Beard Transplant

A beard transplant is an application of hair transplantation, a surgical technique in which hair follicles are moved from a donor site to a recipient site, here the areas of the face where beard growth is absent, patchy or thin. The grafts are usually taken from hair that is genetically resistant to balding, such as the back of the head, and placed into the beard, moustache, cheek or jaw region. Because hair naturally grows in follicular units of one to four hairs, modern technique harvests and places these natural groupings and angles the grafts to match the direction of the surrounding facial hair, so that the result blends in and looks natural. Donor follicles can be obtained either by strip harvesting, known as follicular unit transplantation (FUT), or by follicular unit extraction (FUE), in which individual units are removed one at a time. The operation is typically performed on an outpatient basis under injected local anaesthesia, with optional mild sedation; the donor scalp is shampooed and treated with an antibacterial agent before harvesting. Careful, minimally traumatic extraction is important to avoid transecting (cutting) the follicle and to keep the transplanted hair viable, and post-operative antibiotics are commonly prescribed to help prevent infection. Beforehand, the surgeon assesses the donor and recipient areas, discusses the patient's expectations, and plans whether one or several sessions will be needed to reach the desired beard density.