The hair transplant donor area is a crucial part of the procedure. If you’re unfamiliar with hair transplantation, the donor area refers to the area from which your doctor takes hair follicles and places them in balding areas.
In the following article, we will explain the characteristics necessary for the scalp to be a safe hair transplant donor area and show you pictures of what the donor area should look like after recovery.
What Is a Safe Hair Transplant Donor Area?
To understand what the donor area is, you first need to understand how hair loss happens and why it does not affect the entire head. Androgenic alopecia, or male pattern hair loss, affects the crown of the head and stops as you come down to the sides and back of the head.
This familiar pattern of hair loss in men happens because hair follicles can either be DHT-resistant or not. DHT is one form of testosterone that negatively affects the growth of hair follicles. Over time, DHT leads to the shrinking of hair follicles and eventually their complete and irreversible closing.
If the hair follicles are genetically resistant to the effects of DHT, as is the hair on the back and sides of the scalp, they won’t shrink. Whereas the crown tends to have more DHT-sensitive hair follicles that shrink over time. How many DHT-sensitive follicles a person has varies. That is why different levels and stages define hair loss into progressive categories.
Therefore, a hair transplant donor area is an area on the scalp that has DHT-resistant hair follicles. These hair follicles do not lose their qualities even after transferring them to balding areas.
How to Identify the Donor Area?
The surest way to identify a safe and suitable hair transplant donor area is to wait until hair loss stabilizes. Although difficult to differentiate on your own, you can tell a side is resistant to hair loss if you monitor it for 6 – 12 months and do not see any change in density and thickness.
However, a professional or a dermatologist can better help you identify the safe areas for the donor hair. They usually do this using a densitometer or through a scalp examination. Your doctor will look for signs of thinning and follicle miniaturization.
Hair Transplant Donor Area Harvesting Techniques
Harvesting techniques from the donor area in a hair transplant can happen in two ways: FUE and FUT.
Follicular unit transplantation (FUT) is an outdated technique of extracting hair follicles that causes very visible scarring in the donor site. This strip harvesting technique cuts out an entire strip of skin from your scalp and later dissects it into individual grafts. This invasive approach causes scarring in the donor site, extends your recovery time, and involves stitching. Once your doctor stitches the wound on the scalp, it heals into a linear scar.
The follicular unit extraction (FUE) is a more progressive alternative that causes almost no scarring. The round graft harvesting technique directly and individually extracts hair follicles from your donor area, causing microscopic scarring just on the outline of the hair follicles that is difficult to detect with the naked eye.
You can read more about FUE vs FUT here.
Hair Transplant Donor Area: Graft Limitation
To be suitable for a hair transplant, you must have enough healthy grafts in your donor area to cover the balding spots. If you don’t have enough density in the donor area, you may not be eligible for a hair transplant.
People can have low graft density due to several reasons:
- You have already had a transplant, and it failed. In this case, you have already used your store of healthy grafts. This is why it is very important to choose the right hair transplant clinic.
- You naturally have an extensive pattern of hair loss affecting almost all your hair.
While you can use body hair as grafts in some cases, it doesn’t always work. This is because body hair doesn’t match the texture or growth cycle of head hair.
Hair Transplant Donor Area Aftercare
Hair transplant aftercare is important for the success of a hair transplant procedure. But for the donor area, aftercare is essential to prevent scarring. Especially if you opt for modern technologies like the FUE hair transplant and the DHI hair transplant, you want to capitalize on their minimally scarring effects.
For the best scar-free results on your donor area, is gentle shampooing and care. Avoid picking on the scars and even touching them unless necessary to avoid infection that could easily leave a bad scar. Likewise, you should avoid direct sun exposure in the first few weeks, as well as strenuous exercise that could cause excessive sweating.
Follow your surgeon’s instructions for a smooth recovery. At Esthete Clinic in Istanbul, we offer all our patients follow-up services with a medical specialist. This service allows a professional to track your recovery and give you feedback on your progress. Likewise, if there are any concerns, they will alert you to it and help you get early medical intervention.
Does Hair Grow Back in the Hair Transplant Donor Area?
Hair does not grow back in the donor area after a hair transplant because the entire hair follicle, which is responsible for producing hair, is permanently removed and transplanted to a different part of the scalp. Once relocated, these follicles grow hair in their new location.
Since the donor area will not regenerate hair, it’s crucial to have enough healthy follicles to achieve natural-looking coverage in the thinning areas while maintaining sufficient density in the donor region. This is why a careful assessment of the donor area’s capacity is essential before the procedure.
However, a successful hair transplant will leave the donor site looking natural and scar-free. And the surrounding hair in the donor area often helps cover the grafting sites.
How Many Grafts Can You Extract from the Donor Area?
The average healthy donor area can provide up to 8,000 grafts. But of course, you cannot use all of them without creating visible thinning in the region. You can safely get anywhere between 1,000 to 3,000 grafts in a session.
At Esthete, we use advanced technology to help us avoid over-harvesting, a common problem in hair transplantation that leaves the donor site looking patchy and unnatural.
Hair Transplant Donor Area for Females
With advanced techniques like FUE (Follicular Unit Extraction), shaving the entire donor area is often unnecessary for female hair transplantation. Depending on the extent and pattern of hair loss, your surgeon may recommend a no-shave or partial-shave transplant, where only small sections of the donor area are trimmed and strategically concealed by the surrounding hair. This approach allows women to undergo transplantation without having to undergo a drastic change in appearance.
However, identifying a safe donor area in females can be more complex since hair loss is often diffuse rather than confined to specific regions, requiring a careful evaluation by a professional to ensure long-term results.
Scarring in the Donor Site
Scarring in the donor site is only common with old techniques such as the FUT, which creates visible linear scarring in the area. With the FUE, the scarring is only around the follicles and is microscopic and almost invisible to the naked eye.
However, even these microscopic scars can easily be camouflaged with the surrounding hair on the donor area.
The Takeaway
The hair transplant donor area is a vital region for the success of the procedure. It essentially provides you with the hair follicles you need to cover up balding areas. However, a donor area should have enough hair density to achieve natural-looking coverage in bald areas without creating a patchy uneven appearance on the donor areas.
While hair won’t grow back in the donor area, the surrounding hair can help camouflage the missing grafts and create natural-looking hair.
Conclusion
The donor area plays a critical role in hair transplant surgery. By understanding its characteristics, limitations, and care needs, you can ensure better results and minimize risks. Whether you are considering a procedure in the UK, USA, or Europe, discussing your options with an experienced surgeon is essential. Proper planning and aftercare will help you achieve a natural and satisfying outcome.
For smooth recovery, follow up with a professional to ensure you’re healing smoothly and to identify any complications early on.
If you’d like to learn more about hair transplantation or want a professional opinion on your unique case, contact our specialists at Esthete Clinic in Turkey.
