FUE (follicular unit extraction) has several advantages over other techniques. It’s simpler, less painful, and minimally invasive and there are no stitches or scarring — important if you want to wear your hair short. Since hairs are transplanted into the same slots that contained previous shafts, there’s a better ‘uptake’ and it looks more natural, too.
The procedure is carried out under local anaesthetic, takes about eight hours and recovery rate is rapid (most scalps have healed in 10 days or so). After 10 months, about 90 per cent of the transplanted hairs will have ‘taken’. The cost varies, but works out at about £2.50 to £3 per hair, so you will probably need a spare £9,000 to think about it seriously. Yet for those who have had it, the results appear to be nothing short of life-changing.
Many men who have gone hair transplantation have expressed that they have no regrets about it, especially the ones who specifically went for the FUE technique of transplantation. ‘It’s amazing how good it makes you feel about yourself,’ one shares. ‘In fact, I’ve heard that many people get addicted and keep going back for more.’ Though he was not quite out-and-proud about opting to surgically restore his hair, his FUE operation took eight hours and involved 3,000 hairs being transplanted from just above his ears.
‘I’d tried other treatments, like minoxidil [an over-the-counter liquid treatment], but a transplant was always at the back of my mind. Only when I read about FUE did I finally decide to do it as it seemed a less painful option.’
And did it hurt? ‘It was more uncomfortable than painful,’ he says. ‘But the scabs heal in days. I booked time off work but by day 2, I wasn’t worried about people seeing my scalp.’
With hair restoration no longer taboo, the sky’s the limit.
