Hair on a man's head is an important emblem of health, youth, and vitality. As in all areas of cosmetic surgery, the refinements of surgical technique and instrumentation have improved the results of hair transplantation. The state of the art in hair grafting today produces a result that is undetectable as being a surgical hair transplant. Many earlier techniques of plug hair transplantation are not aesthetically acceptable by today's standards. This is especially true in the face of progressive hair loss, which can unmask previously camouflaged cornrow plugs. A technique to reduce the plugs and recycle the grafts into smaller grafts is described. The recycled hair grafts can be combined with scalp lifting, scalp reductions, and occipital harvesting of grafts to improve the results of cornrow appearing hair transplants and other problems of surgical hair restoration. (Plast. Reconstr. Surg. 105: 1528, 2000.)

From the Division of Plastic Surgery, The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Received for publication April 28, 1999.

James E. Vogel, M.D.

1838 Greene Tree Road

Suite 420

Baltimore, Md. 21208

jev@erols.com

©2000American Society of Plastic Surgeons