WHAT IS HAIR TRANSPLANT?
With all hair transplants, regardless of which method of harvesting is performed, FUT (Follicular Unit Transplantation), FUE (Follicular Unit Excision) or ARTAS are done to achieve the same results. Fuller hair in the front or crown area of the scalp. It isn’t yet possible to grow your own hair back in a petri dish but we can do some gardening. Hair transplantation is taking hair from the back garden (where hair has naturally lower levels of DHT) and transplanting it to the front, less full , garden (the hair at the front is affected by higher levels of DHT that miniaturise the hair and create thinning and balding). Hair transplantation today is undetectable and completely natural due to the planting of the grafts (the natural groups of hair in a follicle) and is your to enjoy for a lifetime.
FUE – FOLLICULAR UNIT EXCISION
FUE – or Follicular Unit Extraction – is the process of replacing lost areas of hair by implanting healthy follicles from elsewhere on the head. A donor area of the scalp is selected, usually based upon the abundance of hair. This area is usually taken from the back of the scalp, where a large volume of hair grows naturally. FUE is a newer technique and unlike other hair transplant procedures, FUE works on an individual hair basis. Each hair is extracted as a whole unit, complete with the necessary glands and then transplanted to the new area. Although less invasive, the procedure is very intricate and this can lead to an FUE procedure taking slightly longer than the FUT method. By taking more time, the healing period is reduced and the levels of success are greater.
FOLLICULAR UNIT TRANSPLANTATION
In the FUT procedure, a strip of hair-bearing skin is removed from the donor area of the scalp, usually the back of the head. This is why FUT is also known as ‘strip’ surgery. The long-term donor hair supply will be influenced by how loose (or lax) the scalp skin is and by how many hairs there are per square centimetre of donor scalp. Generally speaking, the FUT procedure gives access to a greater donor hair yield during a lifetime compared with FUE. The strip is then placed under high-powered microscopes and the surgical team meticulously divides it into tiny grafts of individual follicular units comprised of one to four hairs. These grafts are placed in a chilled tissue storage solution until they are transplanted. The donor area is stitched up and usually then covered by the surrounding hair. After between 10 and 14 days the stitches are removed and the donor area heals to form a linear scar.