Why do some FUE hair transplant scars look worse than others?
"Once the surgeon removes the hair follicle from the donor area, the wound at the back will become a scar, and the hair will not grow back."
At this point, you might have seen both pleasant and unpleasant images of hair transplants. Some people get very neat and coverable scars from hair transplant, but some have to live with noticeable scars for the rest of their lives. Some of these pictures can actually change people’s minds about getting hair transplants done, believe it or not.
Here’s why the FUE hair transplant scars can look different across different clinics.
The scars will only look nice when the surgeon uses the correct device and has years of practice. The scar from FUE hair transplant should be small and not too close to each other. It should not show even when the client has a short hairstyle. For an FUE hair transplant, choosing the right punch size is very critical to get hideable scars. If the punch size is too big, it will cause massive scars which will be noticeable when the client wear a short haircut. It will also take a longer time for the wound to heal. Some clinics might not be too strict with this matter and use a big punch size for all follicles. Some clinics might even leave inexperienced assistants to do all the work, result in unprofessional-looking scars. So, choosing the right team for a good hair transplant result is very important. Anyone can do it, but not everyone can do it well.
Not over-harvesting the donor hair is also crucial. The surgeon should be conservative with this step and should not create too many scars, if possible.
**Some operation team might harvest more than what they needed because the quality of the harvested hair follicles are too poor to survive OR they might have damaged the hair follicles during the procedure**
Harvesting too many hair follicles will leave the hair at the back looking too thin and unnatural. It is more natural to have thin hair in front or on top of your head, but not the back.
The surgeon should also harvest the hair in a way that the scars will not be too close to each other. Otherwise, the hair that is left behind will not be enough to cover these scars properly. Since the safe donor area is not big in most people, the surgeon might have to harvest the donor hair follicles outside the safe donor area so that the scars won’t be too close to each other.
The scars in the donor area will be noticeable, and the hair will be unnaturally thin when;
- The operation team uses a large punch size in a hair graft excision step.
- The surgeon harvests hair follicles too close to each other – this will make tiny wounds fuse into one big wound.
- The surgeon harvests hair follicles in one small area – the donor area will become a thin patch of hair.
In some clinics, the surgeon chose to harvest the donor hair follicles on the safe donor area only, even when they know that this area is too small for a big session, but the hair they harvest will be permanent. If it is a mega-session and they extracted too much hair in the safe donor area, the client could be left with a thin patch of hair at the back of their head, which is not ideal.
At Hairtran Clinic, we make sure that our punch size is as small as possible but still big enough to extract the hair follicles without any follicle injuries. Our clinic uses Hybrid punches for grafts extraction, which is a WAW FUE SYSTEM designed by Dr. Jean Devroye from Belgium which is considered to be one of the best punch in the world. This punch can be as small as 0.8mm in diameter, resulting in tiny scars that are barely visible. This Hybrid type serves the advantage of both sharp and blunt punches in one, giving less damage around hair follicles during the excisions. Our surgeon also has to make sure the hair can grow out and cover each scar in the future. In a big FUE hair transplant session, the surgeon will extend the donor area a little bit more. So, these scars can be more spread out, and there will be no area that looks markedly thin.
Pukpinya Jangjetriew, MD
HAIRTRAN CLINIC
