Follicular Unit Transplantation, also known as ‘Strip Surgery’, is where a strip of hair is harvested from the back of the head for transplant in the area affected by hair loss. This is an invasive treatment which leads to a tell-tale scarring in a line across the back of the head.
Thick and natural-looking hair is the end goal for you and every hair transplant surgeon. There are a variety of hair transplant procedures to help you achieve the natural look and feel and each type has its pros and unfortunately, cons.
The two main techniques used in the field are Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) & Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE), and the main difference is how the follicle is extracted. Read on to learn more about FUT & FUE and to help determine if either procedure is right for you.
One of the main advantages of FUT vs. FUE is that follicular units in FUT are harvested from a higher density donor zone. This optimizes the number of high quality grafts from the permanent zone. Higher quality grafts mean:
With FUT, you don’t usually have to worry about additional scarring in future hair transplants. The first scar is normally removed in the next procedure, unlike FUE, where the number of grafts removed will result in an equal number of tiny round scars. This increases the second time around and every time after.
FUE – Follicular Unit Extraction
Follicular Unit Extraction includes the removal of healthful hair follicles right from a donor area on the scalp, typically in the back of the head the location where the hair is rich, and grafting them on top of the bald or thinning areas.
The procedure is performed under local anesthetic and getting rid of the potential risks and recovery time connected with general anesthetic utilized in other hair transplant treatments. Moreover there aren’t any noticeable scars or stitching involved with the procedure.
Although the concept is the same as with earlier transplant techniques, Fue hair transplant is well-known since it has given better results in terms of natural-looking. FUE is less painful as well as having minimal recovery time. Usually, healing time depends on type of skin, but the grafts take in a few days and swelling settles around 4-5 days.
Benefits
Results and Post Op
You’ll be able to view the shape of the new hair line right after treatment. 6 to 12 months, the transplanted hair will be re-grown entirely and also the bald spot or diminishing hair line will have gone away. The final results are completely permanent and natural looking.
Recovery takes roughly 5-7 days, and after that time any swelling or minor redness in the treatment location will have gone away.