Men can have a hard time when it comes to taking care of their hair. In particular, it becomes increasingly difficult for men that are dealing with hair loss during the course of their lifetime. Hair loss is a tough thing to come by, as it can have mental and emotional affects beyond just the change in cosmetic appearance. For men that are dealing with hair loss, you should know that you’re not alone:

• 85% of men have significantly thinning hair by the time they turn 50 years old
• 66% of American men experience some form of hair loss by the time they turn 35
• 95% of male hair loss is caused by common male pattern baldness (MPB)
• 35 million American men are currently dealing with some form of hair loss and/or baldness

If you happen to be one of these men that are worried about MPB and hair loss, you should know that baldness and patchy hair loss does not have to be the end of the road. There are clinical options available to reverse the processes of hair loss and/or baldness.

Male hair loss specialists are clinicians that specialize in reversing the effects of hair loss and baldness. These clinicians are trained and specialize in the various methods in how to treat hair loss, from hair replacement to hair restoration. These clinicians hair clinics are places that will work with you, as a patient, ensuring that your type of hair loss can be determined, along with creating a treatment plan that can work towards restoring and/or replacing your hair.

In particular, there are two types of hair loss treatments that can be performed by clinicians, being Follicular Unit Strip Surgery (FUSS) and Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE). While there are these two treatment methods, there is a better one between the two, and for good reason.

FUSS treatment is completed by taking a strip of scalp from an area of the head (one that is non-balding) and surgically removing it, subsequently placing it where incisions in balding areas have been made. While FUSS has been proven to work, it is invasive, has a high risk of medical complication, limits the amount of graft harvesting that can be achieved, requires more recovery time, and leaves serious scars on the back of the head. If you’re already concerned about balding (hopefully without a head covered in scars), the last thing you want is a recovering head that features prominent, noticeable scars.

FUE hair replacement, on the other hand, is minimally invasive, has a lower rate of surgical complications, has a short recovery time, and will not leave large scars on the scalp. Furthermore, FUE patients have the ability to shave their hair in the future, something that FUSS patients do not have the option for.

FUE transplant procedures work by harvesting individual follicular grafts that range from .7 to 1 millimeter in size, grafting them to incisions within bald areas of the head (compared to the large, scar-ridden grafts that come from FUSS surgical treatments). FUE treatments can take around eight hours, but the results are undeniable. Healing time will depend upon the skin type of the patient, but the average time needed for basic recovery — reduction of redness upon the scalp — takes an average of four to five days, all without the worry of noticeable, large scars. Once the healing process is finished, you’ll be back to normal, having the hair that you once remembered.