According to professor Wang Shanchang from Xinhua Hospital, the hair in this area is usually stronger and more resistant. "By grafting some of the hair from this part of the head to the bald area, it's possible to reduce the impression of baldness."

The professor said this kind of surgery is useful for two groups of people: those who are balding because of over-exhaustion of lipa on the scalp and those who have gone bald due to burns or scalds to the head.

Lipa is scalp oil or the grease essential for hair growth.

Going bald is very embarrassing for some people. "But it is sometimes unavoidable," Wang said.

"Hair follicles are like the soil from which hair grows. But ageing and other factors cause the follicles to deteriorate or even die.

"From the age of 17 or 18 , about 1 per cent of our hair follicles wither every year," Wang said. "After they are about 60 years old, many people will be bald. That is a natural deterioration."

But for some, the process of balding begins very early causing considerable emotional distress.

"Ageing, an excess of male hormones or androgen and genetic reasons can all diminish lipa production too early," Wang said.

The hair follicles become over-active leading to their early deterioration, which in turn causes the shedding of hair.

"From time spent in the United States I know it is this kind of balding that most Americans are susceptible to," Wang said.

Some medications can temporarily relieve this kind of baldness, but usually they cannot cure the illness and the baldness will return.

Other causes of baldness include burns to the head.

If a person sustains burns to the scalp, the hair follicles are completely destroyed, Wang said.

"For this kind of baldness, no medications can help," he said.

Wang's technique of grafting hair actually originates from the United States. After 10 years' of practising and improving the technique, Wang says he has perfected it.

"At the moment, in one operation we surgically remove about 2,500 hair follicles from the back of the head and plant them towards the front," Wang said.

Wang also explained they have to come from the patient's own head, because use of hair follicles from a donor usually results in rejection.

Wang then slices the hair follicles under a microscope so that he has smaller hair follicles with three, seven or 10 pieces of hair in each.

The smaller hair follicles are then planted on the bald part of the scalp.

"Usually, I plant those with fewer pieces of hair in the front part of the head, and those with more in the middle part of the head."

The reason for this, Wang explained, is that those with more pieces of hair grow more easily after the transplant.

The skin is sewn together on the part of the scalp where the follicles originally came from, which means a scar is left. "But the scar is too small to be noticed," Wang said.

People who have large areas of baldness will need several operations.

"The waiting period between operations should be at least three months to give the skin time to recover and for the growth of hair after planting."

The cost for an operation is $800 for foreign patients, compared with $4,500 usually for each operation in foreign countries, Wang said.

"This kind of surgery is low risk."

However, because people's hair is usually unable to reproduce when they reach 60 or above, "I usually don't do operations on people over 60 or on people who are not in good health," he said.

"For people whose baldness covers over 50 per cent of their heads, it is difficult for their hair to stay alive after a transplant. I don't do operations on them either," he said.

Opening times at Wang's clinic: Monday and Friday mornings

Address: 1665 Kongjiang Road, Xinhua Hospital

Tel: 6579-0000 ext 4800 (appointment required)