What are Hair Grafts?

During hair transplant surgery, small grafts of skin containing hair follicles are removed from the areas of permanent hair in the back and on the sides of the head, and moved to the areas where balding or thinning occurs. The grafts are placed into openings created in the bald area where hair is desired. The openings can be slits (incisions where tissue is not removed), a punch hole, or laser hole (where recipient tissue is actually removed or destroyed). Both the size of the grafts and the size of the wounds where they are placed have become smaller over the past 40 years. This decrease in size has made the transplants dramatically more natural in appearance.
The way the transplanted hair follicle behaves differs from most other "organ" transplants. When kidney, heart or liver transplants are performed, the person receiving the transplant must remain on powerful immune suppressing medications to prevent rejection, as the organs are generally transplanted from one person to another. Since a hair transplant is an "autograft," (a transplant from one part of the body to another) there is no rejection and no medications are required.