Hair Transplants of the Future

The Future of Hair Transplant Surgery

Hair transplant procedures have come a long way since they were first used on a large scale beginning in the United States in the 1950’s. The first large round sized plugs that were used at that time have now evolved into five different transplant grafts, all with different sizes that can be used for different purposes and to create different appearances. Physicians and researches continue to study the hair loss process and make attempts at improving hair transplantation procedures. While these procedures are now the best they have ever been, and in fact, rarely fail; there is still much work that can be done. One of the trends in hair transplantation research focuses on attempting to create better results from existing procedures. The bulk of this research lies in arranging the transplanted grafts and follicular units in the most eye pleasing way possible, so that the results blend in with the remaining hair in the most optimal way. Hair transplant surgery is as much of an art as it is a science. Researchers and surgeons will continue to work towards perfecting the canvas of hair transplant surgery.

Another trend in research involves trying to get the most out of the donor hair that patient has left to them. Far too often the results the surgeon is able to achieve for the patient are severely limited by the amount of donor hair there is to work with. Since there is a limited supply, this means there is also a limited amount of coverage that can be provided to the patient. Moving an excess of donor hair to the balding or thinning area would only result in creating another thinning area elsewhere on the scalp, in the donor area.

As a result of these limitations, patients may be able to achieve some coverage of their hair loss area, but in many cases there will still appear to be some hair recession. Patients who have had to live with extreme amounts of hair loss are many times just so happy to be able to get some of their hair back, that this does not present much of an issue. Nevertheless, the search for a way in which to provide more and better results continues.

Toward this end many surgeons have experimented with dissecting individual hairs into order to multiply them in the hopes that increased coverage could be gained through this method. Studies performed using this method have not proven hopeful, to date. Experiments involving the dissection of an individual hair for the purposed of transplanting the two halves have produced dismal results. In almost all cases, neither of the dissected hair halves are able to grow once transplanted.

Surgeons continue to experiment with this method, particularly experimenting with the location of the dissection on the hair. Researchers are hopeful that these experiments will lead a discovery that will prove dissecting the hair in one of three locations will prove more advantageous in active hair growth.

Researchers are also looking into increasing the survival rate of donor hair grafts through a combination of improved methods as well as graft storage. The problem of hairs possibly being destroyed due to the use of forceps during the procedure as well as hairs drying out while waiting to be put into place in the new recipient area has been long noted by hair transplant surgeons. These situations create a serious problem when the patient has a very limited number of donor hairs and every one of them counts. In the past, grafts have been saved by using storage systems at low temperatures, while donor harvesting continued on other hairs.

During a routine hair transplant surgery, the first hairs to be excised could literally be sitting ‘on ice’ for more than hour. Studies are currently underway to determine whether changes in the storage solutions for hair transplant grafts would be able to increase the percentage of graft survivability. Initial studies have concluded that this may very well be possible. This subject continues to be the focus of much reflection among researchers and surgeons in the field of hair transplant as the length of time for hair transplant surgeries continues to expand, due to the utilization of more grafts per single session.

While there is normally a low incidence of infection following hair transplant surgery the subject of wound care is also a topic debated among researchers looking for ways to improve hair transplant surgery procedures. At the current time, a standard gauze dressing or baseball cap is given to patients in order to provide infection, along with the application of an antiseptic solution. One of the many theories that are being tossed back and forth between researchers involves the use of a moist dressing. It is believed that this type of dressing would promote a faster healing time as well as possible reduce the appearance of scarring due to surgical incisions.

As hair transplant surgery procedures become more standardized there appears to be a movement toward lowering prices for these surgeries. This is certainly good news for consumers who would have like to have had the procedure performed in earlier years but were unable to do so because of prohibitive cost factors. We are already seeing a trend where consumers feel more comfortable with the procedure and are better able to afford it. According to the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery the number of individuals taking advantage of hair transplant surgery grew an astounding 38% between 1990 and 1994.

There continues to be much debate among hair transplant surgeons regarding whether procedures utilizing follicular units or micrografts provide better results. On one side of the controversy are the physicians who believe that the discovery of follicular units was the best thing to hit the science of hair transplantation since its invention. Proponents of this procedure contend that the use of follicular units allows for an increased amount of coverage using the least amount of grafting possible, resulting in a better appearance and reduced scarring.

Micrografts and minigrafts on the other hand, involve a process of incising random single hairs from all over the donor area; rather than transplanting the same number of hairs in whole follicular units. Proponents of the follicular unit method feel that methods using micrografts and mingrafts cannot always produce the most natural of results and may lead to increased scarring. On the other hand, those who support micrograft and minigraft procedures quite accurately claim that follicular unit surgical methods cannot compare to other procedures when it comes to time savings and cost factors.

Because follicular unit methods are extremely time consuming and involve such delicate work, the cost of these surgeries tend to lead to the more expensive side of the cost range for hair transplant surgeries. In the end it all comes down to whether consumers are more concerned with a possibly less natural appearance and lower cost or higher cost, but better cosmetic results.

Work on improving the equipment and tools used in hair transplant surgery also continues among surgeons and researchers striving for developments in the hair transplant field. As computer technologies become more advanced there is no doubt that they will play a role in future hair transplant surgical procedures as well as assisting surgeons with planning for optimum results. At the current time, a densitometer is commonly used by many physicians in order to measure hair density and measure the follicular unit density required for the procedure. Some research speculates that in the future computer programs and computerized tools will be able to perform many of the same functions that surgeons are now doing by hand and using antiquated equipment like the densitometer to perform.

Additionally, the future of hair transplantation tools may make it possible for surgeons to excise hair grafts using a minimum of depth incisions; which will mean preserving as much blood flow supply as possible as well as minimizing scarring. Instrumentation which will make procedures much simpler as well as save time may also be on the horizon.

Many surgeons will that the future of hair transplant surgery will lie in cloning and that many patients will be able to receive more coverage through the cloning process. As early as 1997, steps were already underway to begin the planning phase for developing cloning procedures that could be applied to the hair transplantation field in humans. Researching involved in the initial meeting to map out the process determined that the first step that would need to be taken would be to identify and cultivate papilla cells. After a year, and a few difficulties, this task was finally undertaken and accomplished. Since that time, the next step in the roadmap to cloning of human hair as also been achieved; that of perfecting the techniques used to grow papilla cells.

Researchers are now looking toward implementing the measures they have produced in mice for the purpose of growing new hair. Should that research be approved and prove to be successful, the next step will be to perform clinical trials in human patients.

Finally, it is quite possible in the years to come that hair transplant surgery will cease to be needed at all if headway is made in genetic engineering. Just one of the many features of genetic engineering which is currently under study is the ability to demolish the ability of the genes which lead to hair loss.

Summary

Hair transplant procedures have evolved significantly in the last forty-five years. Today it is possible to create a more natural and pleasing cosmetic appearance in more patients than ever before. There still remains much work to be done. Several promising research projects lend hope to the belief that at sometime in the near future, hair transplant surgery procedures will be able to provide even better results than are possible today. Research currently underway consists of studying ways to arrange donor hair so that it is more naturally looking and pleasing to the eye. As donor hair is a limited supply, much research is being dedicated towards increasing donor supply through various means of dissection. Prices are expected to continue dropping for hair transplant surgeries as procedures become more standardized. A number of new tools are in the development and research phases that will lead to decreased scarring and increased blood flow preservation in future hair transplant surgeries. Finally, the future of hair transplant surgery may well lie in the fields of closing and genetic engineering.