Hair transplantation: A brief review

Abstract

Hair transplantation is a safe and effective treatment option in patients with male and female pattern hair loss. Alopecia leads to a lack of self-confidence and social withdrawal in young patients when compared to their peers with good hair density. Patient selection, counseling, and planning the procedure have equal importance as that of the hair transplantation surgery itself. Follicular unit transplantation (FUT) and follicular unit extraction (FUE) are the two commonly used techniques of hair restoration. In FUT, a strip of tissue is excised from the occipital donor area resulting in a linear scar. Whereas in FUE, the scarring can be avoided as small individual follicular units are harvested and transplanted in the recipient area. FUE is emerging as a most opted hair restoration procedure in patients with patterned hair loss. This review elaborates on the procedure of FUE in brief and gives a detailed step-by-step guide for performing the procedure.

Keywords

• follicular unit extraction
• follicular unit transplantation
• hair restoration surgery
• hair transplantation