As consumer’s appetite for surgical hair transplants procedures grow in
the exploding cosmetic industry, the need for hair transplants information
and education is important.
For
years, cosmetic surgery was done by obtaining donor hair using linear
incision. Today there is a buzz about follicular unit use in
hair
transplants. Follicular unit is a group of 1 to 3 hairs that grow
naturally together, including glands, muscle, nerves and blood vessels
Today,
the use of Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) is greatly extended. It is a
new method of obtaining donor hair for transplantation where individual
hair units are plucked from one area, the donor area, using only 1 mm
circular incision size, and then inserted directly in the balding area.
Follicular Unit Transplantation FUT still uses a final hair
transplantation act of implanting single hair into the balding area, after
it was plucked and dissected from a strip. Here the name is referring to
the way the follicular grafts are obtained strip harvesting and dissection
vs. direct extraction and implantation. Strip harvesting a strip of hair
approximately 10 to 20 cm long is removed from the donor area (back of the
head below the ears) and is then divided and cut into follicular units
under a microscope.
FUE does not leave a linear scar but instead small incisions. Therefore,
it is used for patients who want to wear their hair very short and those
who have a very tight scalp. There is a shorter healing time since the
incisions are so small. It is best used when a limited number of
grafts are needed damage may occur due the large but small incisions to
extract the hair follicles. Another problem may occur when epidermis and
upper dermis may separate from the rest of the follicle during the pluck
incision, called “capping.” Another incision is needed for a new
follicle.