FUE

Follicular Unit Extraction or FUE Harvesting - individual follicles of hair are removed under local anesthesia; this micro removal uses tiny punches of between 0.6mm and 1.25mm in diameter. Each follicle is then reinserted back in to the scalp in the thinning area using a micro blade. Because individual follicles are removed, only small, punctate scars remain and any post-surgical pain is minimized. As no suture removal is required, recovery from FUE is within 7 days. However, some surgeons note that FUE can lead to a lower ratio of successfully transplanted follicles as compared to strip harvesting. Others also suggest that in case a patient would need more than one transplant, it would be difficult to find a good strip after a FUE.

Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) is a method of extracting, or “harvesting,” donor hair in a follicular unit hair transplant procedure. In FUE, an instrument is used to make a small, circular incision in the skin around a follicular unit, separating it from the surrounding tissue. The unit is then extracted (pulled) directly from the scalp, leaving a small open hole.
This process is repeated until the hair transplant surgeon has harvested enough follicular units for the planned hair restoration. This process can take one or more hours and in large sessions, may be accomplished over two consecutive days. The donor wounds, approximately 1-mm in size, completely heal over the course of seven to ten days, leaving tiny white scars buried in the hair in the back and sides of the scalp. This method of donor harvesting, removing follicular units one-by-one directly from the scalp, is what differentiates the FUE procedure from a traditional Follicular Unit Transplant (FUT), where the donor hair is removed from the scalp in one thin, long strip and then subsequently dissected into individual follicular units using a stereo-microscope. Before the grafts are harvested, tiny “recipient sites” are made in the balding area of the scalp using a fine needle-point instrument. The follicular units are then placed into the recipient sites where they will grow into healthy hair-producing follicles. The creation of recipient sites and the placing of follicular unit grafts are essentially the same in both FUE and FUT procedures. The difference lies in the appearance of the donor area and in the quality and quantity of grafts obtained with each technique.

MIn his method Hairs in the scalp are arranged in Follicular Units, and each unit has 1, 2, 3 or 4 hairs. In the Follicular Unit Transplant Technique(FUT), hair follicles in these units or grafts of 1, 2, 3 or 4 hairs are transplanted in the bald areas. The transplanted hair are permanent, grow like normal hair and need haircuts later. The transplanted hair never fall and grow continuously at a rate of 2-3 cm per month like other hair.there is no restriction on Shampoo and oil, can be applied & they can be combed to the style of your choice. It takes 3 to 6 hours for a sitting of hair transplantation to be complete. The patient goes home immediately after the operation. One or more sittings may be required, depending on the severity and extent of baldness. Usually, a maximum of upto 2500 to 3000 follicular unit grafts, i.e. 6000 to 7500 hair follicles can be transplanted in one sitting. If required, the next sitting can be done after 6 months. Anyone can do 4 to 5 sittings at the gap of 6 months each to cover a big area of baldness.

In this procedure, no scalpel is required which is used for cutting skin in the ‘strip’ surgery. The entire procedure is done by the surgeons and not by technicians. It is most useful for people who keep small hair or shave their head or have tendency of hypertrophic scars because they will not have any visible scars. This is the only method by which adequate cover can be given for NH Gr VI-VII as the hair can be extracted from the head as well as the body in multiple sittings. In the strip technique, the number of hair are limited as only those hair which are removed in the strip can be used for transplant

Because FUE does not leave a linear scar, it may be appropriate for patients who want to wear their hair very short. It is also an advantage for those involved in very strenuous activities, such as professional athletes, who must resume these activities very soon after their procedure. The technique is also useful for those who have healed poorly from traditional strip harvesting or who have a very tight scalp. FUE also allows the surgeon to potentially remove hair from parts of the body other than the donor scalp, such as the beard or trunk, although there are many limitations with this process. Possibly the most straight-forward application of this technique is to camouflage a linear donor scar from a prior hair transplant procedure. In this technique, a small amount of hair is extracted from the area around a linear donor scar and then placed directly into it. Some patients desire FUE simply because they heard that FUE is less invasive than FUT or is non-surgical. The reality is that both procedures involve surgery and in both cases the depth of the incisions (i.e. into the fat layer right below the hair follicles) is the same. The difference is in the type of incision made. In FUE there are multiple round incisions scattered diffusely through the donor area and in FUT there is one single, long incision in the middle of the donor area. FUE should be chosen if the multiple round incisions are preferred and not because the technique is “non-surgical.”