Hair transplant procedures have come a long way since the days of old. These days, the procedure and its results are considerably more refined.
Hair transplants today are surgeries with long-lasting outcomes that are natural-looking. The most advanced hair transplant techniques are the result of more than 60 years of research and development of the field.
They go by the name of follicular unit excision (FUE) and direct hair implantation (DHI), both are the pinnacle of what hair transplants have to offer. Still, patients to this day inquire if a hair transplant leaves a scar. Giving a closer look at how the procedures unfold will answer that question.
Hair Transplant with Follicular Unit Excision (FUE)
The FUE hair transplant technique represents a departure from strip surgery, the procedure that preceded it. It offers a one by one direct extraction of the hair follicles from the donor site, which is the back of the scalp.
The procurement starts with the surgeon shaving the back and the sides of the patient’s head to have a better view of the hair follicles. Once the surgeon administers anaesthesia, either local or general, the patient gets numb, and the surgery is ready to start.
The surgeon goes on to make a microscopic incision with a scalpel of 1mm or less in diameter close to the hair follicle. After the initial cut, they rotate the scalpel around the hair follicle to exercise the rest of the tissue holding it.
Once free from the flesh, the surgeon uses forceps to extract the hair follicle, which goes on a tray for later use. The procedure repeats to extract as many hair follicles as needed.
When the surgeon has extracted all the hair follicles the patient requires, the surgery moves unto the grafting phase. Now the surgeon will make microscopic incisions into the balding area of the scalp where the new hair will grow.
Through these incisions, they insert the grafts in place one by one following your hair’s natural growth pattern. When the last graft is in place, the surgery ends.
Hair Transplant with Direct Hair Implantation (DHI)
The procedure for direct hair implantation is similar since it is actually the very same procedure that FUE up until the grafting phase. For the grafting, the DHI technique employs an implanter device called a ‘Choi pen’. The Choi pen is a tool that features a chamber where to insert the hair graft for implant.
The surgeon places the Choi pen over the patient’s head in the exact place and angle where they wish to implant the graft and then presses the button. A hollow 1mm or less scalpel blade descends from the pen and makes the incision on the scalp.
At the same time, the hair follicles shoot down the hollow duct of the blade and grafts instantly into the incision it just made. The Choi pen allows performing the incision and grafting at once instead of placing the graft manually one by one. Thus, the surgery is usually faster than the other methods.
So, Does a Hair Transplant Leave a Scar?
In both procedures, the donor area receives as many incisions as hair follicles the surgery requires to extract. The incisions will scab after a few days, and a few more days later the scab will fall, leaving microscopic, tiny little dots.
Once the surrounding hair grows, it will conceal the dots further, preventing anyone from not looking up close to see them. So, a hair transplant does not leave a scar with both FUE and DHI techniques, several very tiny dots, which are easily concealed.
They are a vast improvement from strip surgery which required to take the namesake strip of hair from the donor site. FUE and DHI represent the best of hair transplants precisely, in this sense.
You can’t do better than FUE and DHI when it comes to a hair transplant in the sense of scarring. Contact us to give you a hair transplant that barely anyone could tell at first glance if you had any work done.