hair grafts Archives - Miami Hair Institute

Articles Tagged with: hair grafts

October 4, 2021

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.

October 30, 2014

The Future of ARTAS® Hair Restoration

The introduction of robotic follicular unit extraction (FUE) hair transplant procedures represents a significant achievement in the field of hair restoration. Today, surgeons can perform hair transplants with greater ease and precision, delivering a better patient experience and a beautifully natural end-result. Millions of men and women suffer with hair loss worldwide; today, advanced methods of hair restoration mean those individuals no longer have to let fear, embarrassment, or anxiety take away from the enjoyment of everyday life.

Last year, our practice became one of the first 13 clinics in the United States to acquire the ARTAS® System for robotic FUE transplant. Since that time, countless men and women have experienced the comfortable, minimally invasive procedure firsthand. Today’s robotic FUE procedures are just the beginning, however. It is with great pleasure and excitement that we share more information on current ARTAS procedures, as well as a special look at what the future holds.

Today’s Robotic FUE Procedure

FUE procedures are similar in concept to traditional strip donor hair transplants. Both procedures transplant donor hair from one healthy area of the scalp to the area that is receding and/or experiencing hair loss. Unlike strip donor, however, FUE procedures use a small punch instrument to remove individual clusters of donor hair. In this way, the development of FUE marks a significant milestone in which surgeons became able to perform transplants without extracting a linear strip of donor tissue— an extraction that inevitably left a long, linear scar.

Robotic FUE now enables surgeons to extract donor hair more quickly while simultaneously reducing trauma to the scalp. Surgeons use advanced robotics and high-resolution digital imaging to guide the robotic arm to make minimally invasive extractions that preserve the healthiest donor hair for transplant. With the assistance of robotic FUE systems like the ARTAS, Dr. Paul Rose estimates that up to 1,500 grafts can be harvested in about 2 hours— half the time it takes to harvest the same number of grafts by hand.

Watch: Dr. Rose Presents ARTAS on CBS Miami

An added advantage: ARTAS selects donor hair at random to preserve the natural look of the patient’s donor areas (typically the sides and rear of the head).

The Future of ARTAS Procedures

Perhaps most exciting is the future of ARTAS procedures. Today, ARTAS is used to assist surgeons in identifying and extracting near-perfect donor hair for transplant. Following extraction, surgeons must prep and transplant donor hairs by hand, carefully inserting them into “recipient sites” on the patient’s scalp. According to Drs. Rose and Nusbaum, ARTAS may soon make that process more comfortable and efficient. In a letter to patients, the surgeons explain:

Until now, the ARTAS robotic technology was involved only in removing follicles from the donor area. ARTAS will soon, however, expand its role, as the robot capabilities have been expanded to the creation of the small openings (recipient sites) into which the donor grafts are inserted in the balding or thinning areas. The physician will design the recipient area pattern completely on a computer image of the patient, delineating the borders of the area to be transplanted and will also specify the direction and angle of the small openings which subsequently determines the direction and growth angle of the transplanted hairs. This information is inputted to the robotic system, which will make the sites avoiding existing hair. ARTAS controls the depth of each tiny opening and can create different hair densities in selected areas and can even create irregularity at the hairline for naturalness. This should allow the surgery to proceed more efficiently, yet still leaves room for that important human artistic input.

Learn More About ARTAS in Miami

To learn more robotic FUE and hair transplant in Miami, visit our page on the ARTAS System or call our Institute directly at 305-925-0222.

October 7, 2014

All About Hair Grafts

Surgical hair transplant has long relied on the use of hair grafts to restore areas of balding scalp with natural waves of full, real hair. The history of hair grafts can be traced back to as early as 1930s, Japan. There, scientists experimented with the first primitive hair grafts and hair restoration techniques. It was not until the middle of the century— nearly two decades later— that the practice of hair grafting would first appear in the Western world.

The very first hair graft tools and procedures were introduced to Americans in the late 1950s by a New York dermatologist, Dr. Norman Orentreich. Medical researchers say this marked the onset of the modern era of hair transplant, a movement that ultimately culminates with the invention of advanced “hair transplant robots” that assist in today’s procedures.

Grafting Procedures

Generally speaking, hair grafts are used during most hair transplant procedures. These procedures might be performed in a variety of different ways. To illustrate, let’s examine the 3 most popular types of hair grafting procedures in Miami: Strip donor transplant, follicular unit transplant, and new robotic FUE transplant.

1. Strip donor transplant

The strip donor transplant requires the extraction of a long, narrow strip of scalp from the donor area. Sometimes referred to as a linear graft, this section of scalp is very small and nearly painless to remove after the application of a local anesthetic.

The linear graft produced during a strip donor hair transplant may vary in size according to individual patient needs. Typically, the strip of donor hair contains 30-40 hair grafts. Following extraction, surgeons carefully separate the strip into individual micrografts (clusters of about 3-4 hairs each). These hair grafts are then transplanted by hand to complete the surgical hair restoration procedure. They can be used to create a natural looking hairline, fill in areas around the temples, or reconstruct the crown.

2. Follicular unit transplantation

Like the strip donor procedure outlined above, the follicular unit transplantation procedure requires the extraction of hair grafts from a donor area. Unlike strip donor procedures, however, FUT procedures do not extract a linear strip of donor hair. Instead, a small punch-like instrument is used to extract individual micrografts directly from the scalp. These micrografts contain clusters of 3-4 donor hairs each, which are similarly transplanted by the surgeon to recreate a patient’s hairline, temporal regions, and/or crown.

FUT offers a few key benefits over traditional strip donor procedures, the most notable of which is the ability to leave the donor area nearly scar-free. While strip donor procedures leave a small linear scar that is sometimes visible when hair is cut very short, FUT procedures leave only reddish colored dots at the site of each micrograft extraction. These marks are nearly invisible to the naked eye, allowing the patient to wear his or her hair very short after the procedure is performed.

3. Robotic FUE

The newest trend in hair transplant technology, robotic FUE systems are making headlines for bringing higher speeds and greater precision to the art of hair transplant.

With the assistance of advanced digital imaging and robotics technology, surgeons are now able to identify and extract specific hair micrografts in a more comfortable and minimally invasive way. This reduces trauma to the scalp, speeds the procedure, and ultimately improves patient experience. What’s more, these new hair transplant robots survey the entire donor area to ensure hair grafts are selected in a random fashion that helps to maintain the thickness, density, and scalp health.

Learn more about robotic FUE technology by visiting our ARTAS® Miami page.

Learn More About Hair Grafting

Millions of men and women suffer with the personal and social angst of hair loss every day. If you suffer with thinning, balding, or shedding hair, rest assured you are not alone. Learn more about hair grafting and surgical hair restoration at the Hair Transplant Institute of Miami by calling our clinic directly at 305-925-0222.