Afro FUE Hair Transplant  

Follow one of our Westminster Clinic patients Chucksie on his Afro FUE hair transplant journey, from pre-op to to results. In our video below he talks about his decision to opt for a hair transplant procedure, the results he is hoping to achieve and how he is feeling as he approaches his operation date. Scroll to the bottom to follow more of his experience. See how his hair gradually grows back, getting thicker and stronger fom 3 months onwards. Even at 6 months, it’s still only half the density that it will be by 12-18 months.

Afro hair transplant information

An Afro hair transplant patient is performed using just the same hair transplantion techniques , even though their characteristics are different. In general, it is important to understand that:

Afro hair is usually less dense than Asian or Caucasion hair, so normally not as many grafts are able to be moved. On the other hand, not as many grafts are needed. Because of the curliness, even low density Afro hair can look like “big hair.” That is, it occupies a large volume even if there aren’t so many hairs per square centimeter.

Afro hair curls underneath the skin too, not just the visible portion, so “relaxing” the hair using chemicals does not straighten the hair subcutaneously. This means the hair grafts take up more space and need to be placed in slightly larger incisions and not quite so densely.

This curl or kinkiness, also means that traditionally, FUE is difficult and often impossible to perform on Afro hair, although mixed race patients frequently have straighter, less tight curls, which allows FUE to be performed. It can still be possible to use FUE on Afro hair but it must be fully realised that we may have to switch to the strip (FUT) method if it proves too difficult to extract the hair via FUE. Either that or book in for a small test FUE session.

Black skin is typically thicker and tougher, meaning that we have to alter our technique and settings for FUE. The hair is normally fairly coarse, although it can be quite fine too. The defining characteristic of Afro hair is the curl, kink or kinkiness of it. It is not specifically whether the patient, male or female, is described as Black, Caribbean, African American etc as we have found there are wide variations in the hair types and Somalians have less tight curls than Nigerians for instance. Please see our before and after Black Afro hair transplant photos to get an idea of the differences: photos

Patients with Afro hair also can inherit a problem with healing, called Keloid formation, which is where large thick scars can form after even minor skin trauma. This is not normally a problem for FUE but does sometimes occur in Black patients having strip hair transplantation (although uncommon).

An important update below regarding Afro FUE hair transplants in black patients

Black Afro hair transplants (ie. African Caribbean, African American, Black British etc) have specific differences to Caucasian or Asian hair, which makes it very important that any hair transplant clinic has experience and understanding of these. So you should choose a specialist Afro hair doctor, such as Dr Ibe at Westminster Clinic. As a black doctor from London, he has Afro hair himself and so fully understands the differences.

Afro hair FUE transplant update

Excellent news for patients seeking FUE hair transplantation with Afro hair characteristics, from April 2022:

We now have the latest FUE machine and punches, developed especially for Afro hair, allied with our 19 year experience of FUE transplanting with standard punches.

It is an exciting time – Dr Rogers is already acknowledged to be an Afro hair doctor specialist but has been searching for the solution to offer hair transplants for every patient, even those with very kinky or curly Afro hair. This type of hair has sometimes been unsuitable for FUE previously.

Together with his new doctor associate (Dr Ibe), we think we have found that solution.

Our Afro hair transplant patient – Chucksie’s journey starts here

Prior to surgery we drew Chucksie’s new hairline in place and shaved the donor hair area.

FUE Afro hair grafts during hair transplant surgery for our patient, Chuksie, showing his Afro FUE hair grafts being “planted” by the hair technicians. And on the right, a close up of the donor area post extraction.

On the left, immediately after insertion of the grafts. On the right, the size of the donor area needed to be shaved.

Afro donor area just 7 days after FUE surgery.

2 months after surgery showing the recipient (hairline) and donor areas.

Chucksie’s Afro hairline FUE at 4 months.

Chucksie 6 Months After Afro FUE

Chucksie 12 Months After Afro FUE

Our Afro hair transplant patient continues his surgery journey below

Coming soon, more videos of our patient talking about his experience pre-op, during the procedure and post-op. We’ll see Chuksie again after 6 months when the transplants will have grown even further.

For further videos and information regarding his Afro FUE hair transplant surgery please see below.

• Before his Afro FUE hair transplant click here
• After his Afro FUE hair transplant click here
• One week (7 days) after his Afro FUE hair transplant click here
• For more photos of Afro hair transplant results, click here