Hair Transplant Repair

Hair Transplant Repair Procedures utilize the most advanced techniques and technologies to provide solutions to address common issues, improve outcomes, and pave the way for better patient satisfaction.

Understanding Hair Transplant Complications
But how much do you know about the techniques behind hair transplant repair, and what are the potential complications from earlier hair transplants? Not all hair transplant complications are caused by old techniques; in fact, bad results may arise due to surgeon error or even poor post-operative care. Here is a list of what might go awry in earlier transplants, and drive people to seek hair transplant repair:

• Unnatural Hairline: An exaggeratedly even or nondescript hairline is another obvious clue that your hair has been transplanted, especially when the grafts were placed too low, too high or otherwise without proper regard for angling, density and other aesthetic features. An unnatural hairline makes the restoration obvious, which defeats the purpose of a hair restoration that does not look enhanced.
• Sparse Hair Density: Some transplants fail to provide the promised density due to the unfortunate luck of insufficient follicle harvesting or implantation, or because the follicles die at some point between the surgery and the eventual emergence of the transplanted hair. This can lead to a weak, sparse appearance in which the mask is so thin it adds loser-like glows to your visible scalp under direct light.
• Visible Scarring: Older ‘strip harvesting’ techniques such as Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) leave a scar, especially if the patient keeps it shaved or keeps his head trimmed short, and newer techniques such as Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) can cause visible dotting or even scarring if they’re performed improperly.
• Follicular Death: The survival rate of these follicles, particularly before, after and during the implant phase, determine if the transplanted hair will grow. Poor technique at any stage can lead to the death of the follicles. This commonly leads to poor results demanding repair.
• Poor Graft Placement: This occurs most at the front of the grafting area – an inexperienced medical implanter might create a very disorganized pattern of growth. Perhaps the patient ends up with some implants stuck to the sides of the tips of the scalp, degrading the quality of the hair pattern. Other examples include implanting grafts at the wrong angle, wrong spacing, or incorrect positions. All this can cause a ‘doll hair’ look, where grafts appear too bushy or clumped together – quite unlike the natural human appearance.

Innovations in Hair Transplant Repair
Now that we’ve accepted that balding is not the result of any medical problem and because of medical advancements and cosmetic surgeries, balding can be corrected in many cases. Hair has become a critical part of men’s perceived attractiveness and masculinity, which reacts to the healing of balding with modern hair transplant repair. This repair can provide a natural, dense and aesthetic solution to these issues. As a leading expert in the field, I will describe the most modern techniques and technologies in modern hair transplant repair today.

Corrective Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE)
Thanks in large part to advances arising from FUE, cutting-edge hair restoration surgery today actually looks less like traditional strip surgery and more like a fine-art restoration professional repairing a damaged painting. FUE operations are also considerably less traumatic to the body and donor area than older, more invasive strip (FUT) methods. For repair work, FUE is typically the sole choice of technique. The best hair transplant surgeons will remove individual follicular units from one part of the donor area and redistribute them to correctly rebuild the affected zone.

How FUE is Used in Repair:

• Hairline Correction: Grafts previously placed can be removed and re-implanted at the correct angle and location to create a natural hairline.
• Scar Revision: Hair follicles from an unaffected donor area are used to redistribute follicular units to cover up scars, which can make old transplant scars disappear.
• Add to Density: FUE can be used to add depth and fullness to areas that weren’t transplanted thick enough at the original procedure.

Because of the very small scars that these modern FUE techniques leave behind, M> hair transplant is a good option for people who had bad scarring from their FUT procedures many years ago.

Scalp Micropigmentation (SMP)
As a cosmetic, non-invasive treatment, SMP (which stands for Scalp Micropigmentation) has become a popular adjunct to hair transplant surgery, particularly in repair when hair transplants have not fulfilled their promise or have left telltale scars. I think that it is fair to say that the era of natural-looking hair on one’s own head never really died out, it just went underground … SMP is essentially the tattooing of tiny dots, which give the appearance of thousands of tiny hairs One of the drawbacks of hair transplant surgery is that it fails to camouflage scars, typically caused by linear incisions that are up to 1.5cm thick, or sometimes by punch incisions made with a round blade about the size of a AA battery. It also can’t add the illusion of density where a patient has very thin, transparent hair that, despite transplantation, still looks unnatural. This is where SMP comes in.

How SMP is Used in Repair:

• Scar Camouflage: SMP can also be used to cover up linear scars from FUT or dotting from FUE by blending them into the surrounding scalp.
• Density Illusion: SMP can be used to create the appearance of fuller hair in those patients who may have thin hair due to other reasons or poor density from a previous transplant without additional surgery.

Although many patients do opt for a shaved-head look, as you might expect, one option is to have the technician simulate a closely cropped ‘five o’clock shadow’ with an SMP. This can give a sleek, low-upkeep effect.

SMP, which offers an immediate cosmetic result but does not actually lead to hair growth, is a good choice for those looking for quick results.

Body Hair Transplantation (BHT)
This procedure allows for more hair coverage when the donor hair supply on the patient’s scalp is exhausted. In this instance, a hair transplant involving body hair transplantation (BHT) is highly recommended. This procedure is carried out by harvesting hairs from other parts of the body (chest, beard, legs, etc.) and implanting them in the recipient site, the scalp.

How BHT is Used in Repair:

• Supplementing Donor Hair Supply: For patients not previously having dense hair, or who have had multiple hair transplants in the past and have a limited supply of donor hair, BHT offers a supplemental source of hair for transplantation.
• Enhance Hairline and Density When men have plenty of body hair, such as in the beard or chest, dermatologists can harvest it to improve density in areas where the scalp hair is sparse.
• Although body hair is thinner and coarser than scalp hair and has a different growth cycle, we can integrate both types of hair with natural-looking results through modern-day transplantation techniques.

Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) Therapy
Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) therapy is a regenerative treatment harnessing the power of your own body to stimulate hair growth. PRP is a solution enriched in growth factors, substances that prompt the growth of new cells, and can be used in the rehabilitation of damaged follicles to increase hair count. It can be used in combination with hair transplant surgery to ensure that the most follicles survive and grow after transplantation.

How PRP is Used in Repair:

• Revitalization of follicles: PRP has shown promise in repairing damaged or dormant hair follicles, a technique proving especially useful on areas where the initial transplant did not take well.
• Post Op Recovery: To reduce the healing time and improve the benefits of the repair and reattachment of the tendons and ligaments, there are surgeons who advise to add PRP therapy after a surgery.
• Thickening existing hair: Finally, PRP can enhance thinning hair by injecting it into the site of the hair, creating thicker shafts and, accordingly, density.

Because it is given in a few sessions over the course of a couple of months, PRP injections more naturally facilitates repair without the need for highly invasive surgery.

Laser Therapy for Hair Restoration
Laser therapy can also be beneficial as a non-invasive adjunctive therapy: arouse the dormant follicles in hair transplants with low-level laser therapy (LLLT) which promote growth and enhances blood flow in the scalp region inducing hair regrowth.

How Laser Therapy is Used in Repair:

• Post-Operative Healing: Following a repair surgery, LLLT accelerates healing by assisting tissue regeneration and reducing inflammation.
• Positive effects during hair regrowth and transplantation: laser therapy can cause more hair to grow from the follicles during transplant surgery, and this treatment technique encourages more hair regrowth during recovery.
• Non-Surgical Maintenance: Following hair transplant surgery, laser therapy can be used effectively for continued maintenance of results or to protect hair and prevent further hair loss.

LLLT is often used alongside PRP therapy and/or topical hair growth solutions to enhance results.

Hairline Lowering and Forehead Reduction Surgery
This type of hair transplant repair technique may not be the best approach for many patients with high or asymmetric hairlines, or too large a forehead. Those patients are better served by having a ‘hairline lowering’, or ‘forehead reduction’ procedure – literally, a surgery where the hair-bearing scalp is advanced forward and the size of the forehead is reduced.

How Hairline Lowering is Used in Repair:

• Lowering High Hairlines: This is ideal for patients where a previous transplant placed the hairline too high or unnatural, to lower the hairline and make it look natural.
• Balancing Facial Proportions: Used with a hair transplant, this can result in a hairline that is symmetric, proportionate and fits the face.
• While less traumatic than FUE or FUT, it is invasive surgery that can provide patients with an immediate and dramatic recovery of a lower, more natural hairline.

Importance of Choosing a Skilled Surgeon
While the improvements for hair transplant repair have been significant, these procedures are only as good as the surgeon’s experience and skills. Hair transplant repair is a unique and specialized field of surgery requiring meticulous planning, artistic skill, surgical dexterity, and talent. When you are looking for a repair, it is important to find a board-certified hair restoration physician with a track record of repair success.

Key Considerations When Choosing a Surgeon:
Experience in Repair Cases: Repair work is challenging and meticulous. Not all hair transplant surgeons have done it and specifically address these problems There is caution in a casual mention that all hair restoration surgeons hide incisions, viewed over nine years; there is less caution in a case study by hair transplant surgeon Patrick long that discusses ‘early or late aware trichophytic donor closures’, as this discussion is meant for other surgeons.

Look at Before-and-After Photos: Many plastic surgeons who repair ears will have photos of previous repair cases. You can use these cases as a guideline to assess the level of skill a particular surgeon has and the types of results that you can expect.

Referrals: Speak to previous patients or read reviews to get a feel for the surgeon’s reputation and patient experience.

The Future of Hair Transplant Repair
Now that hair transplant repair is a reality, the potential of new medical technologies is being realized. The future looks bright for the procedure. Some of the advancements include stem cell therapy that could regenerate hair follicles; gene editing techniques that could serve to prevent or reverse hair loss at the molecular level; and the utilization of artificial intelligence (AI) within surgical tools for greater precision and treatment accuracy while placing grafts in the patient’s scalp in order to improve the aesthetic results.

And nowadays, as we have tools like FUE, SMP, PRP and other modalities that work, patients who have had a previous hair transplant repair can indeed have a second chance to have natural-looking, dense hair with a great look. Hair transplant repair is getting closer to its golden days once again, fueled by a combination of celestial art and scientific prowess.