The images below show a patient that was in our office today. He previously underwent a procedure for roughly 2000 FUE grafts with the idea that it was a scarless (or at least no visible scars) procedure and that he would be able to wear very short hair styles with no evidence of surgery. At worst he could expect "hypo-pigmentation" or in layman's terms an absence of pigment.

FUE is supposed to also be more economical than strip. The argument is centered on the option of being able to "cherry pick" larger grafts so that more coverage is achieved with fewer overall grafts thus lowering the final cost when calculated on a cost per graft system. We find this to not be the case as part of this calculation assumes consistent growth. We find many cases of FUE where overall growth has been disappointing at best. Below is one case where we believe no more than 25% of the grafts placed actually grew in. Note the large spaces between the grafts in the frontal hairline.


What is "hypo-pigmentation" though? Simply an absence of pigment? Scar tissue has no pigment either so it seems logical that the two terms may be more synonymous than previously thought. Regardless this patient can no longer wear the short hair style he prefers because of these spots with zero pigment, better known as scarring.


Hair transplantation is a surgical procedure no matter how you look at it. Be it strip or FUE your skin is being cut with one and only one goal in mind. To get to the good hair that you need so you can place it on top with the idea that you will be less bald and it will look natural. Period. Your main objectives should be excellent growth and naturalness. The understood trade off is that for the benefit of having more natural hair where you need it you will have, somewhere, evidence that surgery has been performed but if that evidence outweighs the benefit as shown above then the question becomes one of whether or not FUE truly is more "economical".

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I am employed by Hasson & Wong as a patient educator. My opinions are my own and might not be that of Dr. Hasson & Dr. Wong.

Hasson & Wong-The More You Look The Better We Look.

Dr. Hasson and Dr. Wong are members of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians

Here are the photos blown up for better viewing. The first two photos of the recipient area show an obvious issue with the final growth. Notice the large gaps in between the grafts in the hairline.



In this photo of the right temple the scarring from incisions and subsequent rejection response is obvious. The grafts did not grow and the scalp tissue is still reddish due to the immune response.



Here the extent of the donor area is revealed. This shows just how much area must be covered to reveal only 2000 grafs. Even with such a large area of coverage the damage is not only obvious but irreversible.



From the below angle FUE scarring is usually a bit harder to detect as the donor hair usually shingles over the extraction points. No such help here.



Even a straight on view from the back shows the some of the grafts were taken from what some would say is a questionable area, into the bottom of the crown area.



And the donor from the left rear angle.



This photo was taken while the patient was lying prone just prior to strip removal.



And here is one day post-op after 2600 grafts were placed by Dr. Hasson.



Proper angle and direction.



The patient told me this morning before he left that he will be happy to update us with additional photos as his progress unfolds. I will update as I get new photos.

__________________
I am employed by Hasson & Wong as a patient educator. My opinions are my own and might not be that of Dr. Hasson & Dr. Wong.

Hasson & Wong-The More You Look The Better We Look.

Dr. Hasson and Dr. Wong are members of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians

Hey Joe could you blow this one up too.

http://hairlossadvances.com/fo...cef2ecc657889dfbbbd5

PGP,
And your point is? No one is saying that strip doesn't scar and that there aren't bad cases all over the place. You can mock me all you wish but I find your above post to be contrary to your recent posts regarding FUE misrepresentations.

What is being said is that FUE is "non-surgical", that it "leaves no scars" or at the very least leaves an area of less pigment (that happens to be white and round just like a scar would be) and that short hair cuts are easily attained. Do you happen to agree with this position or are you simply trying to antagonize me?

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I am employed by Hasson & Wong as a patient educator. My opinions are my own and might not be that of Dr. Hasson & Dr. Wong.

Hasson & Wong-The More You Look The Better We Look.

Dr. Hasson and Dr. Wong are members of the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians

I've read that fue can actually leave a larger scar than strip because it is over a larger surface area. this example definitely helps back that claim up. very eye-opening. thanks for posting this example jo.

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HT #1: Karamikian Unknown # of grafts Sept.2006

HT#2 Nov.23rd, 2007
Dr.Feller
Almost 3200 grafts via strip

HT#3 April 2010
Fue 200/side into temple points

HT#4 February 2011

My Hair Loss Website - Hair Transplant with Dr. Feller

Jotronic I just called out Bart on another forum for the same thing your kind of doing .

http://www.hairlossadvances.co...744c71d2e17a1cd759dc

Posting the worst case you can find,and boy is that bad.
I know why you did it but ,its cool. I apologize
Nice strip work though.
Did your clinic ever decide when your going to post graft counts.
Could you do the right thing and also post who the clinic was so we can warn people about them.

Joe,

Thanks for posting this as I think it's important that people see the other side to FUE. So many simply think that strip will produce a scar, while FUE will not. But that's just not the case - it just leaves a "different kind of scar" is all.

As for the growth - that's quite shockingly poor. Do you have any guess as to the punch size used? It looks like Dr. Cole's earlier work if I had to guess based upon photos I've seen from his work a few years ago. I think most use considerably smaller punches now to minimize this scarring.

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1662 with Dr. Ron Shapiro - Spring 2006
1105 with Dr. Ron Shapiro - Fall 2009
M&M Weblog

M&M,

did you read PGP's last post???

that's the worst posible FUE scar that you can find on the web. and it looks like the punch-tool was made just after WW2 /w 2.5mm it seams.

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I agree that this reeks of Cole, but who really knows....either way, it's yet another FUE-travesty that is being shown....it's sick that FUE has essentially been hijacked by a few opportunistic punks, who are basically butchers with a pretty ribbon wrapped around them.

Anyways, work looks great Jo....even though this scarring is something of an anomaly for FUE, it isn't like it's some freak thing to experience bad scarring from FUE, and I think it's vital for the typical guy researching HTs to understand that just because its OMGFUENOSTRIPSCAR, you still have to be very cautious!

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*A Follicles Dying Wish To Clinics*

1 top-down, 1 portrait, 1 side-shot, 1 hairline....4 photos. No flash.

Follicles have asked for centuries, in ten languages, as many times so as to confuse a mathematician.

Enough is enough! Give me documentation or give me death!

i have personally seen a FUE donor area in person from 5 inches away and it looks nothing like this. this example also shows that some of the surronding hair (around the punch marks) have died and never grew back.

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http://i41.tinypic.com/33dwk79.jpg