Martinick Hair News

Hair Restoration Planning And The Martinick Technique™

- Saturday.September 26. 2020

Patients seeking hair transplants are likely to experience further hair loss in the future.

So it’s essential that any hair restoration surgery they have is carefully planned and timed to make use of donor hair while it’s available. This helps ensure the patient retains a natural looking head of hair for the long term.

Dr Martinick says, “While most men and women who have begun to notice hair loss can benefit from hair restoration, not all patients are candidates for surgical hair transplantation. For some men, it is possible to stop or even reverse the progression of hair loss with medical therapies.”

“If you are over the age of 50 and your hair loss has stabilised, you could expect minimal further hair loss.  If you are younger and have a strong family history of extensive hair loss, you need to be aware of a high likelihood of future loss when planning your hair transplant,” she says.

The 5-Step Hair Restoration Plan

The purpose of this 5-step hair restoration plan is to give guidance as to the best way to plan and time hair restoration treatment.  This ensures that only an amount of donor hair that’s appropriate for the hair loss pattern the patient is currently experiencing (and likely to experience in the future) is used.

Below, we outline the key elements and strategies that make up the most effective ways of hair restoration planning:

1 Frame the face first and foremost

Most hair transplant patients want to be able to look at themselves in the mirror with confidence again. That makes the restoration of the frontal hairline the most important result they look for from hair restoration surgery.  And that’s why facial framing is a critical element of hair transplant planning.

Framing the face prioritises the establishing of age-appropriate frontal hairline design that’s suitable for the patient’s facial features and stage of hair loss.

The hairline should be located in a normal position—always the width of one finger above the highest crease that’s displayed when the patient furrows their brow. That’s approximately ½ to ⅔ of an inch or 1-1.7 cm. The hairline should never be higher or lower.

The practice of creating a hairline that’s higher than the mature position and then lowering it during later treatments is not recommended in the hair restoration planning.

If it’s thought that donor hair is likely to be in short supply, conserving available resources will need to be considered. But even then, the cosmetic appearance of any hair transplant should remain the priority.

The positioning of the mid-section of the frontal hairline is vital as it’s key to defining the patient’s look. Compromising this by creating a hairline that’s too high in a bid to conserve scarce donor hair will not produce satisfactory results.

The forehead will appear enlarged, the patient’s baldness more prominent, and facial proportions will be distorted. Worse still, the result lacks a natural look, with the high hairline a clear and obvious hair transplant.

2 Front and top before the crown

This links to the first point and accentuates how important it is for patients to see noticeable benefits when they look in the mirror. When planning hair restoration, we always seek to deliver hair coverage to the front and top of the scalp as a priority.

This means the very first hair transplant session should seek to cover these areas, however lightly, so that the patient can see visible progress. This depends on the state of the patient’s baldness, but the crown can and should be treated only if there is enough donor supply for that area.

Covering the front and top of the scalp first often allows the hair restoration plan to be paused to give the patient time to assess if the coverage achieved by the early treatment is to their liking.

If more fullness or greater density of hair is required, then a second hair restoration session can be scheduled.

A patient’s options could be limited if crown coverage is attempted too early, especially if donor supplies are limited. A balanced cosmetic appearance may be out of reach.

So a crown hair transplant should only be considered if the doctor is confident that enough donor hair will remain to treat the front and top of the scalp (assuming those areas require treatment).

3 Every treatment must result in a natural look

No hair transplant procedure should rely on a subsequent procedure to achieve a natural look. Each must stand alone, leaving the patient with a natural look from all angles and viewpoints.

That means a natural hairline should be established, even after just one session.

It should never be the case that a patient is told: ‘It might look unnatural now, but just wait until you see it after the next session.’ The purpose of hair restoration planning is to leave the patient feeling confident after every hair transplant session.

That’s not to say that the ideal hair density can be achieved after just one treatment. Further sessions will almost certainly be required, but the patient needs to be left with natural-looking hair no matter how few or how many treatments they’ve had.

This is why hair restoration planning is important. We are aware that all patients want their treatment to be over as soon as possible so they can get back on with their lives with natural looking hair. Patchy areas of growth and unfinished looks are not the answer.

4  Conservation of donor hair is key

The success of the hair restoration planning relies on maximising the availability of donor supplies to ensure the hair restoration leaves the patient with good hair density across all the areas of the scalp that require treatment.

We understand that every patient is different. For example, those with fine dark hair and the same hair loss pattern as someone with coarse light hair will require differing levels of donor hair.

Coarse hair has four-times the bulk per hair follicle when compared with fine hair. Also, blonde hair requires fewer hairs to achieve cosmetically pleasing coverage than black hair when framed against a white skin background.

With these different variations, it is crucial that the doctor is able to assess the number of grafts required. It’s not as easy as looking up a hair loss pattern and picking a number off a chart.

5  Achieve more in fewer sessions with The Martinick Technique ™

The ability to carry out a large number of grafts during a single treatment marks out the advantages of using follicular unit transplantation enhanced with the Martinick Technique and enables a natural look to be achieved after a single session.

The patented Martinick Technique™ is recognised the world over and has the reputation of producing superior results that are natural and completely undetectable.

The Martinick Technique™ is unique in that it incorporates a significant degree of meticulous hair restoration planning, preparation and continuous feedback into all stages and aspects of each hair transplant procedure.

The Martinick Technique™ enables efficient and effective handling of hair follicles, an irreplaceable and limited resource, and ensures minimal trauma and optimum survival of grafts.

The Martinick Technique™ produces superior results by:

• Minimising trauma
• Minimising handling
• Increasing graft survival rates
• Improving predictability of outcomes
• Lessening complications and side effects
• Lessening scarring
• Promoting better growth
• Producing more natural results
• Reducing patient discomfort
• Reducing staff discomfort
• Improving recovery time
• Minimise bleeding
• Reducing the risk of toxicity
• Creating an overall positive experience for patient and staff

Follicular unit transplantation is a powerful hair-restoration technique that allows the surgeon to create very natural results. However, the ability to achieve a full cosmetic benefit depends upon a number of factors, including proper patient selection, accurate assessment of the patient’s donor supply, appropriate design of the hairline and correct distribution of the grafts.

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