When is FUE the best way to go?

[Spanker]

I was wondering when it is best to go the FUE route?

 

Is it based on the size of the session, number of sessions you prolly have left? What is the criteria for making this decision?

 

Some doctors I talk almost insist the FUE but a lot of them seem really against it....:confused:

[uselessgomez]

It seems most Docs prefer to do strip because it has more consistent and reliable tested results. With FUE, there's more of a chance for disappointment, and it involves a lot more time and effort in the process.

 

If you have a tight scalp limiting the amount of hair that can be harvested from strip; if you have the need for a relatively small number of grafts (probably less than 1000-ish); if you absolutely have an aversion to a strip scar; if you are willing to risk the high potential for lower yield and inferior results and you are informed of the tradeoff ...

 

Then MAYBE FUE is the way to go. But read some of Dr. Feller's posts on the subject. Some people just have bad skin & hair qualities that make FUE a bad route for some.

[Curious]

If you have bad skin and hair, and heal poorly, strip would not be a very good option either.

[uselessgomez]

If you have bad skin and hair, and heal poorly, strip would not be a very good option either.

 

True, but I should have used the "wrong" instead of bad. I think he has said that the wrong skin qualities tend to be "mushy" skin that doesn't cleanly take the FUE scoring.

 

Don't take my word for any of this, however. It's importantly to do your own research and come to your own conclusions. Even good surgeons cannot agree on what is right sometimes.

[Dr. William Lindsey]

I agree with much of the second poster above. FUE is perfect for folks who want a crew cut in their donor region, have a strong risk of poor scarring or a family history of poor scarring, and need limited amounts of hair now and in the future.

 

That being said, we have a couple of fellows getting a series of FUE for class 6...but they were informed that it will cost more and possibly be less consistent than a strip.

 

Tomorrow's guy was originally a strip for 2500, but he called and wants to do FUE of around 1500, and reassess later. We've gone through all of the pertinent issues and,if he has significantly more loss in the future, he may well choose to have a strip down the road...and that is certainly an option.

 

An informed patient often makes the choice that is correct for them...its informing them that is kep PREOP.

 

Dr. Lindsey McLean VA

[uselessgomez]

Another thing that I forgot to mention is that FUE is said to be even more traumatic to the scalp. Instead of one excision of hair-bearing skin, you're going to have several hundred to over a thousand little punches made into your scalp that cause bleeding, possible hypopigmentation, and it might compromise how well your scalp bleeds (good blood supply).

 

Just because FUE doesn't LOOK traumatic, on a micro level it actually is, you just can't see it. All of those little wounds have to close up and heal and over time that could become a problem for harvesting more grafts. That's aside from the fact that sometimes it can leave white hairless spots in the donor.

 

So that's one argument why it might not be best to try FUE first and go to strip later if it doesn't work well.

[mongoal]

I had 2500 fue 3 weeks ago, looks completely healed, have a few tingly areas that are still lingering but virtually back to normal in donor area. Dr thinks i could easily pull up to 10,000 and still be virtualy undetectable. Im thinking many doctors dont like fue because its a heck of alot of work, i mean lots and many doctors dont have the skills to punch the follicules out correctly. Its a skill that would require real talent or lots of practice if you do it by hand. i didnt care if fue destroyed 100's of follicules or 10% didnt grow, i like the back of my head shaved and have ample donor follicules to add when needed. I didnt want a scar and i dont need 15000 grafts now and if i ever do need 15000 grafts ill be 70 and cloning will be available by then.

 

If cost is a huge issue go out of the usa or find a doctor that is reasonable here in the usa. It is hard to find a dr in the usa that will work for less then $3000-4000 profit a day doing a large 2000+ fue, i looked everywhere for a year and couldnt find one.

 

Perhaps my fue will look bad in 6 months and i made the wrong choice as i could have went with a strip and got 5000 for about the same price. But that strip method looks like a horror flick, my donor area looked almost normal the next day, i think the newer smaller punch sizes make alot of difference. I dont see or feel this trauma some doctors are talking about, theres no marks on my head and it feels basicaly like it did last month before the procedure.

 

Someday you might want to shave your head too, have you seen the pictures of the jeremy pivens from that entourage show? Forget that, looks like a shark thrashed on his noggin for an hour.

[uselessgomez]

Pictures of Jeremy Piven? What can I see them?

[mongoal]

Do a search in google, hes got like 2 scars from multiple transplants, there all crooked too. Looks like someone tried to hang him with the rope around his head instead of around his neck.

[Tom60]

Pictures of Jeremy Piven? What can I see them?

 

ya i saw the photos. cant remember where though. i just googled them.

 

It is baddddd. some dr is a butcher.

[TC17]

First, FUE is the way to go after you've considered the pros and cons of the procedure, and weighed them against the pros and cons of strip. Then, it's up to you to make the decision that you feel most comfortable with. Don't let a doctor or a poster influence you one way or the other.

 

Second, Jeremy Piven's strip scar is not indicative of the vast majority of strip scars seen on this site every day. Yes, there are those occasions when a scar stretches, or when a scar is just bad for physiological reasons, but Piven's is an example of a very bad scar, not a normal one. Much like it was improper for EpileticSeizure to use a poor example of FUE as support for his anti FUE position, it would be improper to use a poor example of a strip scar as support for an anti strip position.

 

There are successes and failures with both methods. Nobody will argue that point.

[uselessgomez]

I googled for the pictures. I saw only one bad HT scar. It may have looked bad because it was pretty new. I think that probably all look bad at first.

 

It was pretty bad that the very first hit I got on google was a youtube video about it on inside addition. Yeah, he's obviously not being forthright about it, but why should he? Men are not socialized in our culture to view the loss of hair as anything but a bad thing. How many bald Presidents have we had lately? Or bald public figures in general? Or leading Hollywood actors? Not many.

 

Kinda lame for Inside Edition to make a story out of it and waste airtime with it, but I think women have been dealing with their own issues being exposed publicly and now it's swinging in the other direction.

 

Life isn't fair. It's good to some, terrible to others. Most of us get a mixed hand and we just have to deal with it. I'm sure that once the hairloss affliction all of us obsess about ceases to be an issue, we'll find another way to discriminate in its place.

[Spanker]

I googled for the pictures. I saw only one bad HT scar. It may have looked bad because it was pretty new. I think that probably all look bad at first.

 

It was pretty bad that the very first hit I got on google was a youtube video about it on inside addition. Yeah, he's obviously not being forthright about it, but why should he? Men are not socialized in our culture to view the loss of hair as anything but a bad thing. How many bald Presidents have we had lately? Or bald public figures in general? Or leading Hollywood actors? Not many.

 

Kinda lame for Inside Edition to make a story out of it and waste airtime with it, but I think women have been dealing with their own issues being exposed publicly and now it's swinging in the other direction.

 

Life isn't fair. It's good to some, terrible to others. Most of us get a mixed hand and we just have to deal with it. I'm sure that once the hairloss affliction all of us obsess about ceases to be an issue, we'll find another way to discriminate in its place.

 

 

You dont have to leave this site to see more then one bad HT scar....that is why docs on this site do scar revisions....it may not be their original work, but they are fixing someone's scar.

[gmonasco]

Pictures of Jeremy Piven? What can I see them?

 

Jeremy Piven's Cranial Conundrum | TMZ.com