The Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) Method of Hair Transplantation

Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) is a hair transplant technique, which can be described as “follicular unit extraction”.

It is a method of implantation that was developed especially after 2000. A large part of the interested patients turned to this technique as it presented a number of advantages as a new technique of hair transplantation.

Until then the vast majority of doctors were familiar with the strip hair transplant technique.

FUE quickly became popular by conquering a large part of those who wished to proceed with some technical hair transplantation and over the years, it succeeded in:

• It is a minimally invasive technique for hair transplantation.
• It is performed under local anesthesia while pain is minimal to non-existent during the transplant and bleeding is also minimal.
• Avoids permanent scars after implantation in the donor area.
• It has amazing results in terms of recovery time as with this technique no stitches are made, while this also minimizes the risk of inflammation.
• FUE is equally suitable for small operations such as in the eyebrow area or large operations on the scalp, without creating a scar.

A key factor for the success of the FUE method is the experience of the medical team that undertakes it. The experience factor is of particular importance as the success of the transplant is directly related to the skill of the plastic surgeon.

And in this, the team of Dr. I. Papagelopoulos and the Hair Transplant clinic team guarantees not only the experience but also the result of the overall process.

Ensuring the success of FUE, apart from all other factors, is done in three steps:

1. Identification of the donor area. Local anesthesia is applied to this area.
2. This is followed by the removal of hair follicles one by one from the donor area.
3. The hair follicles that are removed are repositioned in the area that needs implantation.

However, it must be added that FUE, although it is popular as an option, presents some problems as it has been observed that there can be a loss of grafts during their reception at a rate of 30% to 35% when the operation is not performed by qualified medical personnel in all phases of the procedure.

The loss of grafts is due to the fact that the hairs do not all grow vertically, with the result that when trying to remove the follicle and following the direction of the hair, the graft is decapitated and destroyed.

It is more than necessary for this reason the presence of doctors in hair transplantation with the FUE technique.