Hair transplants go Star Wars: laser grafting procedures
We've all heard about laser hair removal but did you know that lasers are used in hair transplant procedures as well?
The Food and Drug Administration approved laser hair grafting in the 1990s and it soon became a popular method of hair transplantation. Lasers are used to create tiny holes into which hair follicles are transplanted. Healing is faster and there is no scarring at the site of transplant. Nevertheless, there are some negative aspects to this procedure. For example, lasers reduce blood circulation to new grafts because they seal blood vessels. This causes the hair graft to grow at a slower pace than usual, occasionally resulting in uneven hair growth patterns.
What are the laser grafting steps?
Laser hair grafting is completed in the following steps:
- Hair grafts are taken from the back of the head (the donor area).
- The individual roots of the hair grafts are separated into plugs containing single or double hairs.
- The plugs are transplanted into evenly spaced holes in the bald area that have been prepared by the laser.
These steps are repeated until the desired area has been covered successfully. The procedure takes about three to four hours to complete and is performed under local anesthesia. Depending on the size of the balding area, about 1,000-2,000 grafts are placed in the scalp during the surgery.
Surgeons inform their patients that the scabs will fall off within one to two weeks, after which time they will begin to see results, followed by a growth period of 3-6 months. It is important to note that laser hair grafting has become somewhat obsolete, as new and improved technological advances have been made in the field of hair restoration.
