BHR Education Follicular Unit Extraction, FUE, Strip Surgery, FUT, Repair Surgery, Hair Transplant Questions Answered: FUT and FUE Surgery

Educate yourself to the principles of a hair transplant before you have a hair transplant.
A hair transplant is the placement of hair from one area of the scalp to another area. Because of genetics it will not suffer from Male Pattern Baldness...............

Does this mean it is suitable for everyone?

STRIP

A hair bearing strip is removed from the back and or sides of the head. Depending on the size of procedure and the original hair density and laxity this will determine how long and wide the strip will be. FUT will allow most people to remove more hair from the donor in one procedure and in the long term, with procedures of 6000 grafts possible in one day.

Healing will vary from person to person and due care must be taken to not stretch the scar line as skin laxity returns to normal. It has to be understood that even a good healer will be left with a linear scar. New innovations in closure (Tricophytic Closure) have improved the appearance because the closure allows for hairs to grow through the scar line; but if shaved the scar is still visible as a line.

Trico Closure involves the removal of a fine slither of tissue from the edge of the closure line, this allows some hair to grow through the line, diffusing the appearance and enabling the person to wear their hair shorter then was once possible. This has been shown to work better on virgin scalps as the original skin texture and strength has not been compromised.

The position of the strip is important to maintain the integrity of the scalp and in mind if future procedures and potential further hair loss. If the strip is removed to high or too low it will compromise the laxity and healing and if the incision is too deep it will increase fibrosis and nerve damage. This does not only effect the cosmetic healing but compromises the donor options for future procedures.

FUE (Follicular Unit Extraction)

This extraction technique is a relatively new; extraction is harder and slower than FUT because the FU are removed one by one. The punch size will vary dependent on the hair characteristics, it is considered below a 0.9mm punch (assuming by a competent doctor) will leave minor to not visually noticable scarring in the donor area. It has been proven that using a 0.75mm tool can leave non visual scarring and still remove larger groups of follicular units intact with a low transection rate. Regardless how FUE is marketed it will leave a scar, skin laxity and skin pigmentation to name two will effect the possible size of scarring.

There is no reason why FUT and FUE cannot live together and ultimatley provide the patient with the most choice and a chance to harvest safely the maximum FU from their donor. Strip will allow for the greater number to be harvested with minimum time, but is greatly restricted by scalp laxity before the tension is too tight. FUE will then able the doctor to harvest surrounding the linear scar and around the side of the head; thus maximising the donor area and giving the patient more options long term.

It must also be understood that FUE does not give a larger amount of grafts opposed to FUT, although the surface area maybe larger. To not cause over harvesting in the donor approximately 27% of FU per cm2 can be removed; this will ensure the donor area does not become too thin, especially if you keep your

small procedures, for example hair line creation, but for a person to have 4000 plus FU placed with FUE (assuming 27% rule) their original density would have to be approx. 80-85 FU cm2 and good hair characteristics. It is also not recommended that one procedure exceed 3000 grafts, the cumulative effect of multiple open wound healing and the stress on the scalp can proove to have a negative effect on the final result.