Tag Archives: fue before after

FUE Transplant: Step by Step

*This blog is a transcription of a video covering a Modena Hair Institute patient who saw Dr. Yazdan for a FUE hair transplant procedure, also known as follicular unit extraction. We’ve included the video itself here as well*

Mark, an international business entrepreneur from Scottsdale, Arizona, has arrived in Modena Hair Transplant Center in Las Vegas for his first hair transplant surgery. As he tells it, over a year beforehand, his brother came to this same office to have his own FUE transplant surgery done, and he wants to find out what Dr. Yazdan can do with his own receding hairline, which has been steadily getting worse over the past 5-10 years.

In his office, Dr. Yazdan examines Mark’s hair to determine factors such as the condition of his follicles, the density of his hair, and viability; it’s necessary to plan the transplant in extensive detail to ensure the best possible results.

As Dr. Yazdan explains, “In aging patients with typical male pattern baldness & a receding hairline, it’s necessary to restore the hairline in the angles. I think it’ll be sufficient to fill the temporal area & lower the hairline.” Speaking to Mark, he says, “Your hair looks healthy, and your donor zone is perfect. It will take approximately 1,500 grafts to lower your hairline and fill in the sides & temporal area. We’ll use the FUE method, we’ll begin at 8:00 AM, and by 5:00 PM we’ll be finished.” From there, Dr. Yazdan carefully measures & reconstructs the patient’s ideal hairline; it is of the utmost importance to make this hairline natural & optimally dense. 

It is not necessary to cut the patient’s hair before hair transplant surgery using the strip (FUT, or follicular unit transplantation) method, but with Mark it was decided there would be follicular unit extraction, which requires the donor area to be shaved before the procedure begins.

After the patient has undergone anesthesia, the doctor extracts the grafts from the patient’s existing hair. Dr. Yazdan has also developed a unique process for anesthesia. The patient feels no pain during the course of the surgery or after, and the area is also not subject to the post-procedure swelling typical at outside clinics. 

Mark’s procedure in progress.

Now we see how the extraction of hair takes place. Separate grafts are extracted from the donor zone, one at a time, and accuracy is essential, as is the experience of the surgeon & the tools available. It is crucial to ensure that the grafts are not damaged in the process of extraction. The surgeon’s technique & use of a tiny plug (measuring 0.7mm in diameter), ensure virtually no visible scarring. There are no stitches, and the wound heals within 3-4 days after the procedure.

It’s not only the quality of graft extraction that is essential for a successful hair transplant, but also the quality of their processing. The longer a hair remains out of the human body, it experiences increasingly greater stress, and the likelihood of successful settling goes down. At Modena, to ensure the grafts are processed quickly & professionally, between 3-5 assistants work on graft processing for each surgery. This is a substantially large number of support staff compared to the majority of other clinics, and it enables large procedures to be carried out in a very short period of time, guaranteeing an almost 100% graft survival rate in turn. Grafts are processed by highly skilled personnel with the use of state-of-the-art microscopes. While the surgeon extracts the follicles, the rest of the team works to process the grafts. It’s an extremely laborious task, requiring attention to detail and modern magnifying equipment. 

As that happens, Mark takes a break & prepares for the next stage: implantation of the hair. Once the extraction process is completed, the area already looks presentable. The donor zone shows little to no sign of bleeding & is covered by the surrounding hair. In the meantime, the surgeon starts to prepare apertures for the grafts in the recipient zone. At this stage, it’s also important for the surgeon to take the direction of hair growth into account. At Modena, we use the latest precision tools which enable the transplant of grafts in the minimal possible time & the preservation of the direction of hair growth set by the surgeon during aperture creation. Furthermore, their small diameter ensure the natural density of hair in the transplant zone. The hairline, the direction of growth, and the hair density are all carefully calibrated to ensure an authentic, natural look. 

Each aperture is counted by a special device, which displays the figures on a monitor & enables the surgeon to check on the accuracy of the apertures in real time. As the procedure is actively carried out, Mark is able to speak clearly to the camera & discuss what’s happening, showing no signs of discomfort or pain. It’s well worth noting that in the course of the procedure, lasting many hours, there is virtually no blood. 4-5 people work to transplant the grafts, as it is of significant importance to keep operating time to a minimum. 

On the day after the surgery, during a follow-up appointment, it’s impossible to tell that he had undergone hair transplant surgery the day before. Modena’s techniques also virtually eliminate the risk for an allergic reaction. On the second day, mark comes to the clinic again. Our personnel wash his head, the doctor offers post-care recommendations, and Mark says goodbye to the team.

Mark, immediately after his FUE procedure.

Mark’s story is just one of many in the history of Modena, and you can be the next to reclaim your hairline. We have locations in Las Vegas, Beverly Hills & Newport, and we’re willing to help you make the journey to gain back your confidence. Visit our website to schedule a free consultation, learn about the different services we offer, & feel free to call us at any time during our business hours.

Hair Transplant Repair: What Are Your Options?

A botched hair transplant can be traumatic to say the absolute least. At best, the scalp is scarred & the distribution of hair looks less natural than ever before. At worst, serious infections can occur & have a major effect on one’s health. The emotional fallout should be considered as well; for people who pursue a transplant to tackle self-image issues, there’s no worse feeling than ending up in a worse position with less money as a result of trying to fix it. 

For people in that situation, things might seem hopeless, as though they’ve been removed from their old selves & placed away from them at an unreachable distance. We understand that fear better than anyone, which is why we’d like to let you know that there’s a way to not only undo the damage, but obtain the refreshed look you were searching for in the first place.

Many of the cases we see at Modena Hair Institute in Orange County are repairs, and they come in quite a few varieties. One major type of case we see is people who went to clinics being operated by inexperienced surgeons & assistants at a low cost. As we’ve written about on this blog before, going to a cheap clinic will always cost more in the long run, and you’ll have to pay with your confidence & appearance along with money. Many of the most serious cases come from patients who received a botched FUE transplant. Often times this is due to inexperience and obsolete technology and surgical tools; while an experienced hair restoration surgeon like Dr. Yazdan will use small punches ranging 0.7mm – 1.0mm in diameter today, older varieties used by inexperienced clinics are far larger, sometimes reaching a massive 2mm. These outdated punches will very often lead to the area surrounding each follicle sustaining great damage. Issues also tend to arise when inexperienced assistants, rather than a trained & licensed physician who specializes in hair restoration surgery, perform the procedure, since the skills required to competently perform these operations only come with years of training & education. Whether it’s one or the other, a mix of these, or other issues, it’s an unfortunate situation to say the least.

The other types of repair cases we see involve patients suffering a large donor scar from an FUT transplant that fails to properly heal. Whether it’s an error in the closing technique itself (a typical result of an inexperienced surgeon’s work) or an aggressive harvesting of hair to force results, these scars are understandably devastating for our patients.

Dealing with any of these fallouts is an arduous task, and reversing them requires heavily trained hands, knowledgeable minds, and attentive eyes. This, as a matter of fact, is exactly what we offer at Modena, whether you come into our Newport, Beverly Hills, or Las Vegas offices. Through countless hours of time spent with these procedures, we’ve developed a wide range of methods to tackle botched transplants of many varieties. 

To start, we’ve found that patients dealing with damage from outdated procedures achieve significant results after we perform our repairs. As described on the Modena site, “…new, natural follicular units can be transplanted to soften or camouflage the old plugs and restore a natural appearance. In some cases, if the plugs were placed incorrectly, we can re-transplant the hair from the plugs to the correct area & [set them] in the correct growth direction.”

A patient of Dr. Yazdan who suffered a scar at an outside clinic. These images (left-right) show this patient before, immediately after, & eight months after the repair procedure.

Our years of experience also come in handy when repairing botched donor scars. Above is a photoset showing the steps in this process. A patient of ours was dealing with a scar along his posterior scalp after a botched FUT “strip” hair transplant performed at an outside clinic. To assist him, Dr. Yazdan took hairs from the undamaged parts of his donor area, transplanted follicles directly into the scar, and completely camouflaged it as a result. In less than a year, virtually nobody would be able to tell that there was any procedure done to begin with.

Even if the donor area in the back of your scalp can’t be used in a repair, which is unfortunately the case for quite a few of our patients, you still have a chance to regain your hair. When the patient in the video below came in with notable scarring & an unusable donor area, Dr. Yazdan, with the help of his longtime team of assistants, was able to extract donor hairs from the beard & chest, placing them in a way where they were indistinguishable from natural hairs from the scalp. No visible scarring resulted, and the patient gained a far denser hairline in turn.

To sum things up, a botched FUT or FUE hair transplant is far from the end of the road. When you come into Modena for a consultation, we’ll stop at nothing to determine every option you have in your hands, and we’ll dedicate ourselves entirely to giving you the look you set out on achieving from the beginning. 

Learn more about our hair transplant repair services, along with everything else we offer our patients, and be sure to get in touch with us if you have any questions.

Avoiding a Botched Hair Transplant


The good thing about hair restoration is that it’s permanent and the bad thing can be that its permanent.
A Hair Transplant can be a life-changing procedure. A full head of thick luscious hair can take decades off your life giving you a youthful you! Unfortunately, there are plenty of horror stories and gruesome photos when it comes to botched hair restoration surgeries. A number of factors can lead to unsatisfactory results, which range from unnatural looking and poor longevity to embarrassing skin damage. Almost always, this can be attributed to the inexperience of the physician. Let’s look at some major factors that could potentially go wrong if you’re not cautious in your planning..
Over-harvesting
Over-harvesting happens when too much hair is taken from the donor site and unfortunately is almost a non-correctable problem.  In this case, a recommended solution would be Scalp Micropigmentation (SMP) done to the area that is depleted. Transplanting grafts into the depleted area is possible but extremely difficult and labor intensive. Dr. Yazdan has strict guidelines for safe extraction numbers and routinely performs this technique on depleted donor areas with strip scars and over-harvesting. Although this does not bring the hair back, it will help tremendously on making the area look as natural as possible.
Scarring
Large linear scars are a result of the Strip method. Scarring is something that is common to have happen with improper experience from a doctor and can be caused by over-harvesting. When the incision is made at the donor site, if more skin grafts are taken than the elasticity of your skin can handle, causing tension of closure, this makes it hard to stitch the scalp tightly back together resulting in a gapping scar.  If you’re concerned of a botched scar, a safer bet would be the 2nd hair restoration technique which is called FUE (Follicular Unit Extraction) that minimizes scarring as this method is done by extracting grafts individually opposed to taking a strip from the back of the scalp. With FUE there is no linear scar and no stitches are required, so your donor area will be minimally noticeable within just a few days. Dr. Yazdan has done thousands of hair transplants and it takes great effort for anyone to find a donor site scar on his patients.
Failure of Regrowth
This can happen from poor surgical technique. Poor handling of the grafts, and drying out of the grafts. If the donor hair was properly harvested and properly placed, typically 95% or more of the grafts should successfully grow.
Large Punch Size
The larger the punch size, the higher the risk of damaged or dead nearby hair follicles. Your grafts should average only 1-3 hairs which can be accomplished with smaller punch sizes. More recently, many physicians are using a machine or robot, rather, called the Artas which does the extracting of the hair follicles for the surgeon. Multiple problems can occur with the Artas including the use of the larger punch sizes creating permanent damage to the nearby hair follicles. Dr. Yazdan recommends a highly skilled and experienced surgeon who manually does the hair restoration surgery to get both the angle and orientation of the incisions in a way to match the existing native hair, so the results come out looking natural.
Shopping for a Bargain
Going to a budget store is all good if it’s for redecorating your home. It is not something you want to risk your appearance on. This could potentially affect your quality of life and is NOT recommended as this can lead to disastrous results that you may be stuck with. At Modena Hair Institute, our patients take comfort in the security and aesthetic results of their choice.
Bad FUE or Strip hair transplantation planning can lead to unnatural looking results leaving you more self-conscious of your appearance than before you started -Don’t let this happen to you! Picking the right doctor is extremely important, while minimally invasive, it is still a surgical operation that needs to be done by a Board-Certified Surgeon who has a high success rate in order to obtain superb results. A botched surgery can easily be avoided by doing extensive research.
If you have any questions, or would like to schedule a consult please call one of our conveniently located offices in Irvine, Newport Beach, Beverly Hills and Las Vegas 1-888-717-5273


 

Case Study – Botched Strip Transplant Corrected using FUE and Strip Combination

This patient had a 3,000 graft Strip/FUT hair transplant done previously at another clinic which resulted in an oversized, irregular scar from ear to ear as well as poor results. It also left him with damage to the donor zone and decreased density of hair follicles. While hair transplant surgery is minimally invasive, it takes a highly skilled hair transplant surgeon with advanced equipment and a great team to minimize the probability of a botched surgery like you see in these photos.

The patient wanted to have better results as his hair was still very thin in the hairline all the way back into the crown. Because of the damage done to the patients donor zone in his previous surgery, his density was only about 20 grafts per square centimeter. It was calculated that doing a 2nd strip procedure would only yield roughly 1,000 viable grafts which would not be enough to get the patient dramatic results. It was therefor decided to do a combination of Strip and FUE to maximize the number of grafts we could obtain in 1 surgery.

The large strip scar was excised yielding 1,082 grafts and closed with a better technique improving the overall appearance and leaving him with 1 incisional line vs 2. The FUE method was then used to extract the hair follicles above the Strip scar. A total of 1,043 FUE grafts were extracted resulting in a total of 2,125 grafts. The grafts were then transplanted into the patient hairline, midscalp, and crown as show.

If you’d like to hear more about Strip and FUE combination options and benefits- please feel free to call one of our conveniently located offices in Irvine, Newport Beach, Beverly Hills and Las Vegas 1-888-717-5273

Case Study – FUE Hairline Hair Transplant

This patient came to us after doing lots of research on hair transplantation. This 45 year old male patient desired more density in his hairline and crown. After getting a graft quote and cost estimate, the patient decided to get the hairline done now in one procedure and the crown done in one year from now in a second procedure. Dr. Yazdan transplanted 1500 grafts into the hairline through the FUE method of hair transplantation. Below are before and after pictures illustrating the patient’s results.