This is a informative article posted on our blog a few days ago.
I think it will be useful to many readers.
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Follicular unit grafts
Dear readers,
What is a follicular unit graft? Is it the same as a hair follicle?
This is an oft asked question.
On the human scalp, hair grows in form of naturally occuring groupings. These groupings are called follicular units. Also reffered to as follicular unit grafts by hair transplant clinics. The following picture shows what the follicular unit grafts look like.
Each follicular unit may contain 1, 2, 3 or rarely 4 hair follicles alongwith a sebaceous gland. This combination of the sebaceous gland with the hair follicles around it is also reffered to as the pilosebaceous unit.
Below is a zoomed in picture of the naturally occuring hair groupings in the scalp. As can be seen, the hair are emerging in random groupings(follicular units).
In certain locations, like the hairline, the temples and the swirl, nature shows a preponderance of 1 hair follicular units.
While performing a hair transplant, in the refined procedures, care is taken to place the 1 hair grafts in the hairline, temples, centre of the swirl area etc. The multi hair follicular unit grafts are placed in the areas behind the front feathered hairline zone to buit up the density.
Similarly, in the more advanced combination procedures where the scalp grafts are augmented by facial and different body hair grafts, the doctor has to plan the location of the different types of grafts according to the hair’s individual characteristics.
The pictures below shows grafts from different locations on the body of the same person. You will notice a difference in curl and calibre.
Please let us know if you have any queries.