Patient BIB had three hair transplants in the early 1990s using the old, large punch-graft technique. This resulted in an unnatural, “pluggy” look that was very bothersome to the patient. In addition, the improper placement of hair and poor growth resulted in inadequate coverage and a significantly depleted donor supply.

The hair transplant repair strategy was to remove the large grafts, divide them up into individual follicular units of 1-3 hairs each and re-implant them at the frontal hairline (to make it look more natural) and to the top of the scalp (to give it more coverage). The “after” photo was taken following a series of graft excisions (ie, hair plug removal) and two follicular unit hair transplant procedures. In total, 339 hair plugs were removed and 4,714 follicular unit grafts were implanted. These grafts were obtained from both the excised plugs and two donor strips.