FUE Hair Transplantation

Conveniently located to serve the areas of San Antonio, TX

FUE Hair Transplantation Dr. Colin O’Dea of Premier Hair Restoration

Follicular Unit Extraction, more commonly referred to as FUE, is one of the two primary harvest methods employed in hair transplantation. The process of performing FUE involves the extraction of grafts, each containing one follicular unit, using a small cylindrical punch and then transplanting those grafts into areas of hair loss. (1) These newly transplanted follicular units are harvested from an area on the back of your head where the hairs are resistant to DHT, the hormone that causes hair loss. (1) This area is referred to as the donor area. The follicular units harvested from the donor area maintain the property of being resistant to DHT, even when transplanted into areas of hair loss, and will continue to grow hair for the rest of your life. Hair transplantation allows your own hair to grow permanently in areas of previous hair loss or thinning.

Dr. Colin O’Dea of Premier Hair Restoration is fellowship-trained in hair restoration surgery and constantly keeps up to date with the latest technologies and techniques in the art of hair restoration. Contact our San Antonio office online or at (210) 642-2291 to learn more about hair transplantation or to schedule a free consultation. We look forward to helping you achieve your hair restoration goals.

About Follicular Unit Extraction

FUE is the newest and most innovative method of harvesting follicular units for hair transplantation. (1) Traditional FUE involves clipping the hair short in the donor area and then using a rotating cylindrical punch to extract individual follicular units from the donor area that will then be transplanted into the recipient area where there is hair loss or hair thinning. More recent innovations in FUE include the use of FUE machines and punches that oscillate and vibrate in addition to rotating, allowing for greater accuracy in the harvesting of follicular units, as well as some FUE machines and punches that allow for the harvesting of long hair using FUE eliminating the need to clip the hair short before harvesting. Because a small punch is used to harvest the follicular units, no suturing is required, and no linear scar is formed. The donor area where the follicular units are harvested heals after around seven days. (2)

What are Follicular Units?

Follicular units are small clusters of hair follicles, typically ranging from one to four hairs per follicular unit. These clusters of hair follicles contain shared structures, including glands, muscles, nerves, fat, and blood vessels. There is an average of between 2.5 and 3 hair follicles in every follicular unit. At Premier Hair Restoration we transplant follicular units in their entirety, meaning that if you get a surgery with 2000 grafts, you will be receiving on average between 5000 and 6000 transplanted hairs.

Benefits

Hair transplantation allows you to create a new hairline if your hairline has receded and allows you to fill in areas where you have lost hair or have thinning hair. This is done using your own hair, which will grow and behave just like the rest of your hair for the rest of your life. You can cut it, style it, and get it wet just as you would the rest of your hair. Many patients feel an increase in confidence and an improvement in looks after hair transplantation. Under the expertise of Dr. O’Dea, patients get to experience benefits like:

  • Local anesthesia only without the need for deep sedation or general anesthesia
  • No need for sutures
  • Minimal scarring that is easily covered by the remaining hair
  • No linear scar
  • Relatively short recovery period

Candidates

Men with male pattern hair loss, women with female pattern hair loss, and both men and women who have experienced hair loss due to scars from trauma or burns are candidates for FUE. People with hair loss for other reasons, including autoimmune disorders and various types of scarring alopecias, may be candidates for FUE depending on the specific cause and whether the cause has been successfully treated.

Consultation

At Premier Hair Restoration, Dr. O’Dea will provide a complimentary consultation that includes evaluating your history of hair loss, your family history of hair loss, examination of your hair loss pattern, and discussion of your personal hair restoration goals to tailor a hair restoration plan specifically to you as an individual. This is an excellent opportunity for you to ask questions regarding the procedure, discuss potential outcomes, and learn about the most suitable options tailored for you. Transparent communication helps foster trust and aligns expectations.

Schedule your consultation today by submitting our online contact form or call our San Antonio office at (210) 642-2291.

Surgical Hair Restoration Planning

The most important component of a successful hair transplant is a well-developed plan tailored to you as an individual–this is where the art meets the science! Dr. O’Dea will take your age, your current hair loss pattern, your medical history, and your family history of hair loss into consideration to develop a plan catered to you that will give you the fullest and most natural-appearing result possible, which is the ultimate goal. We do not aim for perfection because that can look fake and manufactured. Instead, we aim for a natural appearance with a carefully designed hairline that Dr. O’Dea will create with natural-appearing curves, undulations, and minor imperfections to achieve the most natural appearance possible. This natural appearance will help make the hair transplant unnoticeable to other people. (2)

Preparation

For most people, minimal preparation is needed for a hair transplant surgery. Prescriptions will be sent to your pharmacy for you to pick up before your procedure so that they will be available to you as soon as you get home from the procedure. The only medication to take beforehand is the first dose of a short course of steroids, which is taken the day before the procedure. For people with significant medical problems or who are on medications that may interfere with the surgery, more planning may be necessary. On the day of surgery, several medications are given orally to help with both the procedure and the healing process.

Procedure

The procedure has five main phases. The first phase is the planning phase. This includes designing a hairline jointly with you that fits you personally and that you are happy with. Following the design phase, local anesthesia is administered to the donor area to allow for the harvest. The third phase is the harvest of the grafts using the FUE technique. This phase of the surgery typically takes two to three hours. Following the harvest, local anesthesia is administered to the recipient area. The fourth phase is the creation of the recipient sites for transplantation. (1) This is done using a small 1mm to 1.5mm scalpel. Each site is where a single graft will later be placed. The creation of the sites is how we execute the plan that was made at the beginning of the surgery. The two most important components of hair restoration surgery are the combination of planning and site creation according to that plan. (2) Following site creation, the grafts are placed individually into each of the sites that have been made.

Recovery

Dr. Colin O’Dea of Premier Hair Restoration

Recovery after FUE is relatively short compared to other types of surgery. The small punctures where the donor grafts were harvested typically heal in around seven days. For the recipient site, the grafts are very easy to accidentally pull out of place for the first several days, so we recommend you spend several days mostly resting in a reclining position. After three to four days, the possibility of accidentally pulling out grafts is no longer an issue. The grafts will typically then form a crust, which will fall off around seven to ten days after surgery. After the surgery, most people have mild to moderate pain that is easily treated with Tylenol, ibuprofen, or a mild prescription pain medication such as tramadol.

Results

Patients typically begin to notice hair growth within three to six months after the surgery, with full results appearing within a year. A transplanted hair usually grows in natural cycles, providing a fuller head of hair without any significant signs of hair loss. As hair regrows, confidence and satisfaction often improve significantly.

Corresponding Procedures

FUE is one of the two main hair transplantation methods. The second of these is Follicular Unit Transplantation, more commonly known as FUT. Instead of harvesting and transplanting individual hair follicles, FUT removes long strips of hair grafts and replaces them in areas where the hair is lost or thinning. FUT allows for more grafts to be harvested over a lifetime as compared to FUE, but it does have some drawbacks compared to FUE, the primary drawback being that the FUT method leaves a linear scar in the donor area. Depending on your individual goals and your individual family history of hair loss, either FUT or FUE may be the more appropriate procedure.

Cost of FUE in San Antonio

When you meet with Dr. O’Dea to discuss your treatment plan, you will receive a comprehensive price estimate for your procedure.

Take the first step toward a fuller head of hair by scheduling a consultation with Dr. O’Dea. If you have any questions or would prefer to schedule your appointment(s) over the phone, please call our office at (210) 642-2291.

FAQ

Can I get more than one hair transplant?

Yes! Many people get more than one hair transplant throughout their lifetimes. While the transplanted hairs will grow for the remainder of your life and medications including minoxidil and finasteride can help slow the progression of your natural hair loss pattern, many men with male pattern baldness continue to see some degree of hair loss involving the native hairs in the thinning or balding areas and choose to get additional transplants later in life. This continued thinning applies only to the hairs already in the thinning or balding areas that were destined to fall out in the future. It does not apply to the hairs that have been transplanted, as those will continue to grow permanently.

How many grafts can be transplanted in one procedure?

Dr. O’Dea prefers to do a maximum of 2500-3000 grafts per procedure because performing larger procedures risks disrupting the blood supply in the recipient area to the extent that may lead to a decreased survival rate of the grafts.

How many grafts can be transplanted over a lifetime?

The typical recommendation is that a maximum of 5000-6000 grafts be harvested from the donor area using FUE throughout your lifetime. Harvesting more grafts from the donor area risks creating a look of abnormal thinning in the donor area.

Can women get hair transplants?

Yes! While most of our patients are indeed men with male pattern baldness, we take care of both men and women who suffer from hair loss for any reason. It is important to note that many medical conditions can cause hair thinning or hair loss in women, so a workup including blood tests and sometimes a scalp biopsy is often indicated before performing hair transplantation. Because there are many medical causes of hair loss in women, many women will see improvement in their hair loss with medical treatment alone without the need for a hair transplant. For some women, including women with female pattern hair loss, a hair transplant is perfectly appropriate.

References

  1. Dua A, Dua K. Follicular unit extraction hair transplant. Journal of cutaneous and aesthetic surgery. 2010;3(2):76-81. doi:https://doi.org/10.4103/0974-2077.69015
  2. Kerure AS, Deshmukh N, Agrawal S, Patwardhan NG. Follicular Unit Extraction [FUE] – One Procedure, Many Uses. Indian Dermatology Online Journal. 2021;12(3):381-388. doi:https://doi.org/10.4103/idoj.IDOJ_522_20