This Caucasian male patient was experiencing male pattern baldness (MPB), affecting his self-image and confidence. He was looking for a long-term solution to the problem and, after doing some research, concluded that an FUE hair transplant surgery would work best for his needs. The patient decided to add transplants to the thinning areas, and his main concerns were the following areas:
- hairline
- crown.
Choose a Doctor Carefully
Each FUE hair transplant case has its unique challenges, and for this specific patient, the following were important factors to consider:
- Significant baldness. He falls into the level 5 baldness category.
- Thin hair. This means he will require a lot more grafts to achieve density
- Duration of baldness. This results in a slick area of baldness. Typically, in such areas, the follicular apparatuses have been replaced by fibrous (scar) tissue, with a loss of the fat usually found around the follicles and believed to encourage hair regrowth.
Expanding the Donor Pool
Since the patient is interested in FUE hair transplant for global coverage (putting hair in all the bald areas), he sought a doctor who could increase his donor potential by safely harvesting hairs from the scalp, beard, and body areas.
Addressing the problem of thin hair by using thicker-haired donor areas
Beard hair grafts are thicker than head hair grafts. In a patient with thin-shafted donor hairs, the large caliber of beard hairs can be an advantage in imparting density.
Creating a soft natural hairline by using thin hair-shafted donor grafts
A necessary process to creating a natural-looking restoration is in the crafting of soft natural looking hairlines. In all hairlines, there is a transition from a slick area of no hair to an area of thick hairiness. This transition must be subtle. Harsh pluggy hairlines are unnatural and give away the procedure to even a casual observer. The practitioner must use finer donor hairs, typically from the nape, periauricular areas, or the body, to overcome this. Nape and periauricular hair are usable in patients that have passed the FUE shave test developed by Dr. U. Body hair should also be used in patients that meet defined criteria such as density of hair in the body hair donor location the hair caliber. These criteria for body hair qualification were published in the aesthetic surgery journal.
After much research, he consulted Dr. Umar (also called Dr.U) in Manhattan Beach, California.
A Customized Approach to His Make Pattern Baldness
At his consultation with Dr. Umar’s hair restoration clinic, the patient and the practitioner decided on using the patient’s beard, scalp, and nape as donor areas.
During the procedure, Dr. Umar drew the patient’s hairline to graft the area with hair follicles taken from his donor areas. For his FUE hair surgery, 4287 hair grafts were derived from the patient’s head, 1820 from his beard, and 373 from his nape. After preparing the hairline, the frontal scalp, and the crown, which were the target areas, Dr. Umar started implanting the grafts along the drawn hairline. After grafting the area, he proceeded further down the back of the head to fill the scalp and crown area in a pattern and density that assured the most optimal results. 1026 hair grafts were used to fix the patient’s hairline, 1442 filled the frontal scalp, and 4012 grafts were implanted to improve the coverage in his crown area.
Drastic Improvement in the Patient’s Hair Coverage
The patient was satisfied with his hair surgery results and said it turned out how he wanted. He was also happy with the smooth process and how he’d expected it to take much longer. Although with conventional FUE, there can be difficulties and complications when extracting grafts from a non-head area, the UGraft Zeus is fully equipped to harvest grafts from anywhere on the body. Dr. Sanusi Umar designed the device to overcome the usual challenges of conventional FUE. This means BHT FUE is no longer an issue. Neither are curly or coily hair, long unshaven hair, or thick skin hair transplant surgeries. For these reasons, the UGraft Zeus serves as an all-purpose FUE device. Its adjustability makes the FUE procedure much quicker and less challenging and provides optimal results. It’s easily a win for both the patient and the doctor.
Below you can see a much fuller coverage 1 year and 8 months after surgery.
His receding hairline was one of the patient’s chief complaints. The patient could address that issue by undergoing an FUE operation at Dr. Umar’s clinic (Figure 6).
Figure 6 shows a drastic improvement in the man’s crown and the posterior area of the head. The hair transplants have a natural look that still gives the patient great coverage.
The video below shows that the patient’s male pattern baldness is masterfully reversed with the FUE hair transplant.
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References
- Hair Follicle: Function, Anatomy, and Conditions. Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/health/hair-follicle. Published 2022. Accessed August 5, 2022.
- Male Pattern Baldness: Causes, Identification, and Prevention. Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/health/male-pattern-baldness. Published 2022. Accessed August 5, 2022.
- Umar S, Shitabata P, Rose P, et al. A New Universal Follicular Unit Excision Classification System for Hair Transplantation Difficulty and Patient Outcome.
Frequently Asked Questions
As some doctors say, is FUE too challenging to perform on Afro hair?
Dr. Umar has specifically developed Ugraft Zeus to accommodate patients of all ethnic and racial backgrounds. He has made sure to tackle the challenges of conventional FUE and, for FUE, has solved the problems of curly-coily hair, skin thickness, and firmness. Unless extreme factors prevent you from getting an FUE hair transplant, you will not be turned away by us simply on the merit of having an Afro-type of hair.
Can you use Dr.UGraft Zeus for a transplant on women with long hair?
Its improved design allows the Ugraft Zeus to perform FUE surgeries on long hair without shaving the donor area. You could come in for a procedure with long hair and still have a successful FUE hair transplant, whether you’re looking for treatment for female or male pattern baldness or other types of hair loss.
Further Reading
https://dru.com/rethinking-the-impossible-for-severe-baldness-worse-than-norwood-7/
https://dru.com/the-social-pitfalls-of-the-male-hairpiece/
