Is Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) an Option for African-American Patients?
This following article was written by recommended hair restoration physician Dr. William Lindsey and posted on our Hair Restoration Social Community and Discussion Forums.
I’m considering a hair transplant and I prefer follicular unit extraction (FUE) because I like to wear my hair very short. However, from the research I’ve carried out, I can’t seem to find any evidence that this procedure actually works for black men. There are plenty of before and after photos of FUE patients available on the Net but I haven’t seen any featuring black men. Can anyone give some information about the availability of FUE for black patients?
In my opinion, it’s harder to perform follicular unit extraction on curly African hair than with straight-rooted (non-black) hair. However, I’ve now done 6 FUE cases on black patients and each hair transplant has been easier than the previous one.
The last one we did in early December was super easy and, coincidentally, he was also our very first black FUE patient. His post-op photos can be seen in this discussion thread, FUE into Black Male Donor Scar by Dr. Lindsey McLean VA. Our first case on him took all day to harvest about 100 follicular unit grafts. We performed another FUE on him in May and it took all day to get 300 grafts. Last month we were able to extract 723 grafts by 11am. Now, either he got easier or we got better.
Anyhow, I’d never say it was a “breeze” to perform this type of surgical hair restoration on patients of African descent but it’s a viable option for those balding guys that would like to wear their hair very short.
William H. Lindsey, MD, FACS
McLean, VA
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David – aka TakingThePlunge
Assistant Publisher and Forum Co-Moderator for the Hair Transplant Network, the Hair Loss Learning Center, the Hair Loss Q&A Blog, and the Hair Restoration Forum
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