Abstract Background: There are several methods for harvesting donor hair such as punch excision, single-bladed
knife excision, and multibladed knife excision. All of these procedures are blind and thus resulted in
transection of hair follicles and fewer follicles being available for transplantation that detrimentally affect the
final cosmetic results.
Objective: To explore a new method of donor hair harvesting called ?donor dissecting?. This new
procedure is an open technique as hair follicles are directly visualized during the harvesting process.
Materials and Methods: The technique of donor dissecting utilizes a #15 scalpel blade for single strip
harvesting from the occiput while maintaining meticulous hemostasis. This enables individual hair follicle to
be visualized and protected from transection during the harvesting process. Once the single strip is harvested,
it is then further divided into individual follicular unit or mini- and micro-grafts using direct visualization of
individual follicles to again prevent transection.
Result: The technique of donor dissecting was utilized in 50 consecutive hair transplant patients.
Utilizing this new technique, only 1.9% of hair follicles in the donor strip were transected during the harvesting
process. At the dissection of donor strip 1.2% follicles were transected in the grafts cutting process. Combining
the donor dissecting technique with dissection of the individual grafts, the transection of hair follicles was
1.59%.
Conclusion: The technique of donor dissection minimizes the transection of hair follicles in the donor
hair harvesting phase of hair transplantation. This technique is superior to the blind methods of donor
harvesting which have been plagued by the problem of excessive hair follicle transection.

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