Follicular Unit Extraction
Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE)
This method of hair transplantation is actually an older process that has been ‘dusted off’ and re-marketed to the public. Many of the original disadvantages of the procedure have been worked though but in essence, it is nothing new. It makes little sense to use this procedure for the majority of men and women seeking surgical hair restoration.
FUE is sometimes referred to as a “scarless hair transplant” but this isn’t accurate. It doesn’t leave a liner scar in the back but does leave little small circular scars. Any type of hair transplant will leave some sort of small scar. So, if a patient likes to wear his hair very, very short – this is something to consider when making the decision to have a hair transplant procedure.
With the Follicular Unit Extraction procedure, the hairs are harvested in a single step vs the more common two-step process. With FUE small 1-mm punch sites are made in the donor site to remove the follicular bundle. This incision has to be made very precisely in order not to damage the fragile hairs.
NeoGraft
NeoGraft is a machine that assists the surgeon in FUE surgery. It is typically marketed to surgeons that don’t offer hair transplants as an easy way to add transplants to their practice. While innovation is always welcome in medicine, sometimes it is a step backwards and not forwards.
The theory is that the machine helps extract and then place the hair or follicular unit more effectively. The reality is the machine has been shown to slow down an experienced transplant surgeon or technician so there is no real advantage. Again, this is for the experienced surgeon. A non-experienced surgeon doing transplants may find it does help. Very few hair transplant surgeons consider this technology as an advantage of any kind. Additionally very few serious hair transplant surgeons find that FUE -whether with a machine or not- has much of a role in their practice. With the possible exception of smaller cases or cases where harvesting donor hair in a strip isn’t a good option. For example, this might be a patient with very limited donor hair.
Some of the disadvantages of Follicular Unit Extraction are:
- A much lower amount of hair can be transplanted so many people with mild to moderate hair loss may find that they are not good candidates.
- More Follicular damage (Transection) occurs effecting overall yield.
- Much more expensive and time consuming than traditional hair transplants.
- Follicular groupings (grafts) are more fragile to trauma thereby impacting the quantity of hair that grows from the procedure.
- Procedure size if limited so overall number of hairs that can be transplanted in a single session is much lower. May require 3 to 5 sessions to equal a typical large Multi-unit Grafting procedure.
- Much more expensive than FUT and Multi-Unit Hair Grafting™.
