Hair bank and hair graft | Let’s find out about them!
If you are thinking of a treatment for baldness, the best way to treat it is hair transplantation. To do a hair transplant, it is better to get acquainted with the terms related to this operation. One of these terms is hair graft.
What is a hair graft?
If you look closely at your own or others’ hair with a little care or even a magnifying glass, you will see that one or more hairs are in one place and their bulbs are in one place.
Each of these multiple strands of hair is a hair graft. Each hair graft contains one to four strands of hair along with the hair follicles, some connective tissue, the sebaceous glands, the erector muscle, and a vascular-neural network. The unit of counting hair transplanted in a hair transplant is a graft. Therefore, the number of hair transplants is approximate. And it is estimated based on the number of grafts implanted, which is a more accurate amount.
To do a hair transplant, a specialist will determine the number of grafts according to the amount your head needs. With a simple calculation, your specialist can calculate the number of strands needed for implantation, according to the number of hair grafts in groups of 1 to 4 strands. For example, your specialist tells you: We harvested and implanted 2,000 grafts. This means your surgeon implanted about 5,000 hairs for you.
The quality of the grafts harvested for implantation also depends on the method of harvesting. Accuracy, expertise and experience in removing grafts and different methods of hair transplantation are directly related to the quality of hair grafts.
Surgeons remove required hair grafts by different methods from the hair bank.
What is hair bank?
Each person has a hair bank that the surgeon will remove all grafts for hair transplantation from that part. On the back of each person’s head and in the distance between the two ears, there is a 25 to 30 cm long area with high density hair. The hair in this area has a low sensitivity and is resistant to hair loss. Therefore, the best option for harvesting and implantation are these hairs on the back of the head. But for hair transplantation, they only use 2 cm of this part; and the rest will be a reserve for possible future operations. This part of the scalp is the hair bank. There are several methods for removing hair from the bank; and these methods are determined by a hair transplant specialist.
In the FIT hair removal method, they remove the hairs from the hair bank partially and individually. In the FUT method, the specialist will remove the hair in a 1 cm strip; and if they don’t repair it carefully enough, it may leave stitches. But your surgeon do this well, the stitched part will go under the hair and you won’t see it.
In the combined method, they remove the hair as a combination of the previous two methods.
Anyone can use their own hair bank for hair transplantation; because if you want to use someone else’s hair, the body will react and it’ll be a useless operation. So try to take care of your hair bank so that you can make the best use of it’s savings.
Poor hair bank:
There are people whose hair bank is not suitable for harvesting for various reasons. These people can go for another method of hair removal, the BHT method. In this method, surgeon will remove hair follicles from other parts of the body and use for hair transplantation.
Destroying the hair bank:
A medical error in hair transplantation and over-removal of the hair bank may cause damage to the hair bank. Most of this error occurs in the FIT method. The hair removal specialist must follow the appropriate distance to remove the follicles. This problem is one of the disadvantages of the FIT method.
If the cuts are not made at the right distance, it will cause the skin to die. In this case you may see the problem in front of your head and you need your hair bank to treat it on the back of your head. There is almost no solution to this problem. And it can only be covered by lifting other parts of the hair.
