doctor my question to u is regarding direction.while transplanting grafts into the balding areas of the scalp how do u determine the direction in which it will grow, the depth or angle? the hair is trimmed so short before a surgery is there a sureshot way to determine the direction of hair will grow after a transplant??
The direction the hair will grow in is determined by the surgeon as he/she puts in the recipient sites. The direction and angle of the instrument in making the ‘hole’ is the direction that the hair will grow in. Almost 100% of the hairs between the parts point forward. At the part, the hair changes angle and the surgeon’s skills here are most important. I have seen far too many patients have a ‘radial’ direction to the hair where the hair is directed more like the spokes of a bicycle wheel. For those patients with straight hair, any faulty placement of the hair direction will be magnified.
Take a look at an article I co-authored back in 2002, The Art of Repair in Surgical Hair Restoration. In the images shown in this article, you can see some of the wrong directions and how to do the work correctly. Particularly, take a look at figure 3 from the article which shows the wrong direction (below for convenience) and the right direction in a schematic form:
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