The hair implant is presented as the solution to baldness, since it is the only method by which it is possible to recover the hair that has fallen due to alopecia. It is a surgical intervention that consists of several stages, among which the extraction of the follicles in a hair graft stands out. How do you proceed to extract the necessary follicles to perform the hair transplant?

En Hospital Capilar We are experts in hair grafting in Madrid, although we also have a hair clinic in Murcia and Pontevedra. In our blog capillary you will find everything related to the capillary implant, such as the procedure for extracting the follicles in a capillary graft. Next!

What does a FUE hair graft consist of?

Hair grafting has become one of the most demanded surgical interventions today, mainly because of the results it offers. It is an outpatient method that lasts approximately 7 hours where the patient can return home once the surgery is finished.

The capillary implant consists of extracting from the donor zone the follicular units necessary to implant them in the receiving area, that affected by alopecia. The estimation of the necessary follicles is determined by the medical team based on the hair analysis prior to hair transplant.

The hair transplant results They are appreciable 6 months after surgery, although they will not appear definitively until the first year has elapsed.

Procedure for extracting the follicles in a FUE hair graft

There are two ways to perform hair transplantation: using the FUSS technique and, on the other hand, with the FUE technique. The latter is the one that is currently used due to the naturalness that it offers in the results, since the FUSS leaves visible scars due to the way the follicles are extracted.

With the FUSS technique, a strip of the patient's scalp is removed from which the necessary follicular units are subsequently removed. This leaves a visible scar in the patient's donor area, as it requires subsequent suturing. However, the FUE technique does not require obtaining strips of skin or sewing, so does not leave scars. This is why hair transplantation is mostly carried out with the FUE technique. Consequently, the explanation on how the extraction of the follicles in a hair graft is carried out is carried out based on the FUE technique, the most widespread.

Application of local anesthesia

The hair graft is painless and does not require general anesthesia, only used Anesthesia local so the patient remains awake and conscious throughout the intervention. Before proceeding with the extraction phase of the follicles in an FUE hair graft, the medical team injects anesthesia into the scalp.

En Hospital Capilar we have the pre-anesthesia, which is applied before anesthesia to reduce the pain of its application considerably.

Incisions with the micromotor

The extraction of the follicles in a FUE hair graft is performed individually with a special instrument consisting of a punch with micromotor. With this instrument, small incisions are made in the patient's donor area without leaving visible scars. This is a precision exercise on the part of the health team, since a bad technique can end up damaging the follicles, making them useless for the hair implant. 

Extraction of the follicles with tweezers

The phase of extracting the follicles in a FUE hair graft, after the micromotor, requires the use of tweezers. With the tweezers, one by one the follicular units that have previously been removed with the punch with a micromotor and placed in Petri dishes for better conservation.

Follicular Unit Classification

The same follicular unit can contain up to 4 hairs, so the healthcare team proceeds to classify these follicles based on the number of hairs they contain. In this way, the follicular units with the greatest number of hairs will be placed in areas where greater density is needed, while those with 1 hair are normally implanted in the front line to achieve a more natural result.

Once this is done, the extraction phase of the follicles in a hair graft is finished and the incisions in the recipient area will begin.