Long hair follicular unit excision: personal experience.

[BACKGROUND] Long hair follicular unit excision (FUE) is the most state-of-the-art surgical technique in the field of hair transplantation surgery. Long hair FUE reduces the signs of surgery by camouflaging the recipient area with long hair, and allows hair curl identification when placing grafts. In addition, donor area shaving can be omitted.

[METHODS] This article presents the surgical approach and methods of long hair FUE. Patients were categorized by sex, age, recipient site, purpose of the surgery, and history of previous hair transplantation. Medical charts and photographs were reviewed to obtain the transection rate and calculated density for each patient.

[RESULTS] Long hair FUE was applied to 134 patients (112 women and 22 men). Thirty-four patients received eyebrow hair transplantation, 73 underwent female hairline correction surgery, nine patients underwent sideburn reconstruction, two were treated for female pattern hair loss, and 19 were treated for male pattern baldness (MPB). Four of the patients with MPB also underwent eyebrow transplant surgery. Of the patients with MPB, 17 (89%) had Norwood type III baldness, and two (11%) had type IV hair loss. The mean number of grafts required was 292 for eyebrow transplantation, 1,214 for female hairline correction, 251 for sideburn reconstruction, 1,344 for female pattern hair loss, and 1,567 for MPB. The mean follicle transection rate was 9.2%, and the mean calculated number of follicles per graft achieved was 2.23.

[CONCLUSION] This long hair FUE method introduced by the authors is an excellent surgical method when performed by surgeons with sufficient skill and expertise.