Artificial hair implantation for hair restoration

Abstract

Background

Androgenetic alopecia (AGA) is the most common cause of hair loss in men and women. Artificial hair implantation is considered an alternative treatment when the donor area is depleted or unsuitable for hair transplantation. The use of artificial hair implants remains controversial, particularly because this practice has been banned by the US FDA.

Objective

To summarize various aspects of artificial hair implantation.

Methods

We discuss the history of artificial hair implantation, development of new biocompatible fibers (Biofibre^®, Nido Z-type), patient eligibility for this treatment, implantation technique, follow-up, immune response to the implanted fibers, and post-implantation complications. We performed a methodological quality assessment of the clinical studies that investigated artificial hair implantation using the Canadian Institute of Health Economics (IHE) Quality Appraisal Tool for Case Series (Interventional).

Results

Although the studies evaluating the use of artificial hair fibers appear promising, the methodological quality of most of them was between ‘poor’ and ‘fair’, due to lack of randomization, absence of control groups, improper study design, and inappropriate outcome measures.

Conclusions

Artificial hair implantation has been received with skepticism among physicians due to the complications reported. Further high-quality research needs to be performed to ascertain the safety and efficacy of artificial hair implantation.

Keywords:

• Androgenetic alopecia
• hair loss
• artificial hair implantation
• synthetic fibers
• biofibre
• foreign body reaction

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Dr. Francisco Jiménez Acosta for his critical review of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

AKG is a consultant for Bausch Health, Ortho Dermatologics, and Moberg Pharma. Mediprobe Research Inc. is a not-for-profit, noncommercial research group, thus MV and EMQ have no conflicts of interest to declare.