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What is Involved with Follicular Unit Excision (FUE) Hair Treatment?

FUE hair treatment is a method of taking or harvesting donor hair from a patient’s scalp in advance of transplanting it to another area where the hair has thinned or shed. After an exam of your scalp, our hair treatment surgeon can determine if you are a good candidate for FUE or an alternate method.

What is the Surgical Method Used for FUE Hair Treatment?

When a patient undergoes FUE hair treatment, the surgeon will use a special instrument to make a tiny, circular incision around each hair follicle that will be extracted during the procedure. The incision separates the follicle from the tissue that surrounds it. The surgeon then pulls the follicle from the scalp. The incisions are repeated until the surgeon determines that they have harvested a sufficient number of follicular units in order to complete the FUE hair treatment. The following details are also important to understand:

  •         The FUE hair treatment can take up to four hours to complete. In some cases, the surgeon may opt to break the surgery up to complete it over two consecutive days rather than complete it all on the same day.
  •         The wounds left behind from the donor extraction will be about one millimeter in size each. They should completely heal within seven to ten days. Small white scars from the extractions will remain but they will be concealed by the surrounding hair follicles.
  •         FUE hair treatment involves the harvesting of individual follicular units rather than taking a strip of scalp such as is done in a Follicular Unit Transplant (FUT). The FUT follicular units are then dissected by the surgeon using a specialized microscope. This is not necessary for FUE hair treatment. (To learn more about the FUT hair transplant procedure, contact our office to schedule a consultation with our surgeon.)
  •         Prior to receiving the harvested grafts, very small recipient slits are made by the surgeon using a very fine needle-like instrument. The locations of the slits are determined by what areas of the scalp will most benefit from the procedure.
  •         The surgeon places the follicular units into the recipient slits on the patient’s scalp. They will remain there permanently and grow into healthy follicles which will result in fuller hair in the targeted areas of the scalp.

How Are Robotics Used in FUE Hair Treatment Procedures?

Because FUE hair treatment is so heavily dependent on the use of instruments and in a precise way using small incisions, robotic systems are sometimes used by a surgeon to perform the procedure. In particular, the extraction of the follicular unit grafts will be done by the robotics system.