Differences between the two methods of Hair Transplant

Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT)

A well-known and long-standing method of hair transplantation is the strip method, otherwise known as follicular unit transplantation or FUT. With this technique, a strip of skin and hair is removed from the back of the head, sectioned into grafts, and transplanted in the receptor area.

• Excessive scarring
• Painful
• The hair in the donor area is completely sacrificed for the transplantation, making it impossible to reuse

This method results in excessive scarring in the both donor area and the receptor area because square grafts are transplanted into round holes, causing scar tissue to form. These obvious and unattractive scars are the biggest disadvantage of this method, which also happens to be the most painful.

This technique also results in hair retention of just 70 to 95%, as some of the grafts inevitably fall out or are unsuitable for transplantation. This means hair loss of 5 to 30%. Of course, the end result differs per person.

Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE)

A second, more modern technique is Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE). This technique extracts entire hair follicles from the donor area one by one and transplants them in the receptor area. FUE results in dozens of small, round scars in the donor area.

• Excessive visible scarring
• Painful technique
• No regrowth

A major disadvantage of the FUT and FUE transplant methods is that the extracted follicles are removed entirely, creating an even smaller donor area. Hair transplant methods that use these techniques have a limited number of donor follicles as no regrowth occurs in the donor area after transplantation.

The FUE method results in hair retention of 90 to 96%, as some of the grafts inevitably fall out or are unsuitable for transplantation. This means hair loss of 5 to 10%. Moreover, neither of these methods allow for short hairstyles due to clearly visible scarring.

An overview of the differences between the two methods

The table below shows the differences at a glance.

The differences	FUT(strip)	FUE
Sedatives before treatment	usually	usually
Pain during procedure	some	no
Stitches	yes	no
Scarring in donor area	yes, one large scar	yes, white dots
Loss of donor area	yes	yes
Reusability of donor area	limited	limited
Pain after treatment	yes	limited
Swelling after treatment	yes	yes
Recovery period	14 days	10 days
Maximum number of grafts per treatment	2500-3000	2000
Body hair transplant possible	no	limited
Treatment of scars and burn wounds	very limited	acceptable
Treatment of eyebrows, moustache and beard	very limited	acceptable
Results	70-90%	80-95%