Complaints & connections · borters.ch
Transplanted hairs keep the property of where they came from — they do not fall out. The native hairs beside them go on doing so, and from that comes the gap visible ten years later.
Also known as: hair transplantation · FUE · FUT · strip harvest · follicular unit grafting
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
The whole procedure rests on a single observation: follicles from the back of the head barely respond to DHT and keep that insensitivity wherever they are placed. That is why transplanted hair goes on growing at the forehead, where the original hair has gone.
Two ways of harvesting are usual. In strip harvesting a band of skin is cut from the back and divided under the microscope into single units; a fine crosswise scar remains, which short hair makes visible. In single-unit harvesting the units are taken out one by one with a fine punch; many dotted scars remain and the session takes longer. Fifteen hundred to three thousand units per session is usual, a unit carrying one to four hairs.
The timetable is what surprises most often. The transplanted hairs fall out again after two to six weeks — that is expected, the root stays. From the third or fourth month it grows back, and the result is judged at twelve to eighteen months. And most importantly: the procedure does not stop the course. The native hairs around it keep thinning, so that without accompanying treatment a gap appears after years between the transplanted part and the rest. Anyone starting very young, before it is clear how far the pattern will go, has that problem most of all.
Fifteen hundred to three thousand units per session, a unit holding one to four hairs. Shedding after two to six weeks, regrowth from month three to four, judgement at twelve to eighteen months. Judging earlier means judging an in-between stage.
The clearer it is where the pattern ends, the better one can plan where the limited number of units belongs. With a course still running, the question of accompanying treatment belongs with it — otherwise one plans around an area that will not exist in five years.
The price is usually counted per unit. With it belong the questions of who actually places the units, how many sessions are planned, what the follow-ups cost and what happens if part of it does not take. This is surgery, not an appointment.
The transplanted hairs fall out, the roots stay. Without knowing that, one takes the procedure for a failure — in exactly the month when everything is going to plan.
Insensitive hair is moved to a sensitive place. The native hair beside it goes on responding to DHT and thins. Without accompanying treatment a visible border grows between the two over the years.
What is taken from the back does not grow back there. The number of available units is limited and helps decide how far a result can go at all — across several sessions too.
Having a hairline set in one’s early twenties means not yet knowing how far the pattern will go. The line stays, the hair behind it goes — and the line ends up standing alone.
Facial swelling for some days, crusts, numbness in the donor or recipient field for weeks to months, inflamed follicles, rarely infection or raised scars. Some of the native hair around it can shed temporarily because of the procedure.