If a doctors creates a recipient site at a certain angle to the skin (lets say for example at an acute angle at the temple points)....but then the actual grafts are placed in the site by a technician afterwards......

Is the angle of the hair pre determined by the angle of the recipient site the doctor created (and will heal and grow at that angle), or could the graft be placed at a different/ rotated/ more or less vertical angle by the technician and because of skins elasticity it will heal and grow at the angle the technician placed the graft?

Appreciate your comments.

shanti,

Welcome to this community!

From my limited knowledge, I believe the ultimate angle of growth is determined by the slits initially made by the surgeon.

Even if the follicle is not set in at the exact angle, it will naturally adjust to match the slit.

Other more expert members will give their comments.

P.S. one of the girls in my office is named Shanti...

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Shanti

A recipient site is actually like a little tunnel that has an angle and a direction to it. When grafts are planted they are guided into the tunnel and must follow the angle and direction of the tunnel.

If the tunnel is bigger than the graft, the graft can shift within the tunnel. To avoid shifting, hair transplant doctors make sure that the grafts and recipient sites are matched well.

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Cam Simmons MD ABHRS
Canadian Hair Transplant Centre,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Dr. Cam Simmons is a member of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians

What if the guy has curly hair? Is the direction of the curl genetically determined/programmed? If so, if the follicle /hair placed in the recipient, inside the skin, follow the direction of the slit/tunnel, what happens when gets out? It will curl in a direction as programmed before was taken outside the donor,which might be other than the direction of the slit? No?

I think patients don't care about the direction of the hair in the tunnel, inside the skin. They care what direction hair takes when is out....

Swim

Curly hair also curls under the skin. People with curly hair usually have "C"-shaped grafts.

Usually curly-haired grafts are placed so that the grafts exit the scalp at specified upward angles but the hairs tends to curl down toward the scalp.

Some doctors have created sites in a curving path with straight instruments and others have used curved instruments. Even if straight tunnels are used, the proper exit angle from the scalp and direction can be achieved if the graft is oriented to curl the right way.

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Cam Simmons MD ABHRS
Canadian Hair Transplant Centre,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Dr. Cam Simmons is a member of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians

Thank you Dr.Simmons

So regarding Shanti question, am I wrong to conclude that whoever puts the graft in the slit, has to position the graft (orient the graft?) to curl the right way?

In other words, in a case of patient with curly hair, not only the angle of the slit determines which direction the hair will curl, but also in which way the graft was positioned, or oriented, by whoever put it in the slit?

Swim

You are right.

__________________
Cam Simmons MD ABHRS
Canadian Hair Transplant Centre,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Dr. Cam Simmons is a member of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians

Interesting!!!

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