Facial Hair in Hair Restoration Surgery: Beard Transplantation and Beard-To-Scalp Hair Restoration.

Restoration of the beard region has become an important component of hair restoration surgery due to increased awareness of its natural-appearing results. In the author's experience performing more than 700 primary beard hair transplants and tens of reparative procedures, key aesthetic steps include proper graft dissection so that one- and two-hair grafts contain a minimal cuff of surrounding skin, acute angulation and appropriate direction of recipient sites using the smallest possible recipient-site blades, and aesthetic design.

Gender-Affirmation Hair Transplantation Techniques.

Hair restoration can play an important role for transgender patients seeking gender-affirmation procedures. In our clinic, we have seen an increase in transgender patients seeking hair restoration. The most common hair restoration procedures performed in our clinic for the transgender patient are hairline lowering procedures, facial hair restoration procedures including eyebrow and beard transplantation, and body hair transplantation.

Hair Transplantation Techniques for the Transgender Patient.

Hair transplantation can play a complementary role in the spectrum of gender transformation procedures sought by transgender patients undergoing gender transformation surgery. The authors' clinic has seen an increase in the demand for hair restoration in transgender patients. Hairline lowering, eyebrow transplantation, and pubic hair transplantation can play roles for male-to-female transgender patients whereas beard hair transplantation and body hair transplantation can play integral roles for female-to-male patients seeking gender transformation surgery. This article delineates an experience in the role hair restoration plays for transgender patients and outlines a surgical approach for these hair restoration procedures.

Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Stromal Vascular Fraction for Hair Loss: Current Status.

The current state of the applicability of cell therapy for the treatment of various conditions of hair loss reveals a promising and potentially effective role. Further research, based on published work to date, is indicated to further explore the potential roles of autologous fat grafting, mesenchymal stem cells, and stromal vascular fraction therapy. The authors' evolving experience matches these promising scientific findings.

Evolution of techniques in hair transplantation: a 12-year perspective.

Few if any fields of medicine have undergone such dramatic advancements in technique and outcomes as surgical hair restoration over the past 12 years. Not very long ago, the procedure produced results that were, from a cosmetic perspective, acceptable at best; we are now capable of creating results that truly are natural and undetectable in appearance. These developments have clearly resulted in a procedure-follicular unit hair transplanting-far superior in outcome to the once popular other surgical hair restoration procedures of bald scalp reductions and scalp flap surgery, as well as micro- and mini-grafting.

The treatment of female pattern hair loss and other applications of surgical hair restoration in women.

In the specialty of surgical hair restoration, men comprise more than 90% of the patients treated; however, in the last few years the number of women undergoing the procedure has increased significantly. The reasons for this growth are many and include the increase in public awareness of the efficacy of hair transplantation from such sources as the media,the Internet, advertising and word of mouth. More importantly, advances in technique have significantly improved results, increasing the confidence level in women to undergo the procedure and in hair transplant specialists to offer it.

Hair transplantation to the eyebrow, eyelashes, and other parts of the body.

Since its earliest applications, hair transplantation has been used for treating not only the scalp in pattern baldness but also other parts of the body, commencing with eyebrow reconstruction. The earliest micrografts were applied to the eyebrow more than 30 years before their application to the scalp became the standard of care. Today hair transplantation is applied to a number of other areas. The principle behind transplanting these areas is the same-once transplanted, the hairs continue to grow because of the phenomenon of donor dominance. This article reviews the role and technique of hair transplantation to the eyebrows and eyelids, chest, beard and moustache, and pubic escutcheon.

Follicular-unit hair grafting: state-of-the-art surgical technique.

The goal in hair restoration is natural-appearing results. Improvements in the field of hair transplantation have developed with this goal in mind. The most recent development is the follicular-unit grafting technique, which relies on microscopic dissection to produce grafts, each containing a follicular unit, the natural bundling of 1 to 4 hairs, with a minimum amount of non-hair-bearing surrounding skin. For patients desiring surgical hair restoration, proponents of follicular-unit grafting advocate the technique for its superior results. Detractors point to the technical challenges of performing the procedure and the need for a staff of trained assistants for the microscopic dissection. What is clear is that this demanding procedure is taking the field of hair restoration the closest ever to its ultimate goal-undetectability.

Hair transplantation in women: treating female pattern baldness and repairing distortion and scarring from prior cosmetic surgery.

The role of hair transplantation in men is well established. In women, the procedure is much less common, but has a definite role in the management of female pattern baldness and the repair of alopecic scarring and hairline distortion as a result of prior facial plastic surgery. When performing hair transplantation in women, there are differences in technique from that used in men to consistently achieve excellent results and minimize complications. Over the past 3 years, I have performed 86 hair transplant procedures on women. Most of these cases were for female pattern baldness. The techniques used and typical results are presented herein. When performed properly for the appropriate indications, hair transplantation is an effective procedure with a very high level of patient satisfaction.

Hair transplantation for men with advanced degrees of hair loss.

In the field of surgical hair restoration, there is probably no greater challenge than treating the individual with advanced male pattern hair loss. Recent developments in follicular unit grafting and recognition of the natural appearance of the transplanted frontal forelock have now made it possible to obtain excellent, undetectable results in these patients. Over a 22-month period, the onset correlating with the time when the author began to use the technique of follicular unit grafting, 61 of 322 hair transplant procedures (approximately 20 percent) performed for male pattern hair loss were on men with, or at high risk of developing, advanced male pattern hair loss. Uniformly, the creation of some type of frontal forelock provided excellent results and high patient satisfaction. The concept of the frontal forelock is not new. Developments in aesthetic principles, enhanced understanding of its applicability, and the applied advantages of follicular unit grafting allow for the first time, truly undetectable results.