Face lift and hair transplantation as a single procedure

Frequently, when a face lift procedure is performed, several pieces of healthy scalp are discarded as waste unless a prehairline incision is used. In selected cases, such as patients with hair loss, these pieces of scalp may be used to create micrografts (grafts with 1 to 2 hairs) and minigrafts (grafts with 3 to 4 hairs) and transplanted to the areas of need in the same session. I have found particularly rewarding the combination of face lift and hair transplantation, because patients who need both procedures benefit immensely by doing them together. This way, the pieces of healthy scalp that normally would have gone to waste are recycled. In a preliminary fashion, a strip of retroauricular and occipital scalp that normally would be discarded is harvested from one side and handed to my assistants. Under magnification, they dissect it into micrografts and minigrafts as I do the face lift on that side. When I go to the second side of the face lift, I give them the other strip of scalp; again, as they dissect it into grafts, I continue with the face lift. Usually, we generate about 1000 micrografts and minigrafts from those strips that would have normally been discarded. If I want more grafts, I would (in a preliminary fashion) harvest the donor strip of the size required. As the face lift with or without eyelids is completed, we usually have the grafts ready for insertion. Today, we are able to transplant approximately 1000 grafts in about 1 hour. Therefore, combining the two procedures adds only about an hour to our surgical and anesthesia time.