Extreme Makeover

I saw you (Dr. Rassman) on Extreme Makeover last night. There was a man who had a receding hairline and you did a transplant on him. The procedure involved plucking the hairs from the back of the head instead of cutting a strip. What is the name of this procedure and what are the pros and cons in comparison to other procedures?

This is called follicular unit extraction / FUE (also known as the FOX Procedure) and is a technique I invented and published back in 2002 (see article). More information on FUE can be found here:

• Follicular Unit Extraction: The FOX Procedure
• Is an FUE Procedure a Less Successful Hair Transplant?
• What Doctors Don’t Want You to Know About FUE
• BaldingBlog.com – all FUE related posts

Pros are the quick healing time and no linear scar in the back of the scalp (giving you the ability to have a very closely cropped haircut without any noticeable scarring). The cons at the time of writing this would be pricing (it is much more labor intensive, and the fees reflect this) and not everyone is a candidate (depends on a number of issues).

Also, here’s all of my Extreme Makeover cases (these were filmed and originally aired a few years ago) — NHI: Extreme Makeover. I’m glad to hear that they’re still being aired.