Hair Transplant Nurse/ Technician Interview Preparation Guide

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Graft excision is a hair transplant repair technique where large or improperly positioned grafts are excised (removed). The large graft is usually divided up into smaller units and then re-implanted in a more natural distribution and direction. Graft excisions are usually performed prior to camouflage techniques in hair transplant repair.

The first type of graft performed, these consist of 10-20 hairs in a circular 4-5mm graft. They are responsible for the ‘cornrow’ dollhead look of older transplants when finer grafts were not used to soften and fill in hairlines.

Placing two follicular unit grafts (FUG, See Follicular Unit Graft) into one recipient site to create a larger single graft in an area like the central scalp that would benefit from larger sized grafts when there is an insufficient number of these larger sized follicular units.

A scale for the classification of hair loss developed by O’tar Norwood in 1975. It was based upon an earlier classification of Hamilton. The Norwood scale is used by hair transplant surgeons to describe the extent of a person’s hair loss. The regular class has 7 stages and the A class has five.

A scalp reduction surgery in which balloons implanted below the scalp expand hair-bearing areas which are used to cover the reduced scalp area.

The dermal papilla is situated at the base of the hair follicle. The dermal papilla is composed of fibroblasts, blood vessels, and nerves. This structure is extremely important in the regulation of hair growth and is a key element in hair cloning, as the cells that make up the dermal papilla (fibroblasts) can be multiplied.

Technically, a 3-6 hair graft derived from either a single follicular unit, multiple follicular units, or multiple, partial follicular units. In practice, hair transplant surgeons often call grafts containing up to 10 or more hairs mini-grafts.

A scalp reduction surgery in which a hooked medical device applies force to the scalp and stretch the hair-bearing areas to allow them to cover the reduced section of the scalp.

FUHT is just the more wordy version of FUT. It describes the same procedure. Since a follicle is “hair,” the word hair in the title is redundant.

A scalp reduction surgery in which surgically removed flaps of hair bearing skin are used to cover reduced areas of the scalp and hair line. There are different methods of scalp flap surgery.

Follicular units are the natural bundles of hairs (from 1 to 5) that grow out of the scalp. Often, one or more hairs grow out of the same spot and share some of the same anatomy underneath the skin (such as sebaceous glands). Many doctors consider follicular units superior since they preserve the follicles as they are present in the scalp before transplantation.

In between the outer root sheath (ORS) and the inner root sheath (IRS) of the hair follicle lies the companion layer, which is a single layer of flattened cells. The companion layer acts a slippage plane to allow the IRS-sheathed hair shaft to move up in conjunction with Henle’s layer while the ORS remains stationery.

A method of hair restoration surgery where hair is transplanted exclusively in its naturally occurring, individual follicular units. Single strip harvesting and stereomicroscopic dissection are required in the standard definition of this hair transplant procedure. More recently, follicular unit extraction techniques are also considered a subset of this procedure.

A large graft similar to a full graft but in a line rather than a circular graft. The line graft is used to provide density behind the hair line with a more natural look which is softened by other smaller grafts for a natural look.

A scalp reduction surgery which allows a larger reduction (about twice as much reduced area) to be performed without flaps or extension.

The traditional method of orienting recipient sites in a hair transplant where the length of the slit lies perpendicular to the hairline.

A hair that has stopped growing. One that is in the telogen (resting) phase of the hair cycle. It is anchored to the skin with its “club-like” root, but will eventually be pushed out and replaced by a new growing hair.

Technically, a 1-2 hair graft. It does not necessarily need to be a follicular unit but may be two 1-hair units or part of a 3-hair unit etc. The term micro-graft is used more generally in hair transplant surgery as any small graft.

One or two fine hairs used in transplants to ‘soften’ the front hairline to give it a natural appearance.

A type of scalp flap surgery where one or more large flaps of hair-bearing scalp is detached and used to form a new hairline and replace hairloss where the scalp has been reduced.

A graft inserted into a slit in the scalp rather than a circular hole. Some doctors perform this more commonly for a variety of issues such as healing, appearance, etc.

This is a type of scalp reduction in which the scalp is reduced in an oval shape at the center of the bald area of scalp.

The area on the top of the head between the front and the vertex (crown). Hair on the mid-scalp points in a predominantly forward direction.

The central region of the hair shaft that divides the permanent section of the hair (infundibulum and isthmus) from the lower non-permanent region (suprabulbar and bulbar) and is marked by the attachment of the arrector pili muscle. It is thought that the bulge area contains the stem cells that help regenerate the hair shaft. The bulge area like the upper hair shaft is also considered a permanent part of the hair shaft.

Hair follicles that grow together naturally as a group. They share the same blood supply, nerves and muscle (arrector pilorum). The follicular unit of the adult human scalp consists of 1-4, and occasionally 5, terminal hair follicles, 1, or rarely 2, vellus follicles and is surrounded by a band of collagen. In a follicular unit hair transplant, only intact follicular units are used in the procedure.