What Is Fue Procedure?
The day of your FUE procedure, the surgeon will plan out the hairline, identify and design the distribution of follicles to be transplanted, as well as map out the area that needs to be restored.
Areas of the scalp will be identified and labeled with the use of a surgical marker. This is to identify the recipient area, transition zone, donor area, and affected alopecia area. The way you style your hair will also be taken into consideration before identifying these areas.
Once the areas are marked, the hair will be shaved to a desirable length for the procedure. If there are a large amount of white hairs, a dark dye will be applied to help make the hair shaft more visible for extraction.
Preoperative medication is administered before the procedure begins. The patient will then be placed in position and an antiseptic solution is applied to the scalp. Local anesthesia will be injected into the surgical area, and follicular unit extraction from the donor site will begin.
The FUE procedure can last anywhere between 1 to 4 hours. This will highly depend on the amount of grafts that are being taken. Once the extraction phase is complete, there will be a lunch break.
This will allow for the patient, as well as staff to take a break and relax. The second phase will begin after lunch.
PLACEMENT PHASE
You will return to the procedure room and be placed in a slightly seated position. The seat has a neck support and can be adjusted for comfort. Your neck will be bent forward 10 to 20 degrees. An antiseptic solution will be applied to the recipient area. After about a minute, it will be wiped away with a normal saline solution. Local anesthesia will be injected into the recipient area. The physician will then make sites to implant the grafts one by one.
COMPLETION OF PLACEMENT
Once the follicles are all implanted, the physician will check each one and correct any that are not properly placed. The donor area will be cleaned, and the recipient area will be sprayed with normal saline. You will be given postoperative instructions before leaving your physician’s office.