Hair Restoration Blog

 Why have an FUE Transplant Procedure for Hair Restoration?

Mohebi Medical, US Hair Restoration centers are leading clinics in hair transplants. Their southern California offices receive questions daily via phone or online regarding the latest advancements and technologies in hair restoration. Parsa Mohebi, MD an internationally recognized leading surgeon and researcher in hair restoration leads the medical team at the clinic. We receive calls almost daily regarding hair restoration through hair transplantation.  We are often queried regarding Follicular Unit Extraction [FUE] hair restoration surgery.

FUE Hair Transplant

There is a lack of clarity for some people regarding FUE and FUT hair transplant surgeries. Mohebi Medical, US Hair Restoration centers specialize in performing both types of surgery for hair restoration. Though Strip Method, a form of FUT hair transplants is by far the most common surgery performed; FUE procedures offer certain advantages.

FUE hair transplant surgery is a form of hair restoration. This medical procedure should absolutely be performed by a Board Certified medical doctor. FUE stands for Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE.)  FUE is a method to remove hair follicular units individually. The other method used in modern hair restoration involves taking a strip of the scalp and dissecting it into follicular units. FUE is a particular type of FUT hair restoration surgery.

Based on a patient’s consultation and microscopic scalp evaluation, and FUE hair transplant may be deemed the best choice. At our Los Angeles based centers we do not have a preference for a type of hair transplant surgery. Mohebi Medical maintains a patient centered practise Doing what is best for the patient.  FUE transplants are great solution for some people.

FUE transplantation is a viable solution for many hair loss sufferers, especially those with minimum hair loss or people who really want to avoid having a scar on their scalp. FUE is also a good choice for people who suffer from significant pain or have low pain tolerance. There may be other specific medical reasons base on a person’s medical history that makes FUE transplant the best choice for them. At times we choose FUE to correct issues arising from poor surgeries done elsewhere.

Below are some more facts regarding FUE hair transplant surgery:

FUE transplantation, we may harvest up to 1500 in one session.

• FUE procedures for patients needing more grafts than 1500 should be done in another session.
• FUE allows for donor hair to come from other areas of the body; this is helpful when scalp donor hair cannot yield the number of grafts needed.
• FUE is a great choice for other cosmetic options such as restoring eyebrows and hairlines
• FUE transplant are an optimum choice for scar revision in the scalp when most often only a limited number of grafts are needed.
• The cost of FUE is higher since it is more labor intensive and requires more specialized artistic skill.

In properly considering and FUE transplant, it is recommended to having an evaluation by a hair transplant surgeon who is skilled in both FUE transplantation and strip method before you decide which procedure is right for you. Our firm provides online video consult for our patients globally.

Comment on Andrew Sullivan’s website:

… Another has a “warning to those men who are reading the posts exclaiming the positive impact of hair transplants”:

Like your reader who had a follicular transplant, one of my good friends also had this procedure when he was in his mid-20s; receiving rows and rows of transplanted hairs placed in neatly symmetrical patterns over the entire top of his head.  In the short run, this procedure, I’m sure, did much to help the self-esteem of a young man prematurely balding and panicked about his looks and the impact on his attractiveness to prospective mates.  The problem is that someone experiencing balding that severely in his early/mid-20s, is likely going to continue to bald.  Now, in his early 40s, my friend has the top of his obviously implanted head cut extremely short – making the unnatural pattern even more noticeable – because the balding has extended down creating a bare ring of head before the fringe of hair at his ear level.  The worst part of all of this: because of the horrible scarring created by the removal of the strip of hair from the back of his head to create the transplants, fully shaving  his head is no longer a reasonable option.  It’s an unfortunate example of having to live with a constant reminder of the vanity of youth.  He would have been better to just have left his hairline to nature.

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Dr. Mohebi’s Response:

I read the negative comment about hair transplants of one of the readers of Andrew Sullivan’s “THE DISH” blog.  As medical director of US Hair Restoration I could not stay silent because of the erroneous information disclosed in this reader’s response on your site.

The comparison of follicular unit transplantation which is the current gold standard of hair restoration surgery with old techniques that involved transplanting plugs of hair in rows is inaccurate.  Hair transplant surgery has come a long way in only the last 20 years, from plug surgery and mini-micro grafting to natural looking hair transplant surgery through follicular unit transplants. Modern hair transplant surgical procedures are technology advanced; a skilled surgeons procedure results are natural.  Most hair stylist cannot detect that their client has had a hair transplant. This has been proven true and our practice and colleagues.

In today’s Follicular Unit Transplantation, hair follicles are divided into the natural groupings harvested from the patient’s donor area of scalp.  These grafts are transplanted in natural direction and distribution in the balding areas of the scalp.

Undergoing hair transplant at an early age as cited by your reader is no longer a problem.  Microscopic diagnostic methods assist a hair transplant surgeon in predicting the pattern of future hair loss in a young man.  Current state of the art diagnostic technique allows the surgeon to be able to design placement of hair grafts in a way that it looks normal at any age.  For example when I design someone’s hair line I pay less attention to where it was before and more to where it is going to be as a mature hairline in the future.  The result of a hair transplant that is done correctly should look good now and it should look good twenty years from now.

The newest methods of donor wound closure resolves the issues concerning scarring at the back of head.  One such method trichophytic closure allows hair to grow inside the scar and makes the hair transplant scar less visible.  Today, we also perform Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) for the ones who cannot have any linear scar on the back of their head.  The FUE method is more labor intense and time consuming but it allows surgeon to remove follicular unit grafts one at a time.  After a FUE transplant the patient can keep his hair very short without being concerned about the visibility of scar of the donor area.

Finally I would like to clarify that with the knowledge we have today about balding and its adverse effects on men’s psycho-social lives, I don’t call hair transplant a vanity but a requisite that is available to us to make our lives better, just like many other advancements that are available to us in today’s world.

Parsa Mohebi, MD

Medical Director
Mohebi Medical and US Hair Restoration.com
Los Angeles, California

­ Female Hair Loss and Cycles of Hair Growth

Baldness in women can involve a specific pattern of hair loss. This hair loss pattern called female pattern baldness or FPB is usually caused by hormones, aging and  other genetic factors. FPB is also known as female pattern alopecia the completion of a full hair cycle is noted when a hair falls out and a new hair begins to grow.  or female baldness.

The Hair Cycles and Causes of Hair Loss in Women

The hair life cycle in women and men is characterized by longer periods of growth and shorter periods of rest. Women’s hair grows on average 1 cm per month or just under ½ inch. The growth cycle begins when one hair shaft begins to grow from the hair follicle and completes when that hair falls out and a new hair again, begins to grow. The full term for just one hair can range from 2 to 6 years. Medical science has proven that under normal situations approximately 85% of a person’s scalp hair is usually in the growing phase at any given point in time; and the other 15% is in the resting phase.

When a new hair does not grow and replace the shed hair baldness begins to take place.

Often occurring before this a process called miniaturization occurs. During this process the hair follicle goes through a cycle of producing finer and finer hair over a period of time. Scalp hair I in a woman is characterized by overall diffused thinning of their hair.

Medical science does not yet fully understand the complete picture regarding baldness in females. T However, it seems to be most closely associated with a woman’s genetic predisposition.  There are also indicators that hair loss is also effected by hormonal changes and aging; these hormonal changes that are commonly seen in the post-menopausal women.  Scalp hair in post menopausal women is usually characterized by a general thinning of the hair all over the scalp.

Viewers of this blog may also like to read 5 Step Management of Hair Loss in Women