The Difference Between FUSS and FUE Hair Transplants

While balding and hair loss might be worrisome for men, it should be known that it is a common occurrence. Of 95% of men experiencing hair loss, male pattern baldness is to blame. By the time a man turns 35, there is a 66% chance that they will have some visible loss of hair; by age 50, nearly 85% of men will be struggling with significant hair loss and thinning hair. In the United States, there are about 35 million men that are experiencing hair loss of some kind.

For those that are worried, the message is that you shouldn’t be — men all around you are dealing with the process, or have been dealing with it for some time. If you’re struggling with hair loss, you should know that your only option isn’t to just deal with it.

As medical science and technology continues to expand, there are more options available to treat common ailments that were long understood. Science shows that hair loss is due to genetics, and unfortunately there is little to nothing that can be changed to reverse the processes of genetic predisposition. However, for men dealing with hair loss, there are options available. The foremost of options that men can consider — one that has been shown to work — is through consultation with hair transplant doctors.

Hair transplant doctors are surgeons that can offer a patient to have their hair once again. By extracting existing hair from the patient and moving it to a place where hair no longer is, hair can be effectively transplanted. Let’s look at the two types of hair transplant procedures that are currently available:

Follicular Unit Strip Surgery (FUSS)

After cleaning your scalp, sanitizing the region, and numbing the area from which the transplant is going to be extracted, hair transplant doctors will remove a 6-to-10 inch strip of skin from the location of your head where there is still hair. This strip of hair will be divided into minuscule grafts, of which will be delicately placed into holes and slits in the head where they will be secured.

Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE)

FUE, on the other hand, will use small, individual follicular grafts that will consist of one to four hairs per graft. These will similarly be placed and secured into the scalp by the hair transplant doctors just like with the FUSS treatment. However, due to the methodology, FUE is a more exact procedure.

What to Expect

Hair transplant procedures can take anywhere from four to eight hours, all of which depends on the size of the graft required, and the amount of work that needs to be done. Recovery will take some time, most usually a few days, as your scalp will need to heal before you can go back to work. The transplanted hair should fall out within two to three weeks, which is to be expected. Once falling out, the hair should begin slowly regrowing where intended.

Determining which of the two is the best hair transplant for you either comes down to the opinion of the hair transplant doctors or you. With either one, you will have the proper procedure completed to ensure that you can start regrowing your hair in no time.