I dont think I'll be able to look at myself after getting a FUE hair transplant, how long does it last?

It will take one week and you should see a drastic improvement after the surgery. You may see redness but more than likely it will be fine.

If you believe FUE looks bad then don't go through with the surgery.  Discuss your concerns with your doctor.

Dear joseanc03,
Thank you for posting this question. As there’s no picture provided, we’re left to imagine what you’re talking about. I’m not really sure what you’re talking about with words like “awful” and “bad”....after our patients are finished and they see the work performed they use words like “amazing” and “beautiful.”
 Follicular unit extraction (FUE) is a procedure performed by doctors of highly varying backgrounds, and the overwhelming majority are in fact not surgeons and have not undergone any sort of accredited training program in surgery at all. So when you have non-surgeons performing a surgery for which there are relatively no set standards, and which is performed in a private clinic, you’re going to have a very wide variety of results and outcomes, and appearances immediately after surgery. It’s important to choose a surgeon who performs FUE, but IN ADDITION ALSO OFFERS FUT strip surgery. If they only offer one or the other, it’s a huge red flag, as neither is good for everyone, and both are mainstays in my field of medicine. To offer one and not the other indicates an issue with the clinic and an adherence to one technique. Usually lack of experience on the part of the surgeon and/or his team is the reason.
 I hope this information is useful to you.
Kind Regards,
Ken Anderson, MD, FISHRS

I assume you are referring to the appearance of the donor area as the recipient area will look the same whether FUE or FUT.If the punch diameter for the FUE is small(9 mm or less) and the number of harvest sites is not excessive the donor area should look a little unusual immediately after the procedure and fairly normal looking after just a few days.

Within a week most of the crusting/scabs should be gone (with poor washing techniques it can last up to 2, occasionally longer) and you'll look normal enough to go out in public without drawing attention. For it to look completely normal with no redness, visible scars, etc. it should take less than a month.

the donor and recipient areas don't healed in 2, 5, 7 or more days. The wound repair process takes weeks and months following hair transplantation. The punch technique (1 mm-4 mm punch) was invented by Dr. Okuda in Japan in 1939 then Drs. Inaba and Woods reintroduced the modern punch or FUE technique with 1 mm o less punch size in the 80's. Our modern techniques and instrumentation have improved and sped up the wound healing process after hair surgery and the patients are ready to back to work in 2-3 days but the wound healing (redness, swollen, scab formation) and revascularization of the hair graft (how the hair graft survives and takes) will continue for days, weeks and months. Also many times I use the non-shaven technique in the donor area to camouflage the FUE extractions and I do not shave the recipient area. There are many factors that influence the wound healing process after hair transplant such as: surgical plan, surgical technique, surgeon training and experience, graft #, etc.