FUE Procedure
Is any test required to determine if Your head or body hair hair can be extracted by SFET?
In patients of African descent, who possess tightly curly hair, a test is recommended.
Are female patients good candidates for SFET using head or body hair (BHT)?
Female patients often would require investigation for other treatable causes of hair loss. This requires the input of a skin and hair specialist (a dermatologist). Dr. Umar is board certified by the American Board of Dermatology, and is qualified to manage female patients with complaints of hair loss. Dr. Umar often receives referral of female patients from other physicians including other hair transplant doctors who are not certified dermatologists. Dr. Umar may require performing some tests to determine the cause of your hair loss and the best treatment options available.
What qualities make FUE far more superior than the traditional strip surgery?
Traditional hair transplantation requires the cutting of a slice of flesh from the back and side of the head. The result is a linear scar that can potentially widen overtime. The patient is forever forced into a lifelong self conscious struggle to hide the scar. FUE-SFET is linear scar free and minimally invasive. Patients without linear scars have the option of cutting their hair as short in ways never before possible with traditional strip hair transplant which is also called Follicular Unit Transplantation – FUT and follicular unti hair transplantation -FUHT or Follicular Unit Strip Surgery – FUSS. The patients are not left self conscious about a linear scar that could get exposed in windy situations or when swimming or even when the spouse runs their hands through the hair.
Is FUE or strip surgery better for hair transplantation?
If you anticipate the need to keep an overall shorter hair style, then you want to avoid the linear scar that would necessarily result from Follicular Unit Strip Surgery (FUSS). It would make sense to do Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) instead. If you already have a strip scar from prior surgery or never anticipate keeping a short hair cut, then FUSS could be considered. I am of the opinion that FUSS is perhaps too invasive a method for procedures involving less than 500 grafts.
What is the advantage of Single Follicle Extraction and Transfer – SFET and Body Hair Transplantation – BHT ?
Hair transplant methods that utilize only head hair as donor resource (be it FUE or Strip surgery) entail the redistribution of permanent hair from the back and sides of the head. This limits the donor supply to 5,000-7,000 hairs. In a significantly bald individual, only one tenth of the hair that has been lost can be replaced using this source. The result of the appearance of the hair transplant is often thin and cosmetically unappealing when this limited amount of donor hair is used. With SFET, hair from the beard and body areas can be added to the donor pool in certain individuals. This vastly expanded donor pool makes it possible to restore severely balding men whose head donor supply alone would have been unable to meet their overall needs.
Is that strip method little old school than the SFET method?
Strip surgery is the more traditional and widely available HT method. Single Follicle Extraction and Transfer – SFET is my technique for what most people refer to as Follicular unit Extraction – FUE. FUE type techniques being a less invasive method that does not create a linear scar and enables the expansion of donor supply by incorporating none head hair to the donor pool (body hair transplantation – BHT, may well be the future direction hair restoration takes. I will advise you to watch this video which explains the difference clearly:
http://www.youtube.com/user/DrSUmar#p/u/13/oaciCGrSW-g
Is the SFET method more expensive than the stripe one?
Yes it is more difficult to perform and the ht doctor himself has to do more work directly than he would otherwise in the more traditional strip HT method.
Do you have any pictures of previous African American patients, including their outcomes, that I might be able to see?
Head and Body Hair FUE- SFET for African American Patient
FUE – SFET Using Head Hair Only for African American Patient
FUE – SFET Using Only Nape and Head Hair for African American Patient
What is the rationale behind SFET testing?
It is done in few instances particularly in patients of African descent where the hair is tightly curled and the tissue is harder in texture with more intimate connection to the follicle. In the test session I will extract about 25-50 grafts and transplant to your area of choice all viable grafts. In an African American, the primary objective of the test is to gauge your transect ion rate. in order words whether the procedure would be viable in you. We are able to determine this rather quickly. If successful, your definitive surgery can be planned right away.
You can decide to use the test to determine for yourself the healing characteristics and yield etc In that event, the next surgery can only be planned after you have satisfied yourself on the areas that are of interest to you. For both yield and healing, it could be 6 months or more.
How many days would it take to heal to the point that scarring is not visible (I can be seen without a hat). One week? Fourteen days?
Scabs in recipient typically resolve in 7-14 days. Donor area on back and side of head would typically resolve within 7-10 days
If wanted to split the surgery into 2 parts, eg. do 2000 grafts in May and 2000 in December would this allow for quicker healing and shorter recovery due to less trauma to the scalp, or is it all the same?
You can certainly do so. Probably better for the patients peace of mind. I sometimes recommend this for patients who have had poor experiences from previous surgeries and patients who are tentative about the procedure all together. But in terms of healing and outcome, I have not found an advantage to this approach.
“The information on this site is solely for purposes of general patient education, and may not be relied upon as a substitute for professional medical care. Consult your own physician for evaluation and treatment of your specific condition.”
