Can you please explain a "no shave" FUE transplant? What are the advantages and disadvantages?

There are a few ways to perform the "no shave" FUE hair transplantation procedure also known as "long hair" FUE. The first is with a  patients who has relatively long hair in donor area that can cover up a shaved area below. With very long hair a single larger shaved area can be made below. With medium length hair a few thinner strips of shaved areas can be made. The second is when tiny little patches ( a few hairs in each patch) throughout the entire area area trimmed very carefully with longer hair kept intact all around the trimmed areas. This process is very tedious and is generally more expensive.

There is no such thing as "No-shave FUE." However, there are long hair FUE harvesting techniques, in which small sections of hair are shaved so that the longer hairs surrounding the shaved section cover the shaved area.If you want to wear your hair very short, FUE is the best harvesting method. A great surgeon will consistently give you great results regardless of the harvesting method.
One of the advantages for selecting the FUE harvesting method is the after care. Unlike the FUT (Strip) procedure, your donor area can easily be cleaned. The redness in the donor area usually subsides after 5 days, making it nearly undetectable as your hair grows out. The recovery time is also shorter.Unfortunately, FUE will result in scarring and is not a minimally invasive surgery. It is important for you to understand that FUE harvesting is often misrepresented by doctors who promote FUE as a “scarless” surgery, but if you cut or shave your hair short, FUE harvesting of grafts can give you a “moth-eaten” appearance. Your donor area will always look "thinner" proportionate to the number of hairs taken out after a FUE harvesting surgery.  The hairs will NOT grow back from the donor area (where it was taken). With a rise in mega session FUEs offered by some clinics, there is a new concern for donor area depletion, infection, and worse scarring than a traditional strip surgery.

Typically, the day before surgery in larger "No Shave" FUE procedures each individual hair is clipped one by one without disruption the neighboring hairs.  This procedure is ideal for those wishing to have a hair transplant without showing obvious outward signs of having had surgery.   For smaller cases trimming of each hair may be achieve the same day of surgery.  There is no down time, no visible scar and little if any discomfort. The disadvantages is that this procedure requires more time and thus more expense.

With Non-Shaving sessions the patient can return to work and every day activities immediately without people knowing that a hair restoration has taken place.

A no-shave FUE procedure can be done in many different ways but is mostly intended to allow a patient to be as discreet as possible following a hair transplant. The donor areas that are necessary for harvesting the grafts is shaved in a pattern that allows the other hairs in that area to cover it up. Longer hair works better for this technique because there is more hair available.