Follicular Unit Extraction

Follicular unit extraction (FUE) is a hair transplant technique in which a small round 1mm punch is used to extract follicular units from a patient’s bald resistant donor areas. Without the need of a linear Incision on the donor area. These 1, 2 and 3 hair follicular unit grafts are then transplanted into a patient’s balding areas. This is time consuming and tedious nature of this procedure but our dedicated team is capable of doing 2500 to 3500 extra Follicular Unit Extractions in one day. The cost per graft of FUE is also typically four times the cost of the standard follicular unit hair transplant procedure in which a strip of donor tissue is removed from the back of the head in form of a strip and trimmed under magnification into individual follicular unit grafts. Finally the follicles removed form the back is transplanted in to the recipient area

FUE or Strip Excision, which procedure is right for you?

Both the FUE and the Strip Excision procedures have advantages and disadvantages.

The strip excision procedure is more economical and also enables a patient to move much larger numbers of grafts/hairs to the balding areas during a given surgical session. However, the donor area after a strip excision surgery will require more time before it is fully healed when compared to the FUE surgery.

In addition, the FUE procedure, given its minimally invasive nature, does not produce one long linear scar but rather hundreds of tiny scars in the donor area that are often hard to detect. This has fueled interest in the FUE procedure with patients who are highly concerned about potential visible scarring in the donor area.

However, given recent advances and care in donor closure techniques used during strip excision surgery, such as the trichophytic closure technique, (Dr. Humayun presented the new Donor Closure Technique at ESHRS annual conference in Zurich, Switzerland on May 25, 2006 and in ISHRS 14th Annual Scientific Meeting at San Diego, California, USA on October 18, 2006, discussed in Hair Transplant Forum International, Nov/Dec. 2006, Vol. 16, Number 6, Page 204) the linear donor scar created by the strip excision procedure is now often almost undetectable, even upon close examination. Thus concerns about visible scarring in the donor after strip surgery have diminished. This has made the additional cost and time requirements of doing the FUE procedure relatively less appealing.