FUE Technique Hair Transplant: A Step-by-Step Guide

In this post, we will take a close look at what happens when a patient wants to undergo a FUE-technique hair transplant at Kaloni. The process is customized to suit every patient’s needs, and each patient is provided professional guidance every step of the way. 

A step-by-step guide to FUE-technique hair transplants:

Patient arrival 

When the patient arrives at the clinic, they are welcomed by an auxiliary team that helps them get situated, providing them with comfortable and disposable clothing to be worn during the procedure. 

Medical team orientation

Before going ahead with the hair transplant procedure, the medical team in charge will welcome the patient and explain the procedure to them in detail. The team will administer an antibiotic prophylaxis to the patient during this orientation.

Photographs

The patient will be photographed before the hair transplant takes place. These images are essential to the procedure, since they will help us monitor the transplant’s evolution before arriving at the final results.

Designing the recipient and donor sites

In order to obtain as many follicular units as possible, we must remove hair from the donor site. We do this by cutting the patient’s hair on the back and the sides of the head. Then, the doctor will designate the recipient site with a marker, seeking to arrive at an ideal hair distribution in the treatment sites.

Next, the patient will lie face down, so that the doctor can determine where the follicles will be extracted. For this stage of the procedure, local anesthesia is used on the treatment site.

Follicular unit extraction

The follicles extracted are genetically resistant to hair loss, so, once they are transplanted, they will grow in the same way as the rest of your hair, and they will remain there forever.

The FUE technique also allows us to choose the ideal units to “fill in” the areas affected by alopecia. To achieve this, we separate the follicles with one, two, three, or more hairs, and we transplant them according to each patient’s specific needs.

The procedure is performed according to the highest precision standards from start to finish, separating the follicles one by one and preserving them intact. 

The FUE technique at Kaloni: Individual follicular unit extraction

For this stage of the procedure, we use a “punch,” a millimetric tool that serves as a cylindrical micro-scalpel .75 to .90 mm in diameter, employed depending on the patient’s hair’s diameter. First, we separate the follicles from the scalp with the “punch,” and then, we remove them with the help of medical tweezers. This step requires great skill and experience from the medical team.

Preserving and arranging the follicles

The follicles extracted are then placed on Petri dishes with divisions that have special low-temperature plates meant to keep them at the right temperature for preservation.  Then, a surgery technician will classify and treat each follicular unit, picking them according to how many hairs they contain, and submerging them in a saline solution to preserve them.

Treating and preserving follicular units is what makes the difference in achieving excellent hair transplant results. Expert technicians use special magnifying glasses and microscopes to handle the follicles professionally. 

Break 

Because the procedure does take some time, we allow the patient to take a restroom or snack break once the extraction phase is over.

Transplant 

Before we move forward with this phase, we apply anesthesia on the transplant site. The surgery assistants will place the follicles inside the “implanters:” the devices that insert the follicles into the scalp at the exact depth required.  This is the stage of the procedure where the surgeon will demonstrate just how skilled they are, since they will have to match the design drawn up previously, and also insert the follicles according to the number of hairs, growth direction, and sloping. Once all the follicular units are transplanted, the surgical procedure will have come to an end.

Cleaning and assessing the transplant site

As we wash their hair, we instruct the patient on how they should wash it over the next few days. It is very important that they follow these instructions in order to keep the donor and recipient sites as clean as possible. Lastly, we assess the transplant site to ensure that everything is in optimal condition.  

Photographs

We take photos once again in order to compare them with the procedure’s final results in the future.

Aftercare orientation

Once the procedure is done, we instruct the patient on how to take care of their transplant over the next few days. Following these instructions is fundamental to maintaining the health of the transplanted follicles. We provide these instructions on paper, so that everything is clear regarding aftercare, the transplant’s evolution, medical prescriptions, and any potential complications.

Discharging the patient

After confirming that the post-op instructions are clear and that the patient is feeling well, they will be discharged. The procedure takes 6 to 8 hours from start to finish. 

Follow-up consultations

We will schedule a series of follow-up consultations in order to assess how the hair transplant is evolving. The first appointment is usually made for 72 hours after the procedure. The next appointment is around 15 days later, then 30 days later, and finally, 6, 10, and 14 months later. Also, we take photos at every appointment in order to better assess how the hair transplant is evolving. 

Now you know how FUE-technique hair transplants are performed, step by step. What are you waiting for? Dare to restore your hair back with Kaloni, your ally against hair loss.