"Surgeons used to use instruments called punches, which looked like cookie cutters, to make circular incisions in the head, and it gave the appearance of a doll's head," says Dr. Ivan Cohen, an associated clinical professor of dermatology at Yale University School of Medicine and a hair transplant surgeon in private practice in Fairfield, Conn. "With new techniques, we take hair from the back of the head in tiny strips and then separate it into follicular unit. We then use tiny needles to plant the hairs back into the scalp."
This technique, known as follicular unit transplantation, is most widely used transplant approach. Some surgeons, however, use a technique called follicular unit extraction in which hair is removed and transplanted with a 1-mm punch that can grab the follicular unit. Follicular unit extraction is considered most appropriate for people with limited hair loss, athletes who need to resume activity right after surgery, and those whose scars widen over time.
With the new techniques, experts say most people with pattern baldness who have a sufficient amount of donor hair are good candidates for hair transplantation. This includes people with any kind of hair type, and women, who are having more and more transplants.
Surgeons note that a large part of their practices is devoted to corrective work, which usually involves repairing old transplants by dividing the transplanted hair into follicular units and re-transplanting it.
Realistic Expectations
