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.

Advantages :

Good for patients requiring a large number of grafts – FUT typically provides a higher yield of hair than FUE – an advantage if the patient’s main goal is to achieve maximum fullness from the hair restoration.

No need to shave the whole head – With the FUT technique existing hair can be kept long -and indeed will be used to cover up the linear scar.

Shorter time in surgery – The FUT process usually takes between 4 and 12 hours depending on the size of the recipient area and the number of grafts that need to be transplanted. This is significantly shorter than FUE, which can require extracting up to 2,000 grafts and might take 10 hours – or in some cases might need more than one day in surgery.

Lower cost – FUT is often less expensive than an equivalent FUE procedure.

Both FUT and FUE procedures are virtually painless and require only a local anesthetic.