 Facial hair transplantation is a procedure designed to restore hair to the beard and mustache region to thicken the existing hair or to provide hair growth where there is none. The absence of hair could be due to genetics, prior electrolysis or laser hair removal, or even trauma due to surgery, burns or other types of accidents. Some patients seek to have restored a full, thick beard and mustache, others desire a fuller goatee, while others seek to have hair placed into a visible scar.
The donor hairs come from the scalp, which are essentially identical in their texture and growth to the beard and mustache hairs. Once transplanted, the hairs are permanent, and need to be shaved (if desired) just like the other hairs. To provide a completely natural appearance, the hairs are transplanted as one and two hair grafts, the natural way beard hair grows. Other steps taken to assure naturalness include the careful placement of the grafts at the exact correct angle, the use of all-microscopically dissected grafts that can be placed in the smallest possible incisions so as to minimize scarring, and even the aesthetic distribution of any existing gray hairs into the restored areas. Note that these hairs transplanted into the face are no longer available for transplanting into the scalp if the patient desires to undergo restoration of any male pattern hair loss that may develop in the future, thus meaning that there will be fewer hairs available for this area.
 A procedure typically involves the placement of 200 to as many as 2200 one and two hair grafts, depending upon the desired density and the size of the areas to be covered. Performed usually under a mild oral sedative, the 3 to 4 hour procedure is essentially painless, as is the recovery period. For the first 4 days after the procedure, tiny crusts are around each transplanted hair. By 5 days, other than some occasional mild pinkness which fades out over the next 3 days, patients are able to return to normal activities without any sign of having had a procedure. Sutures that are placed in the donor area are removed at 8 to 10 days. The transplanted hairs fall out at around 2 weeks, then start to regrow at 3 months, where they will continue to grow for a lifetime.
There are few risks with the procedure, and most are those associated with standard hair transplants. The donor site incision typically heals as a 2 mm wide incision, easily concealable with hair that is cut with anything longer than a razor with a #2 or #3 guard. In the over 100 cases that our team has performed, there have been 2 cases of several tiny white bumps in the area right below the central aspect of the lower lip. While these occurred in patients with dark thick hair, because of this small risk of scarring, we recommend that this small area not be transplanted.
If you have any other hair transplant questions, about follicular unit grafts, or other hair transplant issues, please don't hesitate to contact our office. |
