Strip Hair Transplant

To begin, the patient meets with the surgeon for a free consultation. At that time the hair loss is evaluated and a plan is discussed. The patient then makes an appointment for hair transplant surgery. On the day of the hair transplant surgery the patient comes to our new york office dressed in comfortable clothing like jeans and a t-shirt. The plan is reviewed and photographs are taken. Lines will then be drawn to demark the area that will receive the hair. More pictures are taken. The patient is then brought into the procedure room and is offered a mild sedative. At this point the hair and scalp are cleansed and disinfected. The hair in the back of the head will be gently combed upward and taped out of the way. The surgeon will then take an electric hair razor and shave away just a small band of hair in the back. After the skin is exposed hair loss surgeon Dr. Feller will numb the area with a local anesthetic and a strip of hair-bearing skin removed. This why we call this method the "strip" method. This strip of skin will be taken into a dissecting room where the staff will carefully remove and separate the hair roots for implantation.

Meanwhile, the Doctor will suture the skin closed just as if the patient had a simple laceration. After a few minutes it is done, and the hair that was taped up will be released to cover the sutures. There is practically no evidence of the surgery at this point.

Next, the patient is reclined back into the chair and local anesthetic is applied to the bald or thinning area. After a few minutes the skin is numb at which time the hair transplant Doctor painlessly creates hundreds or thousands of tiny sized slits in the area. All slits made by the Doctor are under .9mm and are made at the proper depth and angle to maximize results. The hair transplant patient feels nothing and is usually watching TV at this point. Then the grafts are placed one by one into the skin under magnification. At the end of the day it looks as if the patient has pimples on his head which represent the scabs of the new hair follicle. After 5 days the scabs fall away leaving the grafts safely under the skin to continue healing. In most cases no one would ever guess that a transplant had just been performed, probably not even the family doctor

After 10 days the patient returns to the Doctor's new york office and the sutures are removed leaving a thin scar, usually about the thickness of the edge of a playing card. This fine line scar is easily concealed by surrounding hair. The transplanted hair on the top should grow for another week and then go into a sleeping phase.

By the third month in most patients, the hair will begin to sprout and grow. By the sixth or seventh month the patient will visit the office for follow-up pictures. This hair will continue to grow naturally throughtout the life of the patient.