Hair Restoration Blog

Q:

I have read some good things about your practice and I am willing to travel. I am in need of 1500 to 2000 graphs placed using FUE. Please let me know the price/graft you have available. I have been quoted 4/graph but was not comfortable with the doctor.

PS. A representative at Bosley is saying FUE is not possible at 1500 to 2000 graphs. Is this true? I am not trusting this notion. Thank you

A:

Thank you for your interest in our quality hair restoration services and for taking the necessary time to contact our office regarding your inquiries. Although I cannot personally evaluate your options or offer you recommended graft numbers without reviewing your past and current medical history, I have taken the time to address your questions below.

- You stated that you are in need of 1500-2000 FUE grafts.
Here at US Hair Restoration, the regular cost for FUE hair transplant services is $8.00 per graft.

*If you have a flexible schedule and willingness to book for your procedure within 7-10 days of the hair transplant then you are eligible to take advantage of our standby option which offers a discount on the total cost of your procedure. The current discount percentage fluctuates, so please call our office for more information on the current seasonal rate.

- You stated that you were not comfortable with the previous clinic you consulted. If you are feeling uncomfortable with the last clinic you consulted for a hair transplant, we urge you to continue consulting doctors until you find the perfect fit. Finding the perfect physician for you will likely not happen over night, but the research to achieve your best possible results is well worth the wait.

- As for a Bosley representative saying that 1500-2000 FUE grafts is not possible, I would not necessarily agree. To be sure, you would need to be evaluated in a consultation for other restricting conditions. Because FUE procedures are so meticulous and time consuming, many doctors do not want to plan for over 1500 FUE grafts to be transplanted in one day. This is not to say that it is impossible to transplant more than 1500 FUE grafts in one day, but 1500 transplanted grafts of FUE will typically take about 8 -12 hours of work for the doctor and technicians. We do not like to push our patients, or surgical team to the limit, so if any patient is wanting more than 1500 FUE grafts we elect to break up the surgery between two or more days of work (up to 1500 FUE grafts per surgery day).

If you would like to schedule a free consultation so that we can discuss your options and graft number recommendations, submit an online consultation form through the main US Hair Restoration website and one of our patient coordinators will respond when they have a free moment. Thank you for your inquiries.

Using hair from other parts of the body for transplantation into scalp has been used for many years.  Unfortunately though, the change in the life cycle of body hair from different areas of the body has caused the body hair to stay as the last option for scalp hair restoration.  Body hair has long resting phase and short growth phase which means that most of the transplanted hair will stay in resting phase without having visible hair growth.

Comparison of scalp (left) vs. facial (right) hair: Note the difference in density of hair per surface area and the average number of hair in each follicular unit. Scalp hair is denser with more hair per grafts (over 2hair/graft) while beard hair is less dense with fewer hair per grafts (1-2 hair/graft)

Facial hair such as beard and mustache hair on the other hand has a longer growth phase and shorter resting phase.  That is why men can grow their facial hair to become really long.  Facial hair is also thicker than scalp hair in most people.  Thicker hair could be translated as more bulk of hair after hair transplantation.  Both longer growth phase and thicker hair shafts make beard hair a better option for scalp hair restoration in comparison to body hair transplant from other areas.

There are two problems with with beard hair restoration.  One is that they are very sparse and removing hair only needs to be done through a strip procedure.  The other problem with using facial hair for scalp transplant is that the facial follicular units are having fewer number of hair per unit that means less hair per grafts removed with FUE techniques.

Beard transplants are gaining popularity recently with newer techniques for extraction of hair (FUE) and it can be a great alternative to scalp hair for transplanting to the balding area in people who do not have good quality scalp hair.

Today, many medical specialties are using new technology that involves robots for completing procedures.  Robots can help to minimize human error or increase the speed of procedures.  In hair transplantation, one of the most meticulous procedures in the surgical field, many stages need to be done microscopically using trained and highly specialized surgical technicians for the best results.

The FUE (Follicular Unit Extraction) procedure is one of the newer techniques of harvesting hair.  FUE can help surgeons to avoid leaving a linear scar on the donor area of patients after a hair transplant.  FUE transplantation has been gaining popularity in the last few years, but it is limited in terms of the quality of grafts and the number of follicular units that are able to be harvested in one session.

The reason for these limitations are due to the fact that FUE procedures require very extended labor hours as well as the need of the surgeon and surgical team to constantly work on removing follicular units using high magnification devices.  Due to the above requirements and our standards of quality, we recognize that staying in the same position for long periods may cause fatigue in the surgical team and is a limiting factor in the number of grafts that are able to be harvested in one session.

Robotic surgery seems to be a perfect solution in which machines can do the tedious hard work in removing the follicular units in FUE sessions.  Robots can also miraculously be used for placing the removed follicular units in the recipient areas.  There have been many advanced methods of automated hair restoration procedures developed in the last few years.  There is no doubting that many of the currently available automated techniques will lead to the advanced development of a perfect robotic system to harvest and transplant hair grafts in the near future.

Restoration Robotics is one of the companies who have pioneered robotic hair restoration procedures.  The current machine used is a computer guided system that allows a surgeon to remove FUE grafts with high accuracy and a reasonable speed.  The system still needs to be equipped to a transplanter in the future but even now, it could be considered a great device in the field of hair restoration.  We will follow the advances in the field of robotic hair restoration closely and keep our viewers posted with other techniques or devices that become available in the future.