FUE hair transplants are one of the most modern methods of surgical hair restoration that you can take advantage of today. What does WAS mean? It stands for Follicular Unit Extraction and can provide much better (almost unbelievable) cosmetic results when compared to the older style of punch grafting and strip incision transplants. There is also much less scarring than with any other method.
When you undergo a transplant, the area where the hair is taken from is called the donor area. With the oldest methods, an entire strip of skin was cut from the back of the head. This would usually leave a fairly large scar on the back of the head, so short haircuts were out of the question; even if the hair transplant was 110% successful. Worse still, these scars can stretch out and become a disfiguring feature on the back of the head.
So why is FUE a better choice when it comes to hair transplants? Well, the main reasons are:
1. The scarring is almost invisible.
2. It is suitable for people with very little donor hair (Norwood 6).
3. It is ideal for anyone who has a “tight scalp”.
4. If you want to cut your hair afterwards, FUE is the only way to go.
5. Healing time is much shorter with FUE transplants.
Before undergoing a FUE transplant, a qualified surgeon will first need to verify your suitability. The amount of donor hair and the density of this hair will decide how much of the bald area of your scalp can be effectively covered. You can always have a hair transplant – the question is how much coverage you will get in the end.
With this type of transplant, the hairs are removed in small follicular units (1 – 3 hairs) and transplanted directly to the scalp. These hairs are transplanted directly from the donor area without the need to cut a strip of skin. There are scars in the donor area, but they are the size of a puncture in the skin; you would need a magnifying glass to find them.
Older hair transplant styles are becoming obsolete very quickly, just because FUE has proven so successful. Patients have had more than 8,000 hairs transplanted in a single session with this type of hair transplant. That means you have a single hair transplant, it heals, and then you spend the next 12 months watching all that new hair grow on your head… and no one will be sure how it happened.
Oh and how expensive are these procedures? Well, it depends on the doctor you go to, but the prices range from $3 to $8 per hair graft (follicular unit). It’s not cheap, but it’s a way you guys can permanently solve your hair loss problems!
