The most important difference between Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) and the Strip Harvesting Technique (Strip) is the method used for extracting the follicular units. With FUE, a specialized punch with less than 1mm diameter is used to extract the hair from the scalp. The main advantage of this technique is that follicular units are extracted directly form the scalp rather than larger groups, which deters the utilization of scalpel and stitching.

A simple way of presenting how FUE follicular units are extracted is shown in the figure below. A less than 1 mm diameter punch is inserted into the skin to the depth of the root of the hair follicle thus enabling the Hair Transplant Surgeon to detach the hair from the skin and to pull it out without damage.

This new non-invasive technique that made its commercial appearance in the western world in the year 2003, is offered successfully by less than a handful of Hair Transplantation Clinics around Europe. The reason is that very few hair transplant surgeons are able to master this difficult technique because FUE requires special know-how in order to be completed in a way to produce results. This is the reason why FUE documented results are quite limited.

It should also be noted that FUE clinics or individual FUE doctors should emerge from their previous experience in Follicular Hair Transplantation through the Strip method. Since FUE differs from Strip in the extraction method, it means that the rest of the procedure e.g. creating a hairline, making recipient sites, preserving follicular units out of the scalp and graft placing, is still quite the same. In the light of the above FUE only Clinics should be trusted with caution. It is therefore recommended that FUE potential patients should choose their FUE Clinic based on its previous experience, reputation and current FUE results.

FUE RESULTS:

Before	After
Before	After
Before	After

Click on the photos to enlarge

The photos below will help you to understand better the FUE technique

Click on the pictures to enlarge

	In this photo you can see the sites that have been created by using a 0.75mm punch. You can also see the sites that have been punched the previous day, 20 hours after surgery. The healing of these sites is amazing. After a few days it will not be noticeable that this patient has undergone hair extraction form this area.
	In this photo you can see the harvested follicular units with 0.75 mm punch. Notice the follicular units are intact with a very low transection rate and with the proper amount of sebaceous material to protect the grafts and generate new arrector pili muscles and oil glands after being moved to the recipient site-area.
	These follicular units have been harvested with same punch size as above. They are all single Follicular Units and they are to be placed on the hairline where we only use singles. They are intact with all the necessary tissue to give them an excellent growth in a few months.
	In this photo you can see a cross-section of the scalp after removing a follicular unit via FUE. Notice that the neighbouring follicular units have remained intact.

 Patients who prefer the FUE method should fall into one or more of the following categories:

• Those who want to shave their hair or will shave it in the future
• Those who want small sessions up to 1200 grafts
• Those who prefer FUE as being more contemporary
• Those who want to expand their donor capabilities (combine Strip & FUE)
• Those who are scared of surgery

The period that FUE patients can go back to work after the procedure

It is the concern of many patients, how will they look immediately after the procedure and a few days later. Their main worry, is how many days after the procedure they will be able to go back to work without any visible signs. We'll illistrate with the photos below, the case of a patient that we managed to document his progress for the first 8 days.

Donor area during the procedure	Donor area 8 days after the procedure

Our conclusion from the above photos is that, eight days after the procedure is more than enough to return back to work without any visible signs, provided that, post surgery instructions will be correctly followed.

The main advantages in brief of the FUE Technique are:

• No linear scar in the donor site
• Avoidance of scalpel and stitches
• Fast healing
• Less invasive
• Minimal post operation pain

Visit our Photo Gallery  and see for yourself our well documented Hair Transplant results.

For more and detailed information about hair transplants please read Our Hair Transplant Methods  from beginning to end.

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