Strip or FUE?

[kirribilli]

FUE sure sounds easier, but what makes one a good candidate? Caveats? I'm 53 and a five on the Norwood with fine dark hair. Would like to turn the clock back at least 10 years to make this worthwhile.

[Jeffrey Epstein, MD]

Kirribilli- Actually, the FUE procedure is a more technically challenging procedure, given the expertise and delicacy required in extracting each graft at a time. Over the past year, FUE has become a bigger and bigger part of my practice, due to its main advantages: No donor site incision, allowing patients to shave their head and/or never have to worry about anyone ever seeing a sign that they had a procedure.
It is particularly appropriate for African American patients, and young patients (just like the 2 procedures I performed yesterday on an African American gentleman, and another patient who is 27 years old.
The advantages of strip or FUG procedures is the slightly more reliable and higher rate of regrowth of the hairs, the lower cost, and the ability to obtain a larger number of grafts in a single procedure, where typically 2400 to as many as 3200 grafts can be the routine when indicated and desired.

Lots of things to think about, and this is a decision that ultimately must be made by you and your surgeon.

Dr. E

[kirribilli]

Kirribilli- Actually, the FUE procedure is a more technically challenging procedure, given the expertise and delicacy required in extracting each graft at a time. Over the past year, FUE has become a bigger and bigger part of my practice, due to its main advantages: No donor site incision, allowing patients to shave their head and/or never have to worry about anyone ever seeing a sign that they had a procedure.
It is particularly appropriate for African American patients, and young patients (just like the 2 procedures I performed yesterday on an African American gentleman, and another patient who is 27 years old.
The advantages of strip or FUG procedures is the slightly more reliable and higher rate of regrowth of the hairs, the lower cost, and the ability to obtain a larger number of grafts in a single procedure, where typically 2400 to as many as 3200 grafts can be the routine when indicated and desired.

Lots of things to think about, and this is a decision that ultimately must be made by you and your surgeon.

Dr. E

What is the FUE downside for a 54 year old white guy, thin hair, stage five heading to six someday, he fears.

[Jeffrey Epstein, MD]

The better question is- what is the downside of FUG/strip? The strip procedure is the gold standard in hair transplantation, and while FUE is a wonderful procedure, it still represents the minority of procedures performed, mostly because of the greater difficulty/challenges in obtaining as many grafts, and the final density tends (but not always) to be a bit lower.
Unless you are fearful of having any sort of donor site incision, or are planning on shaving your head sometime in the future, I suggest that you first ask- why not FUG? That being said- there is no real downside of FUE that cannot be overcome.

Dr. E