What Is a Hair Graft and How Is It Created?

In hair restoration surgery, we transplant living, healthy follicles from your donor area – usually the back and sides of your scalp – into thinning areas. These follicles comprise the “grafts” that are at the core of hair transplant surgery.

Strip Graft Harvesting v. One-At-A-Time

We form hair grafts by removing tissue from the donor area because that tissue can support hair growth. We then take that viable tissue and the follicles that they contain and carefully transplant them to areas of the scalp that no longer support hair growth on their own.

There are two main techniques for creating, harvesting, and transplanting hair grafts. When using the Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT), the surgeon will remove strips of tissue containing many follicles and transplant that strip all at once. In Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE), however, the grafts are harvested one by one. The surgeons at the Miami Hair Institute were pioneers of the FUE technique, which has now become a worldwide approach to hair restoration.

How We Create, Preserve, and Transplant Grafts Using FUE

During an FUE procedure, we use high-resolution digital imaging to identify, select, and remove grafts with extraordinary care and precision. The objective is to harvest grafts with the best chance of growing in the transplant area and leave most of the donor area hair in place and undisturbed so that it retains its natural look.

Given that goal, we try to remove as few grafts as possible to achieve the desired result. Equally important, we want as many grafts as possible to survive the extraction and transplant process. If removed grafts are not preserved in the most effective manner possible, they could lose their viability, leaving even fewer grafts available for transplantation.

Keeping hair follicle cells from dying during that period between removal and transplantation involves storing the hair in a preservative solution. We use a HypoThermosol + ATP solution in our hair transplant procedures because it provides the highest possible survival rate of the grafts and follicles we extract until they are ready to be transplanted. It is part of our ongoing commitment to using the most advanced techniques in hair restoration to help our patients achieve optimal results.

FUE transplants have a 90-95 percent hair graft survival rate compared to the older FUT method’s approximately 75 percent survival rate. The precision harvesting of FUE minimizes trauma or transection of the grafts during the harvesting process.

Schedule an Appointment for a Hair Loss Evaluation Today

If you are ready to take the first step towards addressing your hair loss issues, we invite you to schedule a personalized evaluation at the Miami Hair Institute. Our Drs. Nusbaum and Rose are internationally acclaimed hair restoration surgeons with more than 40 years of combined experience. To receive a personalized evaluation and treatment plan, contact us online or call our office directly at 305-925-0222.