How Long Does It Take Before a Surgeon Is Competent at FUE?

Hi,
This is a great blog. Very insightful and well written.

My question is how many years/ no. of surgeries or grafts would it take for surgeons to be competent at FUE?

If someone has only been providing the FUE service for a year or so (even though he has been tinkering for a few years previous to this with smaller sessions ie less than 600 grafts), should I feel comfortable enough to go ahead with a 2000 graft FUE offered by him for my frontal hairline?

Thank you very much for your help.

It isn’t just about how competent a surgeon is at extracting grafts with a punch or a follicular unit extraction (FUE) tool, it is about a combination of factors, of which extraction may be the most difficult for the beginner. Most surgeons take a few years to learn the extraction process and once they got it, it is relatively easy. The next skill is placing the grafts into the scalp without drying them or damaging them. When the grafts come out in the extraction process, the surgical team must trim the excess tissue from the FUE graft (which some doctors do not do), make sure the direction of transplanted hair is correct (which some doctors never get), make sure the medical staff are handling the grafts properly (quality control issue), and commanding the artistic process for each particular patient by controlling the distribution and direction of the grafts so that the fullest look will be obtained.

Hair transplantation is an art and technical skill that takes years to master for the doctor and the staff. Some people don’t realize that the doctor is not the one who inserts the grafts into the scalp (placing), but the doctor is the one that determines the direction and distribution of the grafts, and trains the staff to do it correctly. These are the most critical aspect in how well a hair transplant surgery turns out. With respect to inserting the grafts, it usually takes over a year for the medical staff to learn to insert the grafts efficiently. Some doctors will hire per-diem workers to do this work, so the quality will vary day by day, worker by worker.

I have said this before: cosmetic surgery is not like buying a car. It is not a commodity. No matter what the technique is advertised, each and every surgeon and their work is different. This is where due diligence comes into play. Before you put your head in the hands of any surgeon you should be well informed. There is no reason not to ask the surgeon if you can see his/her previous FUE patients and to speak with them about their experience. Find out if they were happy with the results and if their expectations were met. You should always voice any concerns you have so that any and all issues are addressed to your satisfaction prior to giving your consent to surgery.

Bottom line — some surgeons are more talented than others and there are a variety of factors that influence the outcome of any given procedure, therefore it is difficult to judge a surgeon based solely on the length of time they have been doing a particular procedure.