FUE Sapphire Hair Transplant
Invest in your hair
You wear it every day
Average Stay
3 days
Duration of Hospital Stay
-
Duration of Operation
3-4 hours
Type of Anesthesia
Local Anesthesia
Recovery Time
2 weeks
What is an FUE hair transplant?
Follicular unit excision, or FUE, is a donor hair harvesting technique that hair transplant surgeons commonly use to harvest individual follicular units (hair follicles) from the back of the head.
The surgeon uses a cylindrical instrument to meticulously harvest or excise one follicle at a time. This follicle is then prepared and implanted into thinning or bald areas.
Each graft contains one to three hairs, and as they’re implanted, the surgeon angles them in the growth direction of your hair. The permanent results can re-create your natural hairline and growth patterns.
The scars left by FUE are circular and random, which makes them less obvious than the linear incision left by the follicular unit transplantation (FUT) technique. For this reason, FUE harvesting is ideal for men who want to keep their hair trimmed very short post-surgery.
Who’s a good candidate for FUE hair transplant surgery?
Patients can decide which method of donor hair harvesting they prefer, but hair transplant procedures like FUE and FUT are especially good for treating male-pattern baldness, a receding hairline or baldness at the crown or temples that are caused by a combination of genetics.
Male pattern baldness usually begins with a receding front hairline that progresses until it creates a bald patch on top of the head. Half of men have some degree of hair loss by age 35, so hair replacement is a popular procedure.
What happens during FUE hair transplant surgery?
The procedure involves harvesting individual hairs from the donor site, usually in the back of the head. Hair density is usually quite good in the back of the head, so a substantial number of donor follicles can be removed without it being noticeable. This obviously depends on the total number of grafts excised and how short you keep your hair. For example, 2,000 FUE grafts harvested can be noticeable with a very short haircut.
To start, your provider will shave the hair in the donor region to a length of 1/16 of an inch. The hair on the top of the head may be left slightly longer, but it’s easier to harvest a larger number of follicles when hair is cut short. This improves the efficiency of the small cylindrical punch used to remove the hairs and surrounding tissue from the scalp: if the punch isn’t aligned perfectly, it can cut off the bottom of the hair follicle as it punches the area out.
Your surgeon will perform a local anesthetic into the treatment area to make the procedure as painless as possible. They then extract follicular unit grafts, using a 0.8 mm to 1 mm punch and fine forceps, to remove small sections of the hair-bearing scalp. These will be divided and transplanted into tiny holes or slits within the scalp. Immediately after the extraction, your surgeon will place the follicular units in a special solution, to preserve them.
In the areas of getting the donor's hair, your surgeon will make microscopic slits and place the individual grafts into these recipient sites. The incisions will determine the angle and growth direction of the hairs, which will be modeled after your existing hair.
Although the procedure creates up to 2,500 tiny dot-like scars (1 mm in diameter), scattered over a large area, they are less detectable as hair grows out longer. Because of this, FUE harvesting is the recommended technique for those who want to keep their hair very short or who may want to shave or buzz it one day. Most patients have 90–100 follicular units per square centimeter in their donor area.
The process can take many hours, so some patients sleep, while others catch up on their favorite TV shows. You may need additional anesthetic every few hours to keep you comfortable, so be sure to let your surgeon know when you start to feel discomfort.
What can you expect during FUE hair transplant recovery?
Most people take about three days off work after an FUE procedure, but the transplanted area will have crusting or scabbing and may look pink (like a sunburn) for about a week, so you may want to take that long. Recovery is fast, but it takes about 10 days for the donor zone to look fully healed.
If the full donor area was shaved, it will take about two weeks for the hair to grow into what looks like a buzz cut.
Your doctor will give you specific instructions for washing and caring for your hair during recovery. Follow those instructions closely, to ensure the best result.
Most doctors recommend waiting 48 hours before washing your hair, then being very gentle as you cleanse (no scrubbing). Instead of positioning your scalp directly under the shower head, try for less pressure, even using a cup to pour water over your head for the first week of showers.
Here’s a guide to how quickly you can return to regular activities (for best results, heed your surgeon’s advice).
After 3 days: Return to normal activities and light exercises, such as walking and light yoga.
After 7 days: Resume moderate exercise but avoid anything that greatly elevates your heartbeat or causes you to really perspire. The scalp can be very sensitive after a transplant, and excessive sweating may irritate it and damage new hair grafts.
After 10 days: Get back to swimming, cardio, running, weight lifting, and other strenuous activities.
When will you see results from an FUE hair transplant and how long will they last?
You should see about 50% of the transplanted hairs growing within about five months, 80% growing in eight months, and a final result in 12 to 24 months.
After your procedure, the majority of the newly transplanted hairs will fall out within the first three to eight weeks, in a process known as anagen effluvium. Often, this happens in a wave, around weeks three and four.
Hair returns at about two to four months post-op. The new growth will initially emerge as finer hairs, gaining length and diameter as the growth continues. By the end of the first year, the new hairs should be as robust as the other, native hairs.
The “dormant” period between surgery and new hair growth is typically two to three months. However, it doesn’t all grow at once, since each hair has three growth cycles and runs on its own clock. Then new hair will grow at the same rate as non-transplanted hair, approximately one-half inch per month.