Hair Transplantation with FUE

Follicular Unit Extraction—FUE

Natural Results with Avoiding a Linear Donor Site Scar

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The follicular unit extraction technique (FUE), unlike FUG, avoids a linear donor site incision- instead, the grafts are harvested one at a time with tiny 0.8 to 1 mm punches which then usually heal as essentially undetectable dots in the scalp. The result—patients have a hair transplant yet most can cut their hair even shorter than they could with the "strip" method, usually even shave their head, without having any detectable donor site scars. A newer technique, FUE is not offered by most surgeons because it is technically challenging. While FUE in no way makes obsolete the technique of follicular unit grafting, it can be the best procedure for patients who are: young; usually male; keeping open the option of shaving their head; African-American patients; and/or having reparative work and have a limited supply of donor hair. The FUE procedure can also obtain grafts that can be then placed into a donor site scar from a prior procedure.

Body and Facial Donor Hair for FUE Grafts

In certain select cases, usually of depleted scalp donor hair from prior transplants, inefficient harvesting or simply very low scalp hair density, Dr. Epstein will occasionally use hairs from the beard or chest for transplanting into the scalp. The beard area tends to be the best hairs for this purpose, typically averaging a regrowth rate of 70%, (but chest hair can often be quite effective)
but this is usually not as reliable as scalp donor hair. Using carefully designed FUE harvesting techniques that he has developed over the past six years of performing FUE hair transplants, these hairs can be used to typically fill in very limited areas. One particularly common area for beard or chest to scalp FUE hair transplants is in the donor area scars from prior transplants.