Is the FUE hair transplant method a option for men of African descent?
If so, where?
I am a male of African descent, 37 years of age and approximately stage 3 to 4 on the
Norwood scale.
I live in Ontario Canada.
I'm told I would require 2000 to 2500 grafts to bring about adequate coverage from hairline
to the crown area, but that the robotic Artest(?) and Neograph methods would like not work due
to the type of hair I have, and that the strip method is the only option.
I wear my hair low, and would prefer not to bear the resulting scars from the type of
procedure.
Thank you for your question!
You're 37 years old and you described yourself to be a norwood 3-4 and you've gone for consultations
and you're asking about if FUE would be right for you and you were advised that these different
robotic and technologically based of hair transplant were not right for you.
This is an opportunity for you to understand a little bit about the hair transplant concept
and based also on your preference of the way you want your hair cut and how it factors
in to decision-making process.
I'll also introduce you to something that probably you have not heard of that might
change your decision all together.
So let's start first by understanding what a transplant is.
A hair transplant is basically accepting that hair will continue to thin.
And that what we try to do is to improve the over-all framing of the face by transplanting
hair from a narrow area from behind the scalp called the genetically resistant hairs or
permanent zone to the front of the scalp.
And when we do that, there are two different techniques.
One is called the FUE and that includes the robotic method as well as the hand-held vacuum
method and as well as manually making little punches and taking out the individual hairs.
Then there's the FUT or strip method and that's been the traditional method for many years
where a thin strip of skin is removed with hairs and individual hairs are cut.
Debating what is better or worse can go on for hours at any conference but what is a
challenge for you is the length of hair and the type of hair you have.
I want to introduce to you an alternative that is something that we would offer to you
if you were to come to our practice or someone like you would come to our practice about
what to do about your progressive hair loss.
At 37, you have advanced significantly and it's clear that the bridge or the middle of
your scalp is thinning and that you can assume reasonably that within a few years, that area
is going to be too thin or probably gone and you would need additional transplantation.
We have developed a method called Hair Regeneration where someone like you comes to our practice
and talks about doing a hair transplant, we actually teach them about Hair Regeneration
which is a combination of a wound healing mechanism called extracellular matrix combined
with platelet-rich plasma derived from your own blood.
What we are doing is we're doing an injection and not a transplant.
By doing this, we have been able to reverse the hair thinning process and thicken up the
existing hairs as well as literally wake-up a lot of the dormant hairs, the hairs on the
skin that was relatively smooth and have remarkable growth.
Now this is something different from traditional methods of medical treatments which include
finasteride and minoxidil.
But rather, it is using the body's natural stem cells that is naturally occurring and
that we believe based on clinical response which restoring and protecting the hairs from
being thinned because most of patients who are males don't take propecia and so we have
been able to do this injection and we have 3-5 years of data showing that people don't
need additional treatment.
Of course in our practice, we are always ready to retreat anyone but I think this would be
my choice for you given the limitations because with a transplant, you are looking at a single
procedure but you are also looking at on-going progression of thinning.
And the negatives of an FUE is that no matter who does it, it is my observation that people
are getting hairs outside of the zone of permanence.
Such that the hairs that they are moving are actually going to eventually thin so we refer
to that as basically a rental.
Because it's being moved but it's not going to grow for a certain period because it's
naturally going to thin.
This is unfortunately a reality for a lot of FUEs because especially in African-Americans
where the curliness of the hair is great for coverage but the density of hair in the donor
area is usually significantly less than Caucasians or Asians.
So you have to go wider to get a lot more grafts.
Now a strip method, we can do but the problem is, there can be some stretch on the skin
and when you wear your hair so thin, that scar can be seen.
So my strategy for you is to do Hair Regeneration first to save the hairs, thicken what you've
got and then maybe if you want some more, do a limited transplant approximately a year
or two, 15 months, 18 months later to help you get what you want with as little surgery
as possible.
Very often with someone like you I would talk you out surgery altogether because you want
to invest your resources and get the results in a very intelligent way.
So I think my conclusion would be a recommendation for Hair Regeneration and so you can do some
research.
Look for a provider in an area that's convenient for you and consider that before moving forward
with a surgical procedure.
I know this is a lot to think of.
I probably sent you off in a different engine but like I said, we have been very successful
with this treating patients who come to us from all over the world.
I was very compelled to share with you what we would do for people who would come to our
practice.
I hope that was helpful and thank you for your question!