:
What is UGraft Advanced FUE? Results from FUE Hair Transplant
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Salient features of Dr. UGraft’s advanced FUE technology that makes this modern method better than essential FUE tools include:
An original patented punch
This innovative tool called the Dr.UPunch rotor uses a cutting axis that cuts away from the follicle. This offers advantages, which include:
- Less transaction (graft damage) resulting from the creative cutting motion of the Dr.UPunch
- Bulkier grafts with more tissue help ensure graft survival and hair regrowth
- Inverted wound edges lead to faster, better wound healing.
Patented Punch tips
These textured punch tips gently pull the graft as it separates from its tissue attachments before releasing it (watch the above video for illustration). This means the graft angulation beneath the skin is less of a factor, making Dr.UPunch a more versatile instrument. The tool itself, rather than the operator, assist in navigating the unseen course of the grafts under the skin. When it comes to very curled hairs—the kind of hair used in body hair grafts and found in the scalp of most afro-textured-haired individuals–these factors offer a significant advantage. Unlike the Dr.UGraft method, essential FUE tools typically record a higher graft damage rate.
A fluid irrigation system
This impressive innovation delivers a steady fluid drip to the incision wound site. This ensures that:
- The grafts stay hydrated between the time of graft scoring and actual removal. Drying forces and other damage can cause follicle death during this time interval. This fluid irrigation system innovation addresses an issue with FUE long considered a vulnerability in the transplant process.
- The dripping of fluid also reduces the friction between the punch and skin, thus reducing tissue drag and punch misalignment. This, too, helps ensure the health and survival of the graft.
- The fluid film between the punch tip and skin creates a water seal. This feature enhances the vortex used by Dr.UPunch Rotor to extract the graft gently.
A foot pedal-activated fluid flush mechanism
This feature helps flush out impacted grafts from the tip of the punch. This means:
- There is less handling of the impacted grafts than essential FUE, where a surgeon grasps impacted grafts with forceps, risking graft damage.
- As the operator of Dr.UGraft, greater efficiency would not need to interrupt the procedure to remove affected grafts, making the process more efficient and reducing potential complications.
- Dr.UGraft technology does not need depth control, as the Dr.UPunch tool already factors in the shape of hair follicles.
Critical Advances
Best Hair Growth After Hair Transplant Surgery: Dr. Umar has made pioneering advances in FUE and, over the years, has worked towards making FUE hair transplant mainstream. His advancement within the field has led to a category of FUE that goes beyond the primary use of head hair donors for minor baldness in relatively easy cases. Thanks to the development of Dr.UGraft, hair transplant has a whole new realm of possibility.
Basic follicular unit extraction limits the surgeon to use only the head donor supply. This restrictive donor pool cannot meet the needs of severely bald patients. With advances made by Dr. Umar in Dr.UGraft, the donor pool expands to include beard and body hair. As a result, Dr. Umar has transplanted 20,000 – 25,000 Dr.UGrafts in several severely bald patients. Dr.UGraft BHT has excellent outcomes:
Hair Transplant Revolution, severe baldness restoration with FUE & BHT
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Specialized transplants, such as eyebrow and eyelash transplants, have long had the stigma of looking unnatural. Traditional head donor hairs are often too coarse and poorly match the natural characteristics of eyebrow or eyelash hairs. Using the advanced FUE by Dr.UGraft, Dr. Umar can scout the body for the best matching hair to use a donor and thus create more natural-looking eyebrows and eyelashes.
Dr. Umar presents the first in the world ever performed body hair (leg hair) to eyelash transplant:
Los Angeles Best Eyelash Transplant Using Dr UGraft Advanced FUE with Body Hair Transplant
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Transplanted hairlines have often had apparent signs of surgery. Even with reasonable efforts, using coarse head donor hair exclusively often produces a harsh-looking hairline and temples. Using Advanced FUE hair transplant by Dr.UGraft, Dr. Umar uses the most delicate hairs from the nape of the neck or even the legs and arms as donor’s hair. This technique imparts the kind of softness that makes for an undetectable hairline and temple points.
This video details the world’s first leg hair-to-hairline transplant:
Body Hair Restoration from Leg Hair: Hair Transplant, Pluggy Hairline Repair – Los Angeles
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Dr. Umar uses nape hair to build an undetectable hairline and temple points in this video:
When transplanting Afro-textured or otherwise tightly wound hair, most basic FUE tools have failed or remain inconsistent, often returning massive transaction rates. Dr. Umar has invented a device specifically for consistently performing FUE in even the kinkiest hair. This new invention allows all Afro-textured hair to have an FUE-type transplant without pre-testing. This breakthrough represents crossing the last major frontier in FUE hair transplantation. The invention of the patented Dr.UPunch Curl works to cancel out the difficulty caused by tight curliness and tough scalp skin.
This video documents a case of Afro-textured hair transplant:
A culmination of innovations:
The best hair transplant surgery services in Los Angeles should take advantage of these innovations.
Hair Transplant Surgery Side Effects:
Additionally, it is critical that you choose an FUE hair transplant surgeon of skill and expertise, as an FUE hair transplant surgery with an unskilled practitioner can easily lead to permanent, botched hair transplants.
Fortunately, Dr. U Skin & Hair Clinic’s Dr. Umar can help repair botched hair surgeries, which takes a unique and extra degree of skill and understanding to undertake.
Dr. Umar is known to have repaired the worst botched hair transplant surgeries globally. He also frequently gets referrals from other hair transplant doctors for this reason.
The video below details a case where Dr. Umar used the Dr.UGraft to repair scarring from previous botched surgeries:
Worst Hair Transplant Result – Repair Using FUE & BHT, with Beard & Body Hair – Dr Umar part 2 of 3
Go to our website: http://www.dermhairclinic.com/ To consult Dr Umar, click: http://www.dermhairclinic.com/free-online-consultation-hair-restoration-los-angeles/ Dr Sanusi Umar repairs the worst case of bad hair surgical outcomes from prior procedures a patient underwent at other clinics. Some experts have considered this case the most extreme of poor hair surgical outcomes of note today.
Body Hair Transplantation results – BHT – FUE hair transplantation
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The Donor Dominance Theory & Dr.UGraft: New Evidence
Dr. Umar’s modern hair transplant techniques represent the evolution of previous methods of trial-and-error hair surgeries. In the 1950s, dermatologist Norman Orentreich opened doors to more modern transplant procedures with his donor dominance concept. The donor dominance concept presents a theory that hair is taken from a dominant area, such as the back of the head, and placing it in the front will continue to grow with the same characteristics it had before. In other words, the hair will grow at the same rate and have the same texture, coarseness, and thickness regardless of where it is situated after transplant.
Dr. Umar’s work in hair transplant surgery has taken the donor dominance theory one step further. Evidence uncovered by Dr. Umar points to the role of recipient co-dominance. In terms of transplanted hair, the hair will retain some of its original characteristics and take on qualities of hair that grows natively in the new area. That offers promising news to hair transplant recipients, as hair transplanted with a method like Dr.UGraft will look more natural over time.
The Future of Hair Transplant Surgery
The genetic age has brought new hope to patients with every ailment. For men and women suffering hair loss, hair cloning has become one of the most exciting developments in the hair transplant world. Researchers in the field hope to one day remove the donor area’s limitations on transplant methods. The fear of running out of donor hair can be eliminated using a single biopsy punch to restore hair to the entire head.
However, hair cloning remains a hope rather than a scientific reality. Geneticists and hair surgeons still face enormous hurdles in developing gene therapy or cloning technology that will limit its effect to only hair on the head. While research continues into cellular transplants and stems cell cloning techniques, Dr.UGraft offers the reality of complete hair restoration in the present.
Publications: Current Issues in Hair Transplantation
Advanced FUE with Dr.UGraft has challenged many “norms” that have long-guided hair transplant doctors. As a pioneer of advanced FUE, Dr. Umar has authored several groundbreaking manuscripts in scientific medical journals. His work has caused a paradigm shift in hair transplantation’s core principles and sparked a new discussion. Examples of his academic work include:
- JAMA Dermatology: Leg hair for hairline and temple creation
- Annals of Plastic Surgery: Severe baldness restoration and severe hair transplant repairs, using head and body hair donors
- Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery GLOBAL: leg hair for eyelash transplant
- Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology (JAAD): Body hair for eyebrow creation
- Dermatologic Surgery: Nape hair for eyebrow creation
- Aesthetic Surgery Journal: Redefining what constitutes the safe donor area of the head and use of nape hair in the creation of undetectable hairlines and temples
- Umar’s Advanced FUE Hair Transplant Surgery In Los Angeles by Dr.UGraft in the News
Dr. Umar’s groundbreaking work on hair transplantation has not gone unnoticed by the media. Dr. UGraft’s success and Dr. Umar’s research have been featured in several highly-rated news reports. Among them, articles include:
- The New York Times:: Leg hair for hairlines
- The New York Times: Eyebrow transplants
- MSNBC News: Body Hair to head transplants
- Good Morning America – ABC News: Eyebrow transplants
- ELLE magazine: Eyebrow transplants
- The Hollywood Reporter: Leg hair and BHT – body hair to lead transplants
- CBS News: General hair loss discussions.
As you may see, hair transplant surgery’s side effects depend primarily on the type of hair surgery performed on the patient: FUSS vs. FUE hair transplant surgery, with the latter often resulting in minimal little to no scars, good recovery, and smoother, more natural look. To get more information on hair transplant surgery, use the button below to start a free online consultation with Dr. Umar today.
Hair Transplant Surgery Los Angeles Frequently Asked Questions:
Dr. Umar’s work sounds fascinating. Do other surgeons use the Dr.UGraft method?
Nobody else can claim to have as much experience with Dr.UGraft as Dr. Umar himself for one simple reason: he invented it! Though other doctors have shown interest in utilizing the Dr.UGraft method, Dr. Umar personally holds a patient on the surgical machinery. Patients flock worldwide to his Los Angeles office to seek hair restoration surgery with Dr.UGraft.
How much is hair transplant surgery with Dr.UGraft? How much does hair transplant surgery cost?
Cost varies from patient to patient, depending on the area requiring transplant and the number of Dr.UGrafts needed to restore hair. If cost is a factor for a patient, Dr. Umar can develop a treatment plan that will consider expense while still providing the best results possible.
I’ve undergone previous hair transplant surgery in the past with unsatisfying results. Can Dr.UGraft help me?
Yes! Dr.UGraft has become just as well known for its ability to repair botched hair transplants as its success in restoring hair. Even if other surgeries have depleted the donor area on the head or left unsightly scars, Dr.UGraft can help. Dr. UGraft’s hair transplant surgery uses hair from all over the body, vastly expanding the donor area. Furthermore, Dr.UGraft has successfully transplanted hair to conceal scarring. Dr. Umar has corrected numerous surgeries botched by other doctors with excellent results using Dr.UGraft.
Does hair transplant surgery hurt when performed with Dr.UGraft?
Dr. Umar performs the Dr.UGraft procedure using only a local anesthetic. Following a hair transplant post-surgery, he can prescribe pain medication so that patients can enjoy maximum comfort. Healing from the surgery begins immediately and can take up to a month to complete. Hair growth after hair transplant surgery starts after that and can take up to a year to reach full results.
Have more questions about the hair transplant process? Use the button below to ask Dr. Umar.
Further Reading:
- More on Body Hair Transplant
- General information on hair loss
- Patient hair transplant surgery reviews with Dr. UGraft method
