Many men are now keeping their beards long and dense because it’s trendy. However, since not all men can grow facial hair naturally, those who can’t look for alternative options and treatments to grow to restore and maintain healthy and dense facial hair. There are three effective facial hair restoration methods. There are PRP for hair loss, facial hair transplants, and hair restoration medicines. To further help you to understand the facial hair transplant procedure better, continue reading this post.
What is a Facial Hair Transplant Procedure?
When hair refuses to grow in some parts of the scalp or beard areas, a hair transplant procedure is done. Due to hair loss conditions where the hair follicles become weak or become dormant, hair grows in patches or stops growing completely. Some of the problems of hair loss include heredity, extreme stress, lack of hormones, or male pattern baldness. The best to restore lost hair that is brought about by these conditions is by having healthy hair removed from dense areas to balding areas. A facial hair transplant works the same way as a typical scalp hair transplant.
It involves harvesting follicular units from any part of the body besides the head and implanting them in the jawline or any part of the face. It is a delicate surgical procedure that requires a qualified doctor to perform it. Therefore, a specialist must examine your skin first to establish the cause of the hair loss before opting for any facial hair restoration procedure. If done by an expert in the aesthetic field, the patient will have a custom-styled beard that grows naturally for a lifetime.
Suppose the doctor gives you the green light to have a beard transplant procedure. In that case, you will need to pay for all the treatment expenses on your own since many health insurance providers don’t cover this type of procedure because it is regarded as a cosmetic treatment.
Techniques of Facial Hair Transplant
When carrying out a facial hair transplant procedure, there are two approaches that the surgeon can use: follicular unit extraction (FUE) and follicular unit transplantation (FUT). Let’s explore these two facial hair restoration techniques to see what each is all about.
Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) Facial Hair Transplant
As mentioned above, a beard transplant involves removing healthy hair follicles and transferring them to areas of the face that require facial hair. In FUE, hair follicles are removed one at a time using a micro-punch device. This device is shaped like the tip of a pen and is used to remove individual hair follicles by cutting around each follicle. The process needs much care to avoid damaging hair follicles. The doctor is also going to use a microscope for better precision when harvesting hair follicles. Once enough hair follicles or graft hair is harvested, they are grouped into follicular units and transferred to the recipient area. The system takes about 4 to 6 hours, depending on the number of hair strands needed. Follicular unit extraction facial hair transplant procedure is less invasive, and the patient will be allowed to go home for healing and recovery after surgery.
Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) Facial Hair Transplant
Facial hair transplant procedure done using follicular unit transplantation is more invasive since scalpels are involved. Rather than extracting individual hair follicles like the FUE hair transplant procedure, the surgeon makes linear incisions to a strip of skin containing hair follicles. In this hair transplant technique, the doctor can remove hair follicles from any body area, including the pubic areas. Local anesthesia is used to prevent pain and discomfort during the surgical process. Once the strip is removed, hair follicles are taken out of it and transplanted to the designated areas of the face. Although this method is much faster and guarantees higher survival rates of harvested hair follicles, it leaves a linear scar after full recovery.
The number of graft hairs needed in a facial hair transplant depends on the area size of the recipient area. It ranges between 2,000 to 5,000 hair follicle grafts. Since the doctor only harvests the patient’s hair grafts to use in the procedure, there are hardly any blood infections.
Advantages of Beard Transplant
According to various studies, beards are attractive to women for a variety of reasons, including:
1)Beard means safety and strength. Studies have shown that growing a beard can make men stronger and safer.
2)Beard means wisdom. Einstein, Hemingway, do we need to say more? It is worth noting that the history of beards exists among talented men.
3)Beard means a balance between neuroticism and sensitivity. For some reason, the beard exudes a combination of “toughness” and sensitivity.
4)Beards mean trust. Beards do not only mean trust from the beholder’s point of view; they also convey trust to the wearer. This confidence boost helps you feel confident about yourself and your appearance.
5)Beard transplants aren’t very painful. While reading the description of the procedure doesn’t sound like fun, the reality is that it is virtually painless due to minimal invasiveness and innovations in medicine. The worst discomfort you can feel is a tiny pinch
6)In reality, beard transplants aren’t just limited to the lower face area. In fact, you are not limited to the beard area with a beard transplant. After consulting your doctor, hair can be grafted on your eyebrows, sideburns, or anywhere you experience hair loss.
7)Beard transplants don’t need much recovery time. Other than lightweight redness or swelling a couple of days following the transplant, there are just about no facet effects.
8)A procedure typically takes concerning five hours and is AN inmate procedure that will send you home right after.
9)It acts as a standard beard. After the transplant absolutely heals, it ought to grow and act a bit like normal hair.
Steps in a Facial Hair Transplant
Removal of Graft Hair from the Donor Area
In both FUE and the FUT beard transplant approaches, the procedure begins by removing the hair follicles from the patient’s donor area. This is done by shaving both the donor and the recipient area and applying local anesthesia to reduce pain and discomfort. After that, the doctor can either remove the grafts using the FUE or FUT technique.
Hair Graft Implantation
Once the doctor is convinced that he has enough hair grafts to cover the entire recipient area, he will store the grafts in a controlled environment as the recipient area is prepared. In a smart FUE hair transplant, grafts are placed in platelet-rich plasma to rejuvenate them and boost their survival rate. The hair follicles are then transferred to the recipient area. Once this is done, the patient is free to go home to heal and recover.
Healing and Recovery
Most of the time, the healing and recovery period is determined by the facial hair transplant technique that the surgeon used. The healing and recovery period would take a few days if the FUE hair transplant procedure was used. The reason being that follicular unit extraction is a minimally invasive surgical procedure with minimal downtime and recovery. It will take longer for the patient to heal and fully recover if the FUT technique was used. The strip surgery technique is more invasive and leaves a big wound in the surgery area that will take several days to heal and fully recover.
Conclusion
If you feel like it’s time to get a facial hair transplant, you now know what it entails. A facial hair transplant is the most effective way to restore facial hair. However, consulting a physician is critical before seeking hair loss treatment. You will get to know the cause and the best treatment option available. Always seek hair restoration treatments from qualified clinics and surgeons in your area.
