Question and Answer on FUE – follicular unit extraction (from Hair Restoration Blog):
- I understand the less number of grafts you can get through FUE makes it likely that you have another surgery.
A: That is true. However repeat FUE procedures might be even more difficult to extract grafts in consequent procedures, due to the presence of scars of the first surgery on the donor area. However you should not have any limitations doing regular strip technique if you have a FUE in the past.
- Does FUE leave or not scars?
A: Any skin incision leaves scar. The point is the scars of FUE (Follicular Unit Extraction) are so small and scattered in a large area that they are not distinguishable.
- You mention body hair. Do you usually implant body hair on the head, or am I tripping? If so, how does the extraction process work? Scars left?
A: Body hair transplant to the scalp is not something that we do on a regular basis and in fact I only recommend body hair for people with extreme depletion of scalp donor hair. If eligible for body hair (you should have thick body hair and you also need to be tested positive with Fox test before FUE procedure it is similar to scalp FUE with none or minimally visible, scattered scars.
- In bold figures or percentage, how much more expensive would FUE be than the strip removal method to achieve the exact same result?
A: At US Hair Restoration – Los Angeles hair transplant center, the cost of FUE procedure is twice as a strip hair transplant procedure of the same size.
- I wonder how efficient FUE is in covering large areas, how many surgeries you’d have to have done to get the exact same result as the strip removal method. Plus, I wonder if -besides the healing process- the hair growing time is shorter than the strip removed one.
A: FUE is an important method of hair transplant, but probably not as efficient as follicular unit transplantation with strip technique. Dr. Parsa Mohebi a hair transplant surgeon in Los Angeles offers FUE for patients who are candidate for it. For large cases I prefer FUT that we almost have no limitation on the number of grafts. FUE is for people who prefer to have no visible scars on the donor area, but less number of hairs is acceptable to them. FUE can work beautifully for people with low degrees of hair loss. You have to realize which is more important to you: “No donor scar” or “A fuller head of hair” if you have extensive balding. Healing process in donor area is much shorter than the strip technique and donor area is back to normal in abut 4-6 days as opposed to in the strip method that the donor wound healing may takes up to 2 weeks. Healing on recipient area is the same in FUE and strip surgery.
