You’ve heard of breast implants, lip transplants, even buttocks transplants as well as rhinoplasty but in case it’s escaped your attention, another form of cosmetic surgery particularly important to many women as well as some men, is an eyelash transplant or eyebrow transplant.
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Why would a man or woman consider an eyebrow or eyelash transplant?
Of course, some people have scars or are genetically predisposed to have thin, undefined eyebrows and eyelashes, but many women, in particular, have overplucked their brows or tried to add artificial extensions to their lashes to the point that they just look unnatural, day in and day out. Overplucking, in particular, can give a person that frozen, botox look or an angry, or dishonest appearance. The eyebrows and lashes are perhaps second, only to the nose in outlining, shaping and establishing symmetry of the face, so this overplucking trend can be critical to not only a person’s appearance but to their self-esteem.
Outside of a transplant procedure, most women attempt to rectify their overplucking, either by the daily application of heavy make-up or undergoing a cosmetic tattoo. The problem with either of these solutions is that they are not natural and while a poor make-up job can be corrected, in the case of a cosmetic tattoo, sometimes the post results make the individual look worse rather than better.
Where do eyebrow and eyelash transplant hairs come from?
If a patient of a plastic surgeon decides to undergo the procedure, the doctor will carefully design the eyebrows and lashes so that the end result is that the patient has a fuller brow but looks aesthetically pleasing and natural to their ethnicity. Once that is done, the doctor and his or her dedicated team of assistants will carefully harvest your own natural hair, most often from the back of the head, but occasionally further down the head to harvest particularly fine hairs. The particular procedures involved are not significantly different from hair transplants which have been done for many years, only to make the results look natural and pleasing, patience and the skill of the plastic surgeon are critical.
Is it painless?
The answer is an unqualified yes, although most patients take a light dose of oral medication. In addition, most doctors performing transplants use a computerized device that renders the area virtually painless when the hair grafts are transferred from the head to the eyebrows.
What happens after the hairs have been harvested?
Technicians, many of which have been involved with several hundred transplants, prepare and separate the harvested hairs into grafts of around two hairs each.
Once the grafts are prepared, the physician begins the process of surgically implanting them into the brow or eyelash area. A transplant to correct the impact of a small scar may take as few as 50 grafts, but typically a patient has 500 to 700 grafts implanted.
As your plastic surgeon transplants the grafts he doesn’t just transplant a graft here or there, willy-nilly. Sometimes the doctor, but more often times the patient themselves outlines the end result with an eyebrow pencil, which serves as a pattern or template for the grafts to be placed.
How long does the procedure take place?
A high-quality eyebrow or eyelash augmentation can take three to five hours, so it’s a slow, careful and strategically planned procedure. Your doctor and his staff are not finished until the full results have been transplanted.
How long to recover from the procedure?
The implanted grafts will scab over with a short time after the procedure is performed. Minor swelling plus elimination of the graft scabs takes around five to seven days and you want to let these scabs heal naturally. Pulling or picking at them will result in a small amount of bleeding.
What happens next?
After everything heals you will look remarkably better, but in around three or four weeks, the implanted hairs will fall out? Really, I spent four or five hours under mild anesthesia having hairs transplanted from the back of my head only to have them fall out in three or four weeks? Yes, that’s the procedure, but in case you are wondering, the roots of over 90 percent of those hairs still survives. Consequently, over the next few months, new hairs gradually appear to fill in and complete your new look.
Who do I get to perform the procedure?
If you are considering eyebrow or eyelash enhancement, one question becomes, who do I get to do the procedure? While many plastic surgeons may have some of the technical know-how or could learn, the amount of time, three hours minimum to up to five hours tends to discourage even the best plastic surgeons from attempting eyebrow and eyelash augmentation. Look for a board certified plastic surgeon that has extensive experience in eyebrow and eyelash augmentation.
About the Doctor
In both Miami & New York locations, Doctor Jeffrey Epstein, a board-certified plastic surgeon, is considered the preeminent doctor in eyelash and eyebrow augmentation vis transplant grafts. Doctor Epstein has patients flying in worldwide to have their brows and eyelashes augmented, and he and his staff perform up to 25 brow and eyelash augmentations per week. He has extensive knowledge not only in implanting hair grafts, but shaping them so the hairs implanted grow symmetrically and work in conjunction with your own, natural brows and eyelashes.
Dr. Epstein is simply the go-to guy for eyebrow and eyelash augmentations. His rather informative website not only has numerous before and after photos, reviews, and testimonials but videos describing the procedures. If you’re considering flying in to have your work done, Dr. Epstein does initial consultations via Skype, as well as in person.
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