Where is hair transplant donor area?

If you are thinking of a treatment for baldness or thinning of your hair and you want to think of a solution for it, the best way to treat it is hair transplantation. But to perform hair transplant surgery, it is better to familiarize yourself with the terms related to hair transplantation. One of these terms is hair graft and donor area which have very important effect on the result of hair transplant.

Donor area is the region at the back and sides of your scalp that are used to "donate" hair to your recipient area in an FUE or FUT hair transplant. Your surgeon will make small incisions around each follicle and take them out one by one in FUE method. These incisions heal quickly. On average, it takes 5-7 days for your donor area to heal.

What is a hair graft?

If you look carefully or even with a magnifying glass at your hair or other people's hair, you will see that one or more strands of hair in one place have a common hair bulb and all in the same place. Each of these multiple bundles of hair is called a hair graft.

Each hair graft contains one to four hairs along with hair bulb, some connective tissue, sebaceous glands, arrector pili muscle and a vascular-neural network. The unit of counting the displaced hair in hair transplantation is Graft. Therefore, the number of transplanted hairs is approximate and is estimated based on the number of transplanted grafts, which is a more accurate amount.

To perform hair transplantation, the specialist determines number of grafts according to the amount required by your head. With a simple calculation, it is possible to calculate the number of strands to be implanted according to the number of hair grafts that are in 1 to 4 strand categories. For example, if the hair transplant specialist tells you that 2,000 grafts have been harvested and implanted, that means about 5,000 hairs have been implanted for you.

The quality of harvested grafts for planting also depends on the harvesting method. Accuracy, expertise and experience in harvesting grafts and different methods of hair transplantation have a direct relationship with the quality of hair grafts.

Hair grafts, which are needed for hair transplantation, are harvested from donor area by various FIT, FUT and combination methods.

What is hair donor area?

The donor area for hair transplants is located at the back and sometimes the sides of the scalp. Each person has a donor area for himself, which necessary grafts for hair transplantation harvested from this area. The hair that grows in this area is known to be genetically resistant to male pattern baldness the effects of male hormones.

 In back of each person's scalp and in distance between two ears, there is a 25-30 cm long area with high density hair, the hair in this area has low sensitivity and is resistant to shedding. Therefore, the best option for harvesting and planting are these hairs on back of head. But for hair transplant, only 2 cm of this part is used and the rest will be reserved for possible future operations. This part of head hair is called the donor area or “hair bank”.

There are different methods for harvesting from donor area, which are determined by diagnosis of hair transplant specialist. In FIT hair transplant method, hairs are harvested from hair donor area in a scattered and individual manner.

 In FUT method, the hair is harvested as a 1 cm strip, which may leave a sutures mark if it is not repaired carefully enough. But if this is done well, the sutured part will go under hair and you will not see any traces of it.

In combined method, the hair is harvested as a combination of previous two methods, i.e. FIT and FUT.

Each person can only use his own hair bank for hair transplantation because if you try to use someone else's hair for transplantation, body will react and you may have done a useless operation. So try to take care of your hair bank so that you can use its stock in best way.

Weak donor area

However, there are people whose hair bank is not suitable for harvesting for various reasons, and in other words, they have a weak hair bank. These people can go for another hair harvesting method, the BHT method. In this method, hair follicles are taken from other parts of body and planted in front of head.

Destruction of donor area

It is possible that a medical error occurred in the hair transplant surgery or overharvesting may cause donor area to be damaged and become ineffective. Most of this error occurs in FIT method. The specialist who performs hair harvesting operation must observe appropriate distance for the follicles harvest. This problem is one of FIT method disadvantages.

To solve the problem of low back or baldness in front of head, you have resorted to hair transplant treatment using donor area. If the harvests are not done at a proper distance during hair transplantation, it will cause the skin to die and you may also see problem of low back or baldness in back of head.

There is almost no solution for this problem and it can only be covered by growing other parts of hair.

Donor Area Recovery After Hair Transplant

The healing process after a hair transplant actually starts immediately. Usually it takes about two weeks for the donor area to heal. After surgery, a bandage is placed on the donor area. When removed, you will notice small scars on the skin. The healing process will not take long, as the hair grows all post-operative signs will disappear and you will restore the natural aesthetic.

After you get out of the surgery, it is normal for your scalp to look red and swollen. You might also experience some pain. Your doctor will prescribe medication for the discomfort and pain to go away. As for the swelling after hair transplant and redness, they start disappearing after a few hours.

After a hair transplant surgery, you should not cover your scalp. You also need to protect your scalp from direct sunlight or any other extreme weather conditions. take care for the first few days, you should make sure your scalp is dry and clean. With a healthy scalp taken good care of after the surgery, your hair will begin to grow in a few months after hair transplant.