EYEBROW TRANSPLANTATION

Eyebrow transplants are designed to restore growing hair to eyebrows that are overly thin, scarred, or completely missing. The absence of hair can be due to genetics, prior electrolysis or laser hair removal, over-plucking, thyroid or other hormonal abnormalities, or trauma due to surgery, burns or other types of accidents.

The donor hairs come from the scalp which, when transplanted into the eyebrows, continue to grow for a lifetime and therefore need to be trimmed typically once a month. To provide a natural appearance, the hairs are transplanted primarily one and occasionally two at a time, the natural way eyebrow hairs grow. This is a very delicate procedure, requiring perfect placement of these hairs into tiny (half-millimeter) incisions that are angled at just the right direction and positioned to mimic natural growth. The use of all-microscopically dissected grafts allows their placement into the smallest possible incisions so as to minimize scarring and damage to already existing hairs.

A procedure typically involves the placement of 50 to as many as 325 hairs into each eyebrow, depending upon the existing amount of hair and the desired size and density. Performed usually under a mild oral sedative, the two-hour procedure is essentially painless, as is the recovery period.

For the first two to four days after the procedure, tiny crusts form around each transplanted hair. By three to five days, other than some occasional mild pinkness which fades out by the first week, patients are able to return to normal activities without any sign of having had a procedure. Sutures that are placed in the donor area are removed at one week. The transplanted hairs fall out at around two weeks, then start to regrow at three months, where they will continue to grow for a lifetime.