November 10, 2002 - The cosmetic outcome of hair transplant surgery has always been governed by the availability of donor hair. The more donor hair available for transplantation, the more coverage and the better the cosmetic results.

HOW THE FOLLICLES ARE EXTRACTED The doctors utilize Carl Zeiss 'Scanning' 5 x 300 optical loupe and Zeiss Opmi 'Pico' 25 power operating microscopes during the procedure to cut around the individual follicles. The follicles are then removed from the donor area, one-by-one. A close-up of an extracted follicle. The doctors then use 21 and 23 gauge needles to create a small incision to insert the follicles into.

This barrier has now been broken by two recent ground-breaking developments in the field of hair transplantation.

Firstly, the introduction of the Woods technique, a harvesting method whereby hair can be removed from any part of the body with minimal trauma and no linear incisions.

Secondly, the discovery that body hair that is relocated to the scalp adopts the characteristics of the surrounding hair and actually grows significantly longer than it did in its original location.

These amazing discoveries are the most significant discoveries in the field of hair transplantation. This now means that patients whose outcomes were previously limited by depleted donor sites, now have access to thousands of follicles previously considered unavailable. Follicles can be taken from the chest, back, legs and anywhere on the body.

According to Dr Woods, two of his patients showed an amazing increase in the length of their body hair when it was transplanted into their scalps.

In one patient his body hair originally grew to 2.75" (7 cm) in length. However after 22 months of it being transplanted to his scalp, the length of the hair in some cases has more than doubled and is now between 4.92" (12.5 cm) and 6.29" (16 cm) in length. [see story]

In another patient his original chest hair growth was 1.25" (3.17 cm). After only 10 months of it being transplanted to his scalp, it now measures 2.5" (6.35 cm). [see story]

In both cases the transplanted body hair has taken on similar characteristics to the normal scalp hair. This discovery has recently been verified in a published study done in Korea. [see study]