What You Need To Know About FUE Hair Transplant Scars

Does an FUE hair transplant leave scars? The short answer to this is yes. All current hair transplant surgical procedures do. However, a carefully planned hair transplant should ensure no scar is visible to the naked eye. This depends on the skill and experience of the hair transplant surgeon.

In the following article, we discuss what these FUE scars might look like, the extent of them and how you can mitigate any visible scarring as a result of the surgery.

Can having an FUE Hair Transplant leave scars?

Even with modern hair transplant techniques, scarring after a hair transplant is inevitable. With most surgeries, there are always going to be pros and cons, from enhancing your appearance and regaining your confidence to potential scars and lengthy recovery times. 

While an FUE hair transplant is a very effective solution for various conditions such as male pattern baldness or a receding hairline, it will leave a small amount of scarring that is unnoticeable once the transplanted hair has grown back. Due to the nature of the FUE hair transplant procedure, the expected recovery time is often a lot quicker than other hair surgery methods, around 10-14 days. 

During the process, individual hair follicles will be extracted from the donor area on the back and sides of your head. As a result, small scars less than a millimetre in diameter will be present in the donor area from which each hair follicle has been extracted. These should be concealed when the hair grows to a length of grade 1 or 2. 

It is important to understand that a well-performed FUE hair transplant does not leave noticeable scars. This is dependent on the skill and experience of your hair transplant surgeon. At The Treatment Rooms London, we take pride in making sure our patients do not have noticeable scars following their surgery. This is one of the reasons why we are considered one of the number one choices for hair transplants in the UK. 

Hair regrowth after FUE hair transplant surgery at The Treatment Rooms London

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Why does an FUE hair transplant leave scars?

FUE (follicular unit excision) hair transplant surgery involves taking each individual hair follicle and re-implanting it into areas that are balding. In order to extract a hair follicle, our surgeons need to cut around each hair using a small punch (0.7mm-0.9mm). This area of the scalp then heals in 2-3 weeks, creating small 0.7mm-0.9mm sized scars in the places where hair follicles have been taken out.

Is it possible to have a scar-free hair transplant?

It is not possible to have no scar formation during an FUE hair transplant. The process must involve cutting around each hair follicle individually. Because of this, having scars is unavoidable. However, a core principle of FUE hair transplant surgery is the ability of the surgeon to conceal these scars. This means you won’t see the scars that form unless you cut your hair very short.

Hiding scars in FUE hair transplant surgery

One of the main benefits of FUE hair transplant surgery over FUT (strip) hair transplant surgery is that it is easier to conceal your scars. As the scars formed in FUE hair transplants are very small (0.7mm-0.9mm) it means they can be hidden by surrounding hair. One of the main factors your surgeon will need to keep in mind is not to take out too many hairs from the back of your head. Leaving plenty of hair at the back of your head will allow for any remaining hairs to grow and cover any scars.

1 week after hair transplant surgery- you can see the small dot scars are barely visible as hairs have grown to conceal them and this should improve as the healing process continues

If you wanted to cut your hair down to a grade 0 or 1, these scars may become visible as the surrounding hairs aren’t long enough to cover them. It is important to discuss this with your surgeon before undergoing surgery. You must be aware that you will have to keep your hair longer than a grade 1 at the back of your head after FUE hair transplant surgery.

Can I treat these scars?

If you want to cut your hair to a grade 0 or 1 and have a hair transplant you can conceal small dot scars. You can undergo scalp micropigmentation (a form of medical tattooing) to hide the small scars. The aim of the treatment would be to colour the scars a similar tone to your hair colour. This would help conceal any scars by blending the contrasting scar and hair colours together.

What can go wrong?

At The Treatment Rooms London, we often see patients who want us to correct a poorly done hair transplant procedure they may have received at another clinic. They often complain of large visible areas of scars at the back of the head. The main reasons why their scars are more visible than patients who have undergone a hair transplant at our clinic are:

1. Too many hairs have been extracted from the back of the head. This means scars cannot be concealed by the remaining hair
2. The surgeon did not spread out the extraction of hair follicles. This means too many hair follicles in a small area have been taken out, leaving patchy areas of no hairs

Examples of the above are shown in the picture below:

On the right you can see a band of thin hair where the surgeon has taken out too many hairs

Are you looking to have a hair transplant?

Interested in finding out more? Visit our FUE hair transplant before and after page to get a first-hand look at some of the amazing results we provide. Alternatively, you can get in touch with one of our leading surgeons to talk through your treatment options and hair transplant costs. They will be able to implement a bespoke hair transplant plan that compliments your situation.