There are several methods of hair implantation available today but you need to understand that some work much better than others and the direct hair implantation method is the absolute top of the line when it comes to giving you hair growth on your head. The direct method involves manipulating individual hair follicles instead of groups of follicles like you see in the plug method or the strip method. Also called follicular unit extraction because of the fact that individual hair units are manipulated this procedure does much less damage the hair follicles and scalp during the transplant procedure and thus there is a higher success rate of each direct hair implant that with more gross surgical procedures.
When using direct hair implantation the surgeon will remove the graft as a single follicular unit with all the surrounding support structure. This includes the sebaceous glands, the adventitial sheath, and the all the other supportive blood vessels and nerve tissues. It is important to understand that a follicular unit is a physiological whole that must be kept intact in order for proper growth to be achieved in the future. This means the best results are obtained when the entire structure is removed from the scalp as a whole and no damage is done to any of the parts. This method is not to be confused with artificial hair implants because it is the patient’s own hair follicles that are transplanted not a man made material.
Historically when a patient was ready for hair implantation surgery a strip of scalp from the posterior area of the scalp would be removed in order to be used as a donation site. A team of medical assistants would then individually remove the hair follicles and all associated support tissues one at a time. This is a laborious and time consuming process but it was necessary for the protection of the follicular units. This method of course is different from what was originally used when hair transplant surgeries were first being utilized. At that time, an entire plug of scalp was removed with around 10 to 15 hair units intact. This entire plug unit was then inserted into the scalp in an incision placed in the balding area. Even with a large number of these plugs inserted the results were not very attractive. The patient tended to have what appeared to be small islet of hair sticking out in every direction from his or her scalp. This was of course very noticeable and many people claimed it looked worse than the having not hair at all. Direct hair implants are the logical conclusion to the progression away from these large transplants into singular follicular unit implantation.
Direct hair implantation allows for the individual removal of the follicle unit without damage to the surrounding scalp. Where as in the old strip method entire sections of scalp were removed in order for the medical associates to remove the units, when the direct method of hair implantation is used the entire unit is removed in one piece directly from the scalp with a special medical instrument. No longer is there problems with scarring and infection a the donor site because of the large incisions that were necessary.
There also is a much better time frame for direct hair implantation using follicular unit extraction. It was very time consuming for a team of assistants to individual remove the few thousand hair grafts needed from the strips of scalp that were removed. Imagine it, each individual hair follicle would be removed from the donor strip under microscopic amplification. They would each need to be cleaned a prepared for insertion and then, once ready, they could be inserted into the scalp. This of course drove up the cost of the hair implantation surgery because of the number of associates necessary.
With the direct hair implants procedure the surgeon can remove an individual hair implant unit and then place it directly into a pre-chosen spot on the scalp. This cuts down on the time required for the procedure and also the cost because many fewer people are needed.
The direct hair implantation surgical procedure is really the state of the art at this time because of fact that by using the follicular unit extraction method and manipulating individual hairs and follicles the cost is decreased and also the time and discomfort levels decrease. Look into this method today if you want to get hair growing on your bald spot once again.