FUE (Follicular Unit Extraction)
FUE means the donor hair is removed one group of follicles at a time with no cutting no stitches and no line of scarring. There is commonly very little if not no pain afterwards. FUE leaves only tiny white dots that are hard to see in the donor area so your hair can be cut short down to No. 1 or 2 with no visible scars.
For smaller cases Non-Shaven FUE hair transplant is possible meaning we don’t even need to clip all of the donor area just small sections that hide under your hair ! FUE is done for people who will never need more that 3000 grafts in a lifetime, people wanting to wear there hair very short. Non-shaven FUE is great for those wanting small cheaper procedures to replace hair gradually with no downtime. We are limited to a maximum of 2000 grafts in one day with FUE. Note, the transplant robot does FUE but leaves larger white scars over the head than the manual technique we do and can break down during the procedure and can malfunction because its a machine. All of our hair transplants are “hand-made” for you.
Deciding between FUE and FUT is quite easy at the consultation. Sadly there are clinics in Australia that can only do FUE so that is all they offer you. In reality, FUE is not the right procedure for about 50% of people so they end up getting the wrong procedure done at these clinics. This means that extensive damage can be done at the back and sides of the head by the removal of too much FUE. The quality of the grafts from FUE is always less compared to FUT. We can still do a good transplant with FUE although because the graft quality is lower, often a greater total number is needed for the same density. If you are going to need more that about 3000 grafts in your lifetime, then FUE is not for you because taking that much FUE out of the back and sides will thin out that area so much you cant wear the hair short anyway, which is the main reason for having FUE in the first place. With FUE, the grafts are taken out from a wide area of the scalp. This means that if more than 3000 are taken out, they cannot be certain they will survive for ever. With FUT, the skin is taken from right in the middle of the safe zone only and permanent survival is assured. It sounds complex, but to experienced doctors who perform both FUT and FUE like we do, it is easy for us to give you the procedure that best suits you.
FUT (Follicular Unit Transplant or Strip)
FUT involves removing a horizontal strip of skin, about 1.5 cm wide from the back and suturing it closed. This is a very simple skin removal procedure under local anaesthetic. This can leave a horizontal white line or scar that usually varies from 1mm to 3mm in width and is the traditional way of harvesting follicles. Sometimes the line is very hard to find, even by hairdressers. People are usually overly worried about the scar due to incorrect information on the internet, the reality is that the scar is hard to find and does not worry people. If there is some area of the scar that you can see we can repair it for you with a tiny FUE.
For FUT we do not shave your donor area so it looks normal at the end of the day. FUT hair transplant is cheaper and very well tolerated and we can do many more grafts in one day, up to 4000.
FUT is still the most popular hair transplant technique with Australians because there is no shaving, no number restriction, high graft survival rate and a better quality of graft.
Any scar from FUT can be easily repaired if necessary with small FUE or SMP micro-pigmentation. A No.3 hair length is enough to hide the line scar which is placed high in the hairline so you can still have a number 1 haircut just above the ear, or “short back and sides”