Hair Transplant (FUE)

The Oaks Plastic Surgery Houston offers FUE (follicular unit extraction) hair transplant surgery performed by board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Nandi Wijay, who lists hair restoration as a specialty of his practice. FUE extracts individual hair follicles from the permanent donor zone of the scalp (typically the occipital and parietal regions) and redistributes them to thinning or bald areas, creating permanent, natural-looking hair density. The procedure is performed under local anesthesia with no linear scar. Graft count and design of the hairline are planned individually at consultation based on the extent of hair loss and donor density.

Hair transplant surgery at The Oaks Plastic Surgery Houston is performed using the follicular unit extraction (FUE) technique, in which individual follicular units — groups of one to four naturally occurring hair follicles — are harvested one by one from the donor zone using a small-diameter cylindrical punch (typically 0.8–1.0 mm) rather than excising a strip of scalp. This approach avoids the linear donor scar associated with the older FUSS (follicular unit strip surgery) technique, leaving only small circular puncture marks in the donor area that heal inconspicuously within days, allowing patients to wear their hair short without revealing evidence of the procedure. Donor follicles are most commonly harvested from the occipital and parietal scalp — regions governed by the DHT-resistant gene expression that makes them resistant to androgenetic alopecia — ensuring that the transplanted hair retains its growth characteristics even when relocated to the recipient zone. The extracted follicular units are held in a chilled preservation solution to maintain viability while the recipient sites are prepared. Recipient site creation involves making small angular incisions in the recipient area, with the direction, depth, angle, and density of sites precisely planned to replicate the natural emergence angle and growth direction of native hair — a critical determinant of natural-looking results. Grafts are then placed in the recipient sites one by one, with single-follicle units used at the hairline for the finest, most natural-looking leading edge and larger two- and three-follicle units placed behind for density. The number of grafts required is determined by the area of hair loss, the desired density, and the available donor supply — an individualised assessment made at the pre-surgical consultation using photography and scalp examination. Dr. Nandi Wijay performs hair restoration as part of his TOPS surgical practice. He also treats gynecomastia and other conditions involving the male body, bringing a masculine aesthetic perspective to hair design and hairline planning that is particularly relevant for male pattern hair loss patients. Local anesthesia is used throughout the procedure; patients are awake and comfortable, and the session — while long (six to eight hours for larger sessions) — involves minimal active discomfort after the initial anaesthetic injection. Transplanted hairs typically shed within two to four weeks of the procedure (a normal part of the graft cycle) before regrowing permanently over twelve to eighteen months.