Greetings,
FUE hair transplants are the process where individual hair follicles are extracted with a tool and then transplanted into areas of hair loss. In order to extract the follicles the hair needs to be cut down to it’s shortest length above the skin so that the hair doesn’t get tangled in the tool extracting the grafts. This means shaving the scalp in most cases.
For patient’s having procedures which require less than 1500 grafts extracted there is now another option. The patient can grow the hair in the back and sides longer and we can shave either one large strip (smaller than the length of the hair) or multiple smaller strips (also smaller than the length of the hair) which allows the native long hair to hang down and cover up the extracted areas.
This allows the patient to keep the long hair and not shave the entire back and sides of the scalp and still have an FUE hair transplant. This technique is becoming very popular amongst actors (who can’t change their appearance if they have longer hair in the midst of a recurring show) and other individuals that do not want such a dramatic change to their appearance. The results are just as good as the full shaven technique and it is proving to be a very popular alternative to traditional FUE shaving.
I have included some photos of a recent patient I performed this technique on.
All the best,
Marc Dauer, M.D.
This is a photo of the “long hair FUE” process in a patient showing his donor region immediately post procedure with his hair wet and combed down.
This is a patient’s donor region immediately post harvesting approximately 1400 grafts via FUE with the hair raised.