Question About Hair Grafts

[CMEPCMEP]

Aside from single hair grafts, what joins multiple hairs together into one graft and how does the doctor identify it before removing it? (If this is a naive question, I may be missing something here regarding my understanding of what a graft is; 1 or 2 to 4 hairs naturally grouped together.)

[youngsuccess]

CMEPCMEP,

 

Welcome to our community.

 

Naturally-occurring follicular units are identified and collected by microscopically dissecting tissue from the excised donor strip during Follicular Unit Transplantation.

 

In FUE, grafts are removed directly from the donor area and multi-haired units may be further divided down after extraction.

 

 

Best,

 

Anthony (youngsuccess)

[CMEPCMEP]

Sorry to get deep, but I'm amazed you can actually see some sort of outline of the graft tissue you need to cut or remove. That being, I wonder why we sometimes don't shed grafts instead of individual hairs, or do we? I'll ask Feller when I go for my initial consult.

[badger_01]

All reputed docs have their technicians cut under a microscope. When I had my HT, Dr Gabel let me into the room where they were cutting my grafts so I could look through the microscope. Its amazing the amount of detail you can see.

[Cam Simmons MD ABHRS]

CMEPCMEP

 

Further to what Anthony said, follicular units were described by Headington in 1994. Using the high magnification of an electron microscope,one can see the band of connective tissue that holds the follicles together in a group. When we use light microscopes for graft dissection, we can't see the bands but we can see the groups of follicles separated by spaces. With the aid of microscopes we can dissect out the natural bundles so that we get grafts that contain one follicular unit.

[CMEPCMEP]

Dr. Simmons

 

You can see the band with an electron microscope but you cannot see it when you use a light microscope to dissect it?! Sorry, I lost you. I was talking about removal, not dissection. I'm thinking FUE, not strip, so we haven't gotten the graft out yet. We're not dissecting a strip, we're removing one unit for FUE. So how do you know what and where to cut to remove an individual graft (with multiple follicles) for FUE?

[TheEmperor]

Originally posted by Dr. Cam Simmons:

CMEPCMEP

 

Further to what Anthony said, follicular units were described by Headington in 1994. Using the high magnification of an electron microscope,one can see the band of connective tissue that holds the follicles together in a group. When we use light microscopes for graft dissection, we can't see the bands but we can see the groups of follicles separated by spaces. With the aid of microscopes we can dissect out the natural bundles so that we get grafts that contain one follicular unit.

 

Do you mean that "singles" are usually attached to other surrounding bundles?

 

Does cutting away a "single" cause potential damage to the graft as opposed to keeping it part of a larger group?

[Cam Simmons MD ABHRS]

Sorry for any confusion.

 

Follicular units normally have 2, 3, or 1 hair in that order. Sometimes patients with finer hair may have 4s or even 5s.

 

For FUE, the hair is cut short so the 2-haired, 3-haired, 1-haired follicular units can be seen on the surface with spaces between them.

 

Anthony included a link to Follicular Unit Transplantation and there is a photo of follicular units on the surface of the skin there.