Hair Transplant

Hair transplantation is a surgical hair restoration technique in which follicular units containing one to four hairs are harvested from the genetically resistant occipital donor area and implanted into androgenetic alopecia recipient zones. It is offered to adults with stable male or female pattern hair loss, traction or scarring alopecia, and selected reconstructive cases such as eyebrow or beard restoration. NHS guidance notes that hair transplantation is not funded as routine cosmetic surgery in the UK, which is one of the reasons many patients travel internationally for the procedure. The two dominant modern techniques are Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE), in which each follicular unit is harvested directly with a circular punch under 1 mm in diameter, and Direct Hair Implantation (DHI), a variant of FUE in which grafts are implanted with a Choi pen that simultaneously creates the recipient incision and places the graft. FUE leaves only tiny, dot-like scars and avoids the linear scar of older strip (FUT) techniques, with faster healing and less downtime according to peer-reviewed literature. A single session typically takes 6-8 hours under local anaesthesia and may transfer 1,500-4,500 grafts depending on the donor supply and recipient area. Most transplanted hairs shed in the first two to four weeks ("shock loss") before the dormant follicles re-enter the growth cycle, with visible regrowth from three to four months and a final cosmetic result at 12-18 months. More than one session may be needed for advanced baldness. Sources: NHS, MedlinePlus, NIH/PMC peer-reviewed FUE literature.