Patients experiencing hair loss may be fearful of looking aged. Premature baldness may be considered unsightly by many in modern society. Such patients may approach hair treatment services, or use hair products that claim to help grow new hair. Few have clinical evidence. To have a better understanding, please refer to our article on Hair Gardening. For appropriate patient, it is also worthwhile to consider a treatment known as the FUE.
FUE, or ‘Follicular Unit Extraction’, is a surgical process whereby follicular units are harvested from one part of the scalp, and transplanted to the balding area.
FUE is currently one of the two possible hair treatment surgical options available in aesthetic clinics.
Here are a few things you should know about the FUE.
FUE is minimally-invasive: minimal visible scars on your head. When hair follicles are extracted from your hair, the punch is less than 1mm, and the wound would heal further, leaving an even smaller scar. This is easily one of the biggest advantages of the procedure.
Instead, FUE leaves very small, round punches at the back of your head, the size of one to four hairs.The scars are invisible even if you have a short haircut, though they may appear if you completely shave your head.
With topical or regional anaesthesia, you will not feel any discomfort during the procedure, in which very small punches of lesser than 1mm are made into your skin.
However, you may feel some discomfort after the procedure is complete. It is slight, and may last for one to two days. Your aesthetic doctor would help you ease the discomfort with some medication.
When selecting the aesthetic doctor who will perform your treatment, it is important to consider their overall experience and the reviews of their previous treatments. Unfortunately, in Singapore, these are often not easily available online. You would need to have a consultation and speak to your doctor to find out more.
Remember that you would want to minimise risks in the procedure as much as possible.
Your post-operative wounds heal within a few days.Unlike linear scars, these small, round wounds would heal in a few days. This makes the procedure even more popular, as downtime needed for recovery is minimal.
Once the hair grow out, it will be your natural hair. Your aesthetic doctor will do anything possible to ensure that the transplant site looks as natural as possible, and blends in with the hair around the region.
Good results from clients have shown that this technique produces hair that looks completely natural, and does not usually leave odd-looking patches.
Is this treatment for me?
Patients who are still experiencing excessive hair loss of more than 100 strands may not be suitable for this treatment as their condition may not be stable yet and the final pattern of their hairline is still unknown. Medical treatment will be needed to stabilise the condition before the FUE.
It is recommended that you consult your aesthetic doctor on whether the treatment is suitable for your specific hair transplant needs.