FUE Hair Transplant scars: Are they really invisible?

Question

The advantage of FUE hair transplants is that you won't get a big, ugly scar across the back of your head. Will a person be able to see ANY scars after their procedure -- or are they truly invisible?

Amir Yazdan, MD · Answer

If an FUE procedure is done correctly by a skilled physician then the scars are usually not visible to the naked eye.  However I have seen quite a bit of poorly performed FUE procedure where very large punches were used, the donor zone was overharvested, etc which has left worse results than a scar in the back of the scalp.  The bottom line is that you want to have a Physician that specializes in FUE do the case.

Sanusi Umar, MD · Answer

FUE is not scar-less surgery. There is always a scar when a skin is injured regardless of how small the wound is. In FUE type surgeries, the scars are not linear and smaller, hence they are cosmetically insignificant compared with the traditional strip surgery scars. Factors that infrequence the size of FUE scars include the size of the punch used as well as the shape of the punch used. Using the UPunch that I invented, both of these factors are taken into account optimally.

Jae Pak, MD · Answer

Any cut on the skin will leave a mark.  FUE scars are NOT invisible.  The best FUE scars are usually 1mm pale dots - hundreds or thousands of them.  Bad FUE scars are 2 to 3mm in size.  All FUE scars (good or bad) will show you shave or cut your hair very short.  Patients who are not happy with the FUE scars, undergo Scalp MicroPigmentation SMP.

William Rassman, MD (retired) · Answer

There is always scarring from an FUE. The degree of scarring depends upon two factors: (1) the healing of the patient and (2) the size of the punch used by the surgeon. A good example of a scar from a 1mm punch is show in the web reference below

FUE Hair Transplant scars: Are they really invisible?

Answers (4)