FUT or Strip Procedure (Also known as FUSS- Follicular Unit Strip Surgery)

FUT or Follicular Unit Transplant is a procedure where grafts are taken en mass in a piece of strip of hair bearing skin from the donor area. The gap after removing the strip in the donor area is closed by stitches or staples.

The advantage if this procedure is large number of grafts can be taken and grafted in short time because the major task of separation of individual grafts from the strip is done by a well trained team. The graft size is somewhat chubbier compared to FUE grafts and shape is well trimmed. Although grafts are separated under magnification by 4-10 trained technicians it is not possible to monitor every graft by the Doctor unlike FUE grafts which are extracted by Doctor personally. Because the Doctor has to spend less time here this procedure is relatively cheaper compared to FUE. Stitches leave a linear mark permanently in the donor area and therefore short hairstyle may not be possible because the mark may be visible. Those who are sure to keep their donor are hair long enough the scar can very well be hidden and does not remain visible. Normally the linear scar does not grow hair but a special way of stitching up the gap (called Trichophytic Closure) can grow the hair even in that linear mark and as a result that mark can be concealed more effectively. Healing period and Blood loss is usually more compared to FUE due to more traumas caused in strip removal. Postoperative discomfort and other possible healing issues occasionally encountered due to stitches may be the cause why many people these days chose FUE procedure. In spite of the potential problems with this method because of more affordability and less number of FUE experts Majority of Hair Transplants are still done by Strip surgeries across the globe.

Long Hair Transplant or LHT or Preview HT:

This is a variant of Strip surgery. Usually for the surgical convenience hairs while harvesting the strip are kept to the length of 2-3 mm. So the normal strip procedure does not transplant long hairs. But when these hairs are kept long when transplanting it is called Long Hair Transplant. This was first done by a Brazilian surgeon called Marcelo Pitchon of Belo Horizonte.

The benefit is you can have the possible preview of what will be your future result or what to expect. I certain situation when you have very little time left for the function that you want to attend and you want to show long hair on that day you can chose to have LHT. Well due to long hair you can also hide the scabs of the surgery and you can have immediate change in the look.

Be warned that as in other cases even these transplanted long hairs also shed in next 3-6 weeks. New hairs start growing after 3-4 months is when you get the permanently growing hairs. . It is safe but not done routinely by most because of longer surgical time and more post op care that patient has to take because of long hair which can pull out the root easily in the first week.

Because the surgical time increase and the procedure become more demanding this procedure is more expensive compared to regular FUT with short hair.