Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Is the latest technique the best technique?




With technology, the saying has always been: the latest, the better; like smart phones and new cars. However, this does not apply with hair transplantation. The human body is a very intricate and complicated system. Pharmaceutical companies invest years, billions of dollars, and multiple phases of clinical tests to develop the newest medications. But even with extensive research, the medications still get recalled occasionally.

Basically, a hair transplant is only a relocation of hair from the back of the head to the desired area. It’s a very easy and simple procedure. However, this makes it difficult to stand out from other clinics. In order to convince potential clients, you have to create something brand new and different. Something that is very convincing and feasible.  For example, laser hair transplants were very popular twenty years ago. At that time, lasers were the the latest invention. It was the best marketing tool which is why doctors spoke so highly of the many laser hair transplant advantages. However, they did not realize that the laser sealed the blood supply as well. When people discovered that laser hair transplants held very poor yield rates and results, a few years had already passed. A lot of donor hair was wasted and a great amount of damage was done. Currently, no one mentions laser hair transplants anymore. Scalp reduction, flap, extension, expansion and ultra slim dense packing claim to transplant more than 3,000 very slim SFU to qualify as being advantageous. However, body hair transplants and eyelash transplants went through that course and all failed. Concurrently, there has been a lot of improvement on hair transplantation. But so far it is still only a relocation of the hair.


The latest techniques on hair transplantation always have a different surgical approach.

A surgical trend like FUE is very convincing and catches the interest of a lot of patients. More importantly is how profitable it is for the doctors. Doctors concentrate on how to produce the perfect grafts but they overlook the more important aspect. How efficient can FUE use the donor area? After the first surgery there will be thousands of punch scars around the donor site. This is worrisome because scar tissues will have a big impact on the hair growth direction. What will be the quality of the grafts by the second surgery? If patients keep losing hair, how will they handle the thousands of scars that will show someday? What is the maximum donor area that can be used? No one currently has the right answer and no one dares to bring up the problems either.


For patients who choose the latest technique for hair transplantation, they are taking a lot of  risks. 

When you want to have the latest hair transplant surgery, you should always be very cautious and use your own judgement. I am sure the FUE technique will be one that will cause major problems in the future.

FUE was called "punch graft" 30 years ago, the only difference is that size of punch is reduced. The scars are smaller but still stay forever.