HAIR TRANSPLANT FORUM

Donor After 6,000g Harvested with CIT donor recharging

CIT donor recharging is a technique developed by Dr. Cole to offer more options to patients. CIT donor recharging is essentially when a scalp graft is extracted via CIT, and then a body hair graft is placed into the scalp extraction site. The body hair helps to keep melanin production and circulation established in the area where a follicular unit was extracted. It also provides some coverage to the harvested donor. The CIT donor recharging technique allows the most immaculate donor area possible.

Even without CIT donor recharging, the typical CIT procedure will allow the patient to have short hair in the donor area without showing any signs that a transplant has been preformed. CIT farming is not a necessary adjunct to CIT or FUE. It does, however, provide options for patients who have more complicated goals.

Applications of CIT donor recharging
• Repair patients with extensive scarring and limited donor availability
• Flap and lift repair patients
• Patients with extensive hair loss
• Patients who anticipate significant hair loss in the future

This is an example of a Norwood Class 6 patient who had almost 6,000 scalp grafts harvested via CIT. A little more than 50% of the donor extraction sites were then grafted with CIT donor recharging. The result is that the patient is able to wear his hair very short without any evidence that surgery has occurred. This hair style would not be an available option to the patient if he had this amount of grafts harvested with strip method, even with optimal strip scar healing.



Here are close up images of one of the first patients to have CIT donor recharging. The auricular donor areas were treated with CIT donor recharging. He was also a Norwood Class 6 who needed a lot of donor to be able to reach his hair transplant goals. Almost 20% of the existing hair in these auricular areas has been harvested, yet even upon up-close examination, it seems that nothing has ever been done. In this area, body hair grafts were placed in 90% of the scalp hair extraction sites using the CIT donor recharging method.

One of the goals with CIT donor recharging or former known as hair farming is to increase the potential hair we can move from the donor area to the scalp and still maintain a pristine-like donor area. It also prepares body hair for a new home on the scalp theoretically. Body hair has been shown to often double in length when moved to the scalp.