Solutions to Hair Loss: FUT vs FUE Hair Restoration

Hello,

The hair significantly affects your physical appearance, and this is why many people are afraid of going bald. There are many treatments for hair loss. The most effective procedures involve surgery. If you choose to go for surgery, you will have to choose between Follicular Unit Transplant (FUT) and Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) hair restoration procedures.

What is the Difference Between FUT and FUE Hair Restoration Procedures?

These two forms of surgery are highly effective at treating hair loss. FUE is a more recent procedure, and presently, more patients are going for it. This form of surgery is highly advantageous, especially when compared to the older FUT transplantation.

With FUT, the surgeon will take long and thin hair tissue from the donor site at the back and sides of the scalp. In a procedure known as stereo-microscopic dissection, the surgeon will remove individual follicular units from the strip and transplant them to the balding area.

In FUE procedures, the doctor will not take the whole strip of tissue. Instead, they will take individual follicular units from the scalp. The surgeon will then make small holes in the balding area using a specialist micro-surgical needle and transplant the follicular units through these holes.

The primary difference between the two procedures is the way the hair tissues are removed.

What Are The Advantages of FUE Over FUT?

FUE is currently a lot more popular than FUT transplantation. Here are some reasons why patients prefer this procedure:

• It does not leave linear scars on the scalp. This is particularly important for people who prefer to keep their hair short. Also, people who have had keloids or thick stretched scars should consider FUE because of this.

• Healing time is a lot shorter since it only involves small holes and not strips of scalp tissue. You can also engage in all forms of exercise as you heal. With FUT transplantations, you will have to avoid strenuous exercises until the scars heal completely. Otherwise, they can widen and cause more complications.

• You will not experience any discomfort after the procedure

• The donor site will have less dense hair, but this will be hardly noticeable

• The doctor can harvest hair from non-scalp regions such as the face

For these reasons, FUE procedures are ideal for people who have a history of poor healing. Athletes and younger patients will be better off going for this operation. Also, people who have scars on the head resulting from previous FUT procedures can go for FUE transplantations to camouflage the scars.

What Are the Advantages of FUT Over FUE Hair Transplantations?

FUT is the gold standard of hair transplantations. It has some notable advantages over FUE procedures.

• First, the graft quality in FUT is much better. This is because the hair is transplanted along with the protective dermis and fat. FUE grafts are often more fragile during transplantation.

• The hair is harvested from the mid-section of the donor site, meaning the surgeon can get the best quality hair follicles. The transplanting tissue is obtained from a much smaller section of the scalp. In FUE procedures, the hair has to be taken from a wider section of the scalp, and this means the surgeon may not get the most permanent hair follicles. The most permanent follicles are usually located in the middle of the donor site. This means the hair may get thinner over time.

• FUT procedures can easily be carried out more than once. In FUE, the thinning of the hair can make it harder to go for subsequent transplantation procedures. Also, the procedure leaves the donor site scarred and distorted, and this makes it even harder to go for additional transplants.

• In FUT procedures, the patient will always have one scar, regardless of the number of operations they go for. The surgeon will completely remove the first scar when you go for a second visit. This is not the case with FUE procedures. If the surgeon makes 1,600 holes in one procedure and you choose to go for another surgery, you will end up with a total of 3,200 scars on your scalp. It is worth noting that the scar in FUT procedures may be longer in subsequent surgeries.

In FUE procedures, the patient will also have to shave all the hair from the donor site. This is temporary, but it will present a serious cosmetic problem, especially to those working in the show business. The donor area will still have scars from the procedure. These will be highly visible since all the hair in that area will be shaved. Usually, the hair grows back after two weeks.

If you are only going for a small procedure involving less than 1,600 grafts, you might not need to shave all your hair at the donor site. Long-Hair FUE transplantations can be carried out instead.

As mentioned before, the surgeon will take the hair from a wider section of your scalp if you go for FUE procedures. This means the weaker hairs may also need to be taken. Once the hair from these regions starts to thin, the scars will be visible, and this will present another cosmetic problem. In FUT procedures, the graft is obtained from a smaller area in the middle of the donor site. The hair at this point is unlikely to thin since it is usually the strongest. That means your scar may never be visible even if you experience extensive balding.

Hair transplant surgeries are becoming popular since they are highly effective at reversing the effects of balding. Choosing between FUT and FUE hair transplantation surgeries can be a challenge. FUT is the gold standard of hair transplantation, meaning it is the most effective at helping you get your back hair for a longer period. In FUE, your surgeon will have to take hairs from many places, and this can lower the quality of the graft. That said, FUE transplantations have many advantages, and more people are now opting for this procedure instead of FUT. You should consider the advantages and disadvantages of each procedure before settling on one. If you want to get a hair restoration surgery, you can get in touch with Jeffrey Epstein, M.D. F.AC.S. of the Foundation for Hair Restoration and Plastic Surgery in Miami, FL and New York, NY.