Our staff of physicians is dedicated exclusively to hair medicine, which allows us to investigate and then utilize the latest technology and materials, generating excellent results. 

Is everyone a transplant candidate?
Patients should have realistic expectations and understand that currently there is no method to ‘create’ new hair, but rather current techniques seek to redistribute the hair as naturally as possible.   Therefore, candidates are limited to those who have a ‘donor-friendly’ surface area of hair of similar density to the area that it will be transplanted. 
Unfortunately, male pattern baldness is a progressive condition and although the amount of hair loss may decrease after the age of 40, it will never stop completely.  With this in mind, it is imperative that the pre-operative design is one that ensures a natural long-term result. 

There is an increased demand in patients under 30 years old.  This patient must understand that at this age, the progression of the hair loss is impossible to determine.  Such a patient requires an exhaustive tricological evaluation to determine the best steps and treatments from Hair and Health to best delay and stop the hair loss.

Current surgical techniques for hair redistribution

FUE (Follicar Unit Extraction)
It is a completely new hair surgery technique that began to develop in 2001 and 2002, created by the Woods brothers in Australia. (www.thewoodstechnique.com), although there had been previous attempts. 

Beginning in 2002 and 2003, there was a great boom due to the possibility of permanently removing the scar from the donor area.  Institutions like DHI in Greece, Feller Clinic or Dr. Cole in the USA and Alvin in Canada began to investigate new materials that made harvesting the hair faster and of higher quality, while decreasing the size of the injuries to improve post-surgery recuperation. 

The FUE principle is simple.  If what we typically do in a transplant is make an extraction of a strip of skin with hair, and then dissect it (under microscopic vision) to obtain follicular units that can be translated to the bald areas, why not extract the follicular unit directly from the scalp and then put it in the desired area?

There is a history of transplants using the punch (the famous doll hair), are unnatural to use because of the scalpel circles of 1 to 2 cm that extracted and inserted many follicular units at the same time, leaving the donating zone patchy. 

Advantages of the FUE technique:

• There is no sewing, nor any visible sign of a transplant.  There is no pulling or drawing nor the use of a scalpel at any time
• There is no scarring, which means that you can cut your hair as you like, without worrying that a short haircut will reveal scars
• The post-operation period is short, minimizing the recuperation period, which allows us in addition to make additional daily, weekly or monthly insertions, depending on the schedule of the patient
• We can use hair from different parts of the body (chest, arms, legs, pubic area) to add additional density, which is known as BHT (Body Hair Translplant), although our prefernce is always hair from the head
• Cost:  While at first the cost was more than double, the curent prices are often the same and larger package sessions can result in even cheaper prices than other techniques

The disadvantage is the procedure time.
In the beginning, we were only able to insert about 600 follicular units per day, and today we are ranging from 1500 to 2000 units per day, according to the type of hair, skin and ability to shave the head, which in some cases, allows us to insert between 3000 and 4500 follicular units in larger sessions over 2 to 3 days. 

The FUSS or FUT  (Follicular Unit Strip Surgery or Follicular Unit Transplantation).
The hair is romoved from the back of the head (donor site) in strips of hair that is carefully separated into grafts to be inserted (1, 2, 3 or 4 follicular units).
The surgeon makes a suture at the donor site. 
The inserts are transplanted to the desired area (receptor zone). 

Advantages of the FUSS technique:
This method allows the transplantation of between 1000 and 3000 insertions (from 2500 to more than 8000 hairs) in only one session that lasts 3 to 6 hours.  Today it is the technique most recommended if you would like to recieve a sastisfactory density in the receptor zone quickly. 

Procedure:

• The surgeon extracts from the back of the head (donor zone) a strip 1 to1.5 centimeters by 10 to 22 centimeters in length, that is separated by specialists into follicular units.
• Meanwhile, the surgeon pulls the donor site shut with sutures, which will leave very fine scar which will pass completely unnoticed. 
• The specialists, using microscopes, will separate the follicular units into 1, 2, 3 or 4 hairs.  For example, in two or three hours, 10 specialists can separate between 1500 and 2500 follicular units, which is between 3500 to 6000 hairs.
• The implantation of the follicular units is carried out by specialists and the surgery lasts generally between 4 to 6 hours.

To optimize the micro-implant, in both cases (FUE or FUSS), we use the Scalp-Facial Reflexology, created and developed solely by Tricologist Miguel Ángel Cisterna, with over 20 years of experience in the diagnostic and treatment of dermo-hair diseases.  It enables the improvement of the mobility of the scalp, as the venous, arterial and lymphatic circulation optimizes the conditions in both the receptor and donor zones.  We will then be able to implant in spongier scalp, that is more mobile, completely clean and devoid of dandruff or other impurities.
The relocated hairs maintain the same growth rhythm and are normal in length, thickness and density.  Their pigmentation, shine and smoothness are healthy and they will not fall out again.
 
Our center seeks to achieve aesthetic, natural and permanent results with both procedures. 

*The Skull-Facial Reflexology technique was presented in the 35th Argentine Conference of Plastic Surgery and in the 10th South American Conference of Plastic in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2005.