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One of the most important questions that we get asked about hair transplants all the time
is, "What technique should I use?" FUT, which is the strip method, or FUE, which is when
individual hair follicles are taken from the back of the head one at a time. Well, the
answer to that question depends on what you're looking for and what your desires are, goals,
expectations, and what your fears may be.
For example, the strip method, which is still the gold standard today, is where we take
a strip of tissue out of the back of the head and we remove that tissue, hand that off to
our skilled technicians who under a microscope divide it into follicular units - one, two,
three, and four haired grafts. And then the doctor will suture that area up. The hair
falls back over that area, and you really can't identify anything. However, if you were
to try to shave your head, you would see a line, so you would have a linear scar.
For patients who don't want the linear scar whatsoever, the technique of FUE, or removing
them one at a time, is the best method for that. However, this method is much more time
consuming for the physician because the surgeon has to remove those follicles one at a time
themselves. So in other words, it can take two, three, four, or even five, six hours
to harvest the necessary grafts that are going to be transplanted into the head. This takes
away some of the focus with regard to the physician on concentrating on the recipient
area or where we're going to transplant the hairs.
In conclusion, the FUE procedure is best for patients who want to keep their hair really,
really short or want the option to shave their hair. It's generally done for smaller sessions,
or if there's a large session that needs to be done, it's going to be done over two days
because, again, it's more time consuming for the harvesting process.
If you to want to do a large session and get the most number of grafts in the quickest
time period while the grafts are cut under a microscope so we get complete visualization
of those grafts in the time tested technique, that's the strip method. And that's the best
method to harvest the most amount of grafts in the shortest amount of time so that the
physician can focus on the recipient site in creating the most natural look possible.