Hair Follicles Are Viable After Delayed FUE Procedure

In a case report from 2015, researchers demonstrated that hair follicles can remain viable for transplantation after a delay. A 32-year-old male with male pattern hair loss underwent a follicular unit extraction (FUE) hair transplant procedure over three consecutive days. On the first day, 70 grafts were implanted immediately, while the remaining 140 grafts were preserved in normal saline at 4°C. Over the next two days, these preserved grafts were implanted—70 grafts after 24 hours and the final 70 grafts after 48 hours. The patient was followed for 5 months, and the results showed normal hair growth in 95.7% of the grafts implanted on day 1, 84% of those implanted on day 2, and 68% of those implanted on day 3. This case suggests that it is possible to extract hair follicles and implant them several days later with a reasonable success rate, although the viability of the hair follicles decreased over time.