There are three different types of three hair
natural follicular groups. Understanding the anatomy of the individual groups is
essential to the safe dissection of the grafts with minimal damage or trauma to
the hairs, as well as, the insurance of the production of natural three hair
follicular groups. Natural follicular groups consisting of three or more hairs
assist with the grafting and coverage of the top of the scalp and internal
frontal areas. They are a natural means of achieving cost effective coverage.
Unnecessary fractionation of these natural three hair clusters an inefficient
means of grafting unless one is concentrating on hair line coverage alone in
Norwood Class Two or less patients with high calculated densities or a high
number of hairs per follicular group.
Type one consist of three hairs lined
up in a row. Type two consists of two hairs exiting from the same follicular
canal with one hair exiting lateral to this in a separate follicular canal, and
type three consists of three hairs exiting from the same follicular canal. I
call this third type a T-pee formation because it resembles an Indian's T-pee.
These three types were discovered and named by John P. Cole, MD in 1998.
