Hair transplantation: current concepts and techniques

Because of changes in technique, hair transplanting can now be offered as a reasonable option to more male and female patients who are not responsive to, or likely to benefit from, medical treatment. These changes have also resulted in exceptionally natural-looking results, even after a single session in an alopecic area, or in many individuals with prior and cosmetically unacceptable transplanting results. Current concepts and techniques are described in the article. Possible disadvantages of some of them are also discussed. In particular, the apparent advantages of "megasessions" of 3000 or more grafts per session, "dense packing" of more than 40 follicular units per cm2 and a new method of harvesting single follicular units directly from the donor area (Follicular Unit Extraction), may not be advantageous as they first seem.