Hi everyone, Dr. Paul from Hair Transplants Melbourne here. I wanted to briefly explain the differences between the donor area in FUE and FUT hair transplants. We choose the procedure based on the client’s needs at the time.
FUE is the more common form of hair transplant extraction. It’s considered more modern, but modern doesn’t always mean better—it’s just a newer technique. FUT has been around a bit longer.
With FUE, we shave the back and sides of the head all the way around. Then, we numb the area—starting with the sides, then the back, and finally the other side. Once the area is fully numb, we apply a solution that slightly swells the scalp. This helps reduce bleeding during the procedure. Using a specialized drill, we then extract individual grafts.
Because of the nature of FUE, we are thinning out the donor area to extract grafts for the top. We leave hair around the extraction sites to cover them as they heal, so when the hair grows back, no one will know anything was done. However, if too many grafts are taken from the donor area, it can become over-harvested, which is difficult to recover from. We would then have to transplant hair back into the donor area to fill it out again. This is why it’s important to treat the donor area with respect during FUE.
In contrast, FUT is an older procedure where we don’t shave any part of the scalp. Instead, we make a linear incision around the back of the scalp, depending on how many grafts are needed. This incision might be short or a little longer, going all the way around. We then take a strip of skin from the scalp. While it might sound intense, it’s really not. Our patients tolerate it very well, and many prefer this procedure over FUE. Once the strip is removed, we sew the scalp back up, leaving a linear incision that heals over time.
If FUT is done poorly, it can leave a thick, visible scar. But at Hair Transplants Melbourne, we take great care in ensuring FUT scars are very thin and nearly imperceptible, even to the client’s hairdresser. This means the downtime is often shorter than FUE, as we’re not shaving any part of the scalp. We make an incision, sew it up, and leave all of the hair around it intact. You will walk out of the clinic, and no one will know you’ve had anything done at the back of your head.
Once the strip of skin is removed, it’s handed over to our technicians and nurses, who dissect the individual grafts and implant them in the desired areas—just like in an FUE procedure. The implantation process is the same for both FUT and FUE; the only difference is in the extraction.
One important point to clarify: many people think that when we take a strip of skin with FUT, we’re placing that strip on top of the head intact. This is not the case. With FUT, we take the strip, dissect the grafts from it, and then place the individual grafts where they are needed on the scalp.
In this video, you can see how we ensure the donor area remains intact. We’re doing a comb-through of a large post-FUE treatment, several months after the procedure. As you can see, it looks like nothing was done—the hair is thick and dense at the back. We’ve been able to take a large number of grafts to replace lost hair on top while keeping the donor area in good shape. It’s possible to balance both, ensuring the donor area remains intact while providing enough hair to replace what was lost on the scalp.
