There are unique qualities of Afro-Caribbean hair that makes it extremely challenging for us to perform hair restoration on clients seeking FUE.
For starters, unlike Asian or Caucasian hair follicles, Afro-Caribbean hair follicles are curly and have certain unique features. On the positive side, this curliness offers great results with fewer follicles, it also poses a few challenges.
Instrumentation used in FUE is traditionally a sharp straight instrument. This makes it extremely difficult to manoeuvre the punch beneath the skin, wherein the visibility is nil. Hence historically patients of Afro-Caribbean origin seeking FUE were discouraged to do so because of the high levels of transection associated with extraction of follicles using traditional FUE techniques.
As illustrated from the photos on this page, using improved techniques of the 3G FUE technique, we have overcome the difficulties associated with extraction of follicles of patients of Afro-Caribbean origin.
The second difficulty arises whilst placing them. The grafts are fairly chubby and hence a lot of improvisations have to made whilst replacing the grafts. I prefer to use a Choi implanter as I believe there is less trauma associated with replacing the grafts using choi implanters over using forceps.
The third issue is of achieving density. Generally, I’ve found that achieving respectable density is a bit of an issue in Afro-Caribbean clients as popping seems to be an issue. I usually counsel them extensively about this and either advise them to spread the surgery over 48 hours or recommend a top up session in 12 months to achieve dense packing.
The last but not least issue is of scarring. Due to certain characteristics of Afro-Caribbean skin, clients have to be counselled extensively about hypertrophic and keloid scarring. I usually perform a test extraction on my patients before offering them an extensive surgery. However, with meticulous attention we have minimised scarring and have numerous examples whereby scarring with 3G FUE has been minimised compared to traditional techniques.
Dr. Raghu Reddy
FUE Hair Transplant Specialist
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