Eyebrow Transplants

Eyebrows are a very critical feature of the face. They help us define how we look. They frame our face, so to speak. Eyebrows could be considered more important to us than the hair on our heads. The eyebrows are in a central position on our faces and are kind of... right in your face. Especially when looking in the mirror! If you were ever to lose your eyebrows for whatever reason, you'd be surprised how much they influence your cosmetic look. Since eyebrow hair loss is not natural, many people rightfully regard this new look as unacceptable.

It's possible to lose your eyebrows, unfortunately. You might have a disease such as alopecea areata or a disfunctional thyroid. Other causes of losing your eyebrows could be tattoos, infections, burning accidents, repeated plucking and a genetic tendency towards thinner eyebrows as you age.

With modern day technology, eyebrows can be restored to their former look. Just like with scalp hair transplants, hair that is transplanted to your eyebrows will be permanent. But eyebrow hairs do have a number of properties that seperates them from scalp hair.

First of all, eyebrow hairs grow from a very small angle with regards to the skin. Scalp hair grows at maybe 45 degrees with respect to the skin that it is protruding from. Secondly, eyebrow hair growth cycles are much shorter than scalp hair growth cycles. The anagen growth phase of eyebrow hair is only around 4 months. But scalp hair can be in anagen phase for as long as 7 years! Thirdly, the directions of eyebrow hairs are all over the place! They differ greatly in all the various parts of the eyebrow. Fourthly, the hairs grow in individual strands only. There are no groups of 2, 3 or 4 hairs in the eyebrow. But you will find groups like these on the scalp.

All of these factors make the eyebrow transplant a very tricky procedure. The doctor who performs the treatment must be very precise in his placing of the hairs. The direction and the angle must be exactly as they were before you lost them. The recipient wounds that are going to be made for the hairs to be placed, must be made with an extremely fine needle. This is to ensure that the hair will lie as flat on the surface as possible when the doctors implants the hairs.

The donor hairs that get taken from your head, must be in groups of 1 hair per little bit of tissue. Such a bit of tissue is called a graft. The scalp naturally has grafts of 1, 2, 3 and 4 hairs. When taking donor hair from the back of your head, you will be taking out grafts of all sizes. But all of them need to be cut up into 1 hair grafts. This is even harder than dissecting grafts for a normal scalp hair transplant, where the naturally occurring groups of hairs are left intact.

You understand that it requires quite a bit of skill and technique in order to perform an eyebrow transplant. This doesn't exactly make them cheap.

One other thing you need to keep in mind, is that the transplanted hair will keep growing just as it did on your scalp. After having had an eyebrow transplant, you will regularly need to trim them.