The punch scalp graft.

The punch scalp graft hair transplant procedure is an established, acceptable, and successful method of hair replacement for various forms of alopecia, in both men and women. The surgical skills require discipline, knowledge, and a modicum of surgical training, which allows most physicians, particularly surgeons, to be qualified to perform the procedure. Selection of the patient, objective evaluation of the alopecias and the donor area, and postoperative care and instructions are all essential ingredients to satisfying the hair transplant patient. The punch graft scalp technique hair transplant has become essentially a common operative procedure and is available to almost any qualified and desirous patient. The cost factors have remained reasonable and in keeping with other nonsurgical methods of artificial hair replacement. For the past 15 years, there have been numerous symposia and seminars on hair transplantation conducted by qualified experts in this particular field, which have made such courses available to essentially all physicians. Sufficient journal articles and textbooks have been published to provide any physician with adequate reference material, and ongoing additional publications with updates continue to be made available to all physicians. Many university medical teaching centers have developed free hair transplant clinics or low-cost hair transplant clinics at which residents in training perform the punch scalp graft hair transplant procedure to allow indigent patients likewise to obtain hair transplant procedures. Hence, the day has come when any patient, male or female, of any race, with suitable objective indications, can obtain a hair transplant if he or she is properly motivated and desires to do so.