Jessop wrote:
It would be good if more clinics offere FUE without having to shave the recipient area. Seems to be more time consuming and harder to do so doctors would rather not do it.
Firstly best wishes and good luck with your procedure.
To add to the shave, non-shave issue. Yes it is more time consuming and harder, but also it has potential restrictions that can effect the result you achieve. That is not to say you may be very happy with your result, but from a Clinic perspective we have to look at trying to create the best conditions to perform your procedure, no one wants an unhappy patient.
Not shaving creates a few issues:
Longer hair makes it harder to follow the natural orientation and angles of the hair, very important when designing a hair line.
Making the recipient sites so close to native hair can result in being over cautious and placing a lower density than required to preserve the existing hair; although trauma can occur resulting in shock-loss.
If you bleed more than expected when the sites are made, and the grafts placed, "popping", the area becomes harder to clean, see the sites, possibly resulting in skipping sites.
All these will certainly make the procedure last longer than it would from a shaved area, but time is a small aspect measured against the result achieved.
All that said, if you are touching up your hair line, and your hair seems quite long, there can be a compromise. You want the best result possible, so why not allow the doctor to shave the immediate hair line, into the area of strong hair, probably a few cm ´s. That way with your hair length you could style your hair to hide without too much problem, and allow the doctor to still do their work in the best conditions for you.
PS...... it is not an FUE problem, regardless of technique the problem exists.