Question:
I am female, 36 years old, with hair loss at my hairline. I don’t think my hairline has receded, but the hair has lost a lot of density there. I would like a hair transplant to fill in this region. Where would the donor site be? Will there be any scarring in the donor site? I wear my hair differently all the time, braiding, cornrows, etc. and do not want scars anywhere on my head.
Answer:
The donor site is typically in the back of the head and/or at the sides of the head just above the ears. There are a couple of methods to obtain hair grafts currently in use. Unfortunately, scar formation is inevitable when removing hair from one area of the head and placing it in another. Follicular unit extraction, or FUE, is a method of obtaining hair grafts which requires small “punches” of scalp surrounding the hair follicles leaving you with multiple small “punch” scars. For example, if you require 1000 grafts, then you will be left with 1000 small “punch” scars. During linear strip harvesting, where a single strip of hair is removed, the donor site is closed on itself leaving you with a single, fine linear scar.