What is An Overharvested Donor Area

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An overharvested donor area is one of the unmissable signs of a bad hair transplant surgery. This is where too many hair follicles have been extracted from the donor site, leaving the patient with visible scarring on the back of the head. If you have an overharvested donor area or are worried about your hair transplant, this article is here to help!

Overview

  • A person has an overharvested donor area when too many hair follicles have been extracted from the donor area on the back and sides of the head.
  • The main giveaway of an overharvested donor site is patchy hair growth on the back and sides of the head after the initial recovery period. Other signs of overharvesting are additional hair shedding and visible scarring on the donor area.
  • If your donor area is overharvested during a hair transplant, you may not be able to have subsequent hair transplants. This is because there are not enough available healthy hair follicles to support a second (or third) procedure.

What is Hair Transplant Overharvesting?

overharvested donor are 1Hair transplant overharvesting occurs when too many hair follicles have been extracted from the back of the head during surgery. This phenomenon typically occurs in larger hair transplant cases, where a patient has experienced severe hair loss in the years leading up to their surgery.

Telltale signs of an overharvested donor area include, but are not limited to:

  1. Patchy appearance to the back and sides of the head – this is the most common symptom of an overharvested donor area.
  2. Shock loss of the remaining hair follicles – in rare cases, donor overextraction donor can induce further hair loss in the remaining hair due to the stress and trauma inflicted during surgery.
  3. Visible signs of scarring/redness after surgery – an overharvested donor area increases the risk of infection. Look out for signs of redness, itchiness, and scarring in the donor area.

One of the fundamental principles underpinning hair transplant surgery is that it should not be obvious that a patient has had surgery. A successful hair transplant should always leave a patient with a natural-looking result and no indication of surgical intervention after the 9 to 12-month recovery period.

Overharvesting of the donor area is a rare consequence of a hair transplant procedure that has been performed poorly by the surgeon and surgical team. An overharvested donor site has serious implications for a patient, as they would automatically be ruled out of future hair transplant procedures and left with permanent damage to the donor area.

One of the best ways to prevent the possibility of hair transplant overharvesting is to make sure you have your surgery with a reputable clinic. As a general rule of thumb, it would be wise to have your surgery performed by an experienced hair transplant surgeon (with GMC & specialist accreditation) in a CQC registered clinic.

What Does an Overharvested Donor Area Look Like?

As stated earlier, there are three obvious signs that a donor area has been overharvested: concentrated area of low hair density (bald patches), shock hair loss, and redness. We’ve complied some images of

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How Does a Typical Hair Transplant Surgery Work?

Before we address how hair transplants can go wrong, it is first important to understand the aim and method behind these surgeries, and what a final result is supposed to look. So, we’ll give you a deep dive into the methodology behind the most popular form of hair transplantation, Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE).

In short, a hair transplant is a surgical hair loss treatment that takes hair follicles from an area of high density (donor area) and transfers them to an area of low density (recipient area). The donor area is found on the back and sides of the head. The recipient area does depend on the type of hair transplant, but it could be the hairline, crown, mid-parting, beard, or eyebrow.

A hair transplant aims to reverse signs of hair loss and leave the patient with a natural appearance. There should be no obvious indications on the donor or recipient sites that a patient has had surgery once the 9 to 12-month recovery period has concluded.

A successful hair transplant surgery should go unnoticed by the unwitting onlooker and the question of whether a person has had a procedure shouldn’t even be considered by those who had not seen the patient pre-hair transplant.

How Many Hair Grafts Can Be Taken From a Donor Area During Surgery?

The average donor area has around 6000 follicular units that can be harvested safely from an individual. However, the amount of eligible donor hair that can feasibly be used during surgery is also dependent upon several other factors, such as hair health, follicle density, colour, and type.

Around 3,000 to 3,500 grafts can be extracted in a single surgery (that is a procedure performed in one day). In most cases, that’s enough to comfortably reverse signs of temple recession and early crown thinning. Essentially, anything up to a 3V on the Hamilton-Norwood scale.

For more severe cases of male pattern baldness (HN Scale 4+), two surgeries may be required to achieve an optimum result. Over the course of these two procedures, up to 5,500-6,000 grafts could be taken. However, coverage on the recipient site often comes at the expense of hidability in the donor area.

The more grafts required, the harder it becomes hide signs (in the donor area) that a person has had a hair transplant. In these cases, the risks of surgery should be put forward to the patient and every effort needs to be taken to ensure donor hair is extracted evenly across the donor area. The more equal the spread of extraction across the donor area is, the less likely it is to look patchy once the patient has gone through their initial recovery period.

This is why a hair transplant requires careful planning and a steady hand to perform and oversee a patient’s surgery. Before a surgeon picks up their blade, every effort should be made to ensure the donor hair is extracted sparingly from the back and sides of the head.

Can I Have a Second Hair Transplant If My Donor Area is OverHarvested?

overharvested donor area 3One of the most common forms of initial enquiry that hair transplant clinics receive on a daily basis is from potential patients who are looking for a second corrective surgery to fix a bad hair transplant. A “bad” hair transplant can be caused by several factors and (in most cases) a second surgery can correct the first.

Although rare, corrective surgeries can be performed to reshape a hairline and/or increase the density of the hairline or crown area. Providing there is sufficient hair left in the donor area to provide coverage for the recipient site, a second surgery is usually able to go ahead and the error of the first surgery can be resurrected.

However, if a donor area has been over extracted during a first surgery, a patient is usually ineligible for a second hair transplant. This is because too many follicular units have already been extracted from the donor area to support a second surgical procedure.

The inability to perform corrective hair transplants on overharvested donor areas is often doubly frustrating for the patient. Not only are they left with a donor area that has obvious signs of a previous surgery, there is nothing to be done that can fix this.

This is why it is vital to do your research before getting a hair transplant. Make sure you opt for a hair transplant clinic who perform their procedures in CQC compliant venues, whose surgeries are doctor performed, and (if possible) choose experienced surgeons with additional surgical accreditation (ISHRS). A hair transplant for a cheap price is often too good to be true!

How Can I Avoid Donor Area OverHarvesting During My Hair Transplant?

The answer to this question is actually simple. Make sure you do plenty of research into the clinic and surgeon performing who will perform your hair transplant before you book your procedure. Choose a reputable clinic with an experienced hair transplant surgeon.

Donor area overharvesting primarily occurs for two reasons:

  • The surgical team performing your hair transplant are inexperienced or under-qualified to perform your procedure – in these instances, overharvesting can occur if member of the surgical team does not know how to evenly extract hair follicles from the donor area.
  • The surgical team or do not care about the quality and result of the procedure – some hair transplant establishments, known as “conveyor belt clinics”, may perform multiple surgeries simultaneously that are performed by technicians, while a surgeon oversees up to 4 procedures at once. In instances where profits are placed above patient care and results, the chances of overharvesting drastically increase.

The main way to mitigate both of these factors is to make sure you choose a clinic with a good reputation and are transparent with patients as to how and where they perform their procedures.

If you’re doing preliminary research on hair transplant clinics, a fantastic place to start is on a verified review site like Trustpilot. Verified review sites enable potential patients to take a look at how previous patients rated their hair journey, with the added guarantee that these reviews are not fake!

During your free consultations with clinics, make sure you ask the following questions to your consultant or sales representative. These will help get to the bottom of how each hair transplant clinic operates and how experienced your surgical team will be:

  • Who will be performing my procedure? – make sure you ask for the credentials of the hair transplant surgeon who will be performing your procedure. In the UK, they will be registered with the General Medical Council (GMC). Be sure to ask for before and after pictures of previous patients who have been in a similar position to yourself.
  • How are your surgeries performed? – it is always good to get a general outline of you procedure. Is it DHI or FUE? Is the surgery mainly doctor performed? If not, how experienced are the hair transplant technicians assisting the surgeon?
  • Where will my procedure be performed? – If you are choosing to have your surgery in the UK, then make sure it is performed in a CQC registered clinic. The hair transplant clinic should always be happy to give out the latest report of all their clinics. This helps to ensure your hair transplant is being performed in a safe and hygienic environment

While a hair transplant is never a risk-free process, it is important to fully research the clinic you are siding with before you book in any surgery. A transparent clinic with an honest and experienced surgeon can help mitigate the potential risk of donor area overharvesting.

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