Title: Advancement in Hair Transplantation Word Count: 488 Summary: Due to some hair transplant advances like FUE

(Follicular unit extraction), it i s now possible to save time on grafting of hair transplants on to the bald area. Hair transplantation research is also underway to produce hair clones that can be used for hair transplantation to give a more dense coverage of the bald areas on the scalp. Keywords: hair transplant advances, hair transplantation research Article Body: A standard hair transplantation procedure involves the removal of donor strip of hair from the back of the head from where the follicular unit grafts are dissec ted under a microscope. These grafts are then preserved in saline and are then t ransplanted on a bald patch on the crown area of the scalp. Given the time consuming and tedious nature of this procedure, a hair transplant surgeon is often able to transplant only about 500 to 600 follicular unit graft s per day. However, thanks to the recent hair transplant advances, this techniqu e is often replaced by the follicular unit extraction (FUE). The cost per graft of FUE is typically twice the cost of the standard follicular unit hair transpla nt procedure discussed above but it is comparatively faster and minimally invasi ve. <B>Some hair transplant advances</B> In a typical FUE procedure a small round punch is made in the donor area to dire ctly extract 1, 2, 3 and 4 hair follicular unit grafts. The follicular units ext racted using this process is typically referred to as "blunt dissection" where a punch is made to envelope the entire follicular unit separating it from the sur rounding soft tissues. Once the underlying follicular unit is separated from the surrounding tissues, i t is easily extracted using a small forceps. The small holes left behind after t he follicular unit extraction gradually heal over the next few days and are not detectable to the naked eye once the patient's hair grows out. The healing time is much less than the donor strip extraction procedure. While the FUE procedure has been adopted by most hair transplant clinics, the st andard strip excision method is still the most popular hair transplant procedure because it is more economical than the FUE. Moreover, due to some recent hair transplant advances such as the use of trichop hytic closure technique, the linear donor scar created by the strip excision pro cedure is now often rendered almost undetectable to the naked eye. This advancem ent in the hair transplantation technique has made FUE procedure relatively less appealing. <B>Hair transplantation research</B> Besides the hair transplant advances in the transplantation procedures, a lot of

research is also underway to clone the hair. If the hair transplantation resear ch is successful it will be possible to make several copies of donor hair in the laboratory. The application of this technique would be used in the form of hair transplantation. In the traditional procedures, the biggest limitation is often the donor which is not able to meet required density. However, hair cloning pro mises to overcome this problem by having the amount of hair required to be grow n in a laboratory from a single donor hair and then implanting it into the scalp . Hair transplantation research for cloning is very difficult and there are many h urdles that have to be overcome regarding the safety and cosmetic characteristic s of the cloned hair. Some hair transplantation research has also provided break through for some hair loss medication like Dutasteride.