HAIR TRANSPLANT WITHOUT SHAVING
WHO IS ELIGIBLE FOR UNSHAVEN HAIR TRANSPLANTATION?
- Individuals with a receding hairline
- Women with hair loss
- People with patchy hair loss in specific areas
1-Partially Shaved Hair Transplant
Patients with longer hair that require approximately 2800 grafts or less for their hair transplant could be a good candidate to have a ‘partially shaved session. It is also referred to as linear shaving, which is performed at the back of the patients head and is either in small lines or in a square shape, positioned in such a way that it enables the hair above to fall over and easily conceal the shaved spot. As it is important to provide sufficient coverage, the doctor may recommend the patient to grow his/her hair slightly longer at a length of 6-7 cm prior to the hair transplant procedure.
- Patients can maintain their original hair in the same style as well as length, during and after the procedure.
- Allows patients to return back to work shortly after their treatment without revealing they have undergone the procedure.
- As the number of grafts that will transplanted is fewer, overall recovery time can be shorter.
- Post-operative scabs and crusts formed in the donor area will not be visible.
Disadvantages of a Partially Shaved Hair Transplant
- This procedure can only be performed on patients who wear their hair long.
- Fewer number of follicular units can be harvested during any one session.
- The treatment may require multiple sessions in order to achieve a desirable outcome, however there must be an interval of at least 6 months between 2 sessions.
- There is the risk of over harvesting as the donor area is limited to a small section.
- Overall procedure cost is higher.
2- Complete Unshaved Hair Transplant
In cases where the patient’s hair is weak and there is the possibility to perform procedures between hair-strands, especially if hair loss is limited to the anterior region or only a small area needs to be harvested, typically up to 1000 follicular units being sufficient for the coverage of hair loss, then the doctor may consider performing a complete ‘unshaved’ session.
In a complete ‘unshaved’ hair transplant procedure during the extraction process, a round-tipped rotary punch-generally with diameters ranging between 0.7-0.95mm- is utilized to score around the hair follicle and is rotated a full repetitive 360-degree cycle during penetration of the skin in order to separate it from all tissue attachments. Once the individual follicular units are extracted with the hair remaining at its normal length, they are then cut down to the root. After the strands of hair have been cut off, the implantation process begins, using a choi Implanter pen (DHI Technique), with the grafts being transplanted within the existing hair one at a time into the thinning or balding areas of the scalp.
As with any other hair transplant procedure, the patient will still be experiencing shock loss-temporary shedding of the newly transplanted hairs-within the first few weeks after a complete ‘unshaved’ session.
Advantages of a Complete Unshaved Hair Transplant
- Shaving is completely avoided.
- The patient is required to have long hair similar to the partially shaved hair transplant
- procedure, however the length can be shorter than 6-7 cm.
- Post-operative scabs and crusts formed in the donor area will hardly be visible.
- As the number of grafts that will transplanted is fewer, overall recovery time can be shorter.
Disadvantages of a Complete Unshaved Hair Transplant
- It is a labour intensive and meticulous procedure that requires excessive training, experience and skills of the operating surgeon.
- In the early version of the DHI hair transplant method, the amount of grafts that could be extracted in one session was lesser compared to the FUE method, but today, owing to the improvements made in the technique, it is possible to extract higher amounts of grafts, providing patients with the necessary hair density and coverage to achieve satisfactory hair transplant results.
- Even though the patient gets a pre-look right after the procedure, the transplanted grafts will fall out between the 2’nd and 4’th week following the surgery. DHI hair transplant procedure generally takes longer to complete compared to other hair transplant methods.
- DHI hair transplantation is slightly more expensive than other hair transplant procedures.