Is the FUE hair transplant method a option for men of African descent? If so, where? (photo)

A hair transplant improves the overall framing of the face by
transplanting hair from a narrow area behind the scalp that are the genetically
resistant hairs or permanent zone to the front of the scalp. There are two
different techniques: the follicular unit extraction method (FUE) that includes
the robotic method, the handheld vacuum method and as well as manually making
little punches and taking out the individual hairs. Another method is follicular
unit transplantation (FUT), also called strip method, which has been the
traditional method for many years where a thin strip of skin is removed with
hairs and individual hairs are cut.



At 37-years-old, you have advanced hair loss and it’s clear
that the bridge or the middle of your scalp is thinning. 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. So I will introduce to you an
alternative method which is something that we would offer to someone like you.



We have developed a method called Hair Regeneration which is
a wound healing mechanism that is composed of extracellular matrix combined
with platelet-rich plasma derived from your own blood. This is an injection and
not a transplant. Hair Regeneration has enabled us to reverse the hair thinning
process, thicken up the existing hairs as well as literally wake up a lot of
the dormant hairs which are the hairs on the skin that was relatively smooth,
and lead to remarkable growth. This is something different from traditional
medical treatments including finasteride and minoxidil. Hair Regeneration uses
the body’s natural stem cells that we believe is based on clinical response to
restore and protect the hairs from being thinned.



We are always ready to repeat anyone but we have 3-5 years of
data showing that people haven't needed additional treatment. I think this
would be my choice for you given the limitations - a transplant is a single
procedure but you are also looking at ongoing progression of thinning. In
addition, in an FUE, people are getting hairs outside of the zone of permanence,
meaning the hairs they are moving are going to eventually thin. It’s being
moved, but it’s not going to grow after a certain period because it’s naturally
thin. This is unfortunate reality for a lot of FUEs, 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 more grafts. In a strip
method, there can be some stretch on the skin, so when you wear your hair so
thin, that scar can be seen.



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 to 18 months later to help get what you
want with as little surgery as possible. I would talk someone like out of surgery
altogether because you want to invest your resources and get the results in a
very intelligent way. So I would recommend
Hair Regeneration, and then look for a provider in an area that’s convenient
for you. I hope that was helpful, I wish you the best of luck, and thank you
for your question.

Follicular unit extraction is feasible in African-American hair. The follicle may have a slight different direction underneath the skin, however an experienced FUE transplanter would be able to extract these without having to do the strip method.  Usually extracting the first several hair follicles will give a lot of information about what the remaining follicles look like underneath the skin. One may have to use a slightly larger punch if the follicles are very tortuous. However you can still get very good yields and very good transplantation and survival rates of the grafts.