Why FUE scar area is 10 times bigger than FUT's?

With FUT, if we removed 1 cm by 20 cm donor strip for transplant, we will close the wound so it will shrink to 0.1 cm or even smaller.  The total scar area is 0.1 cm by 20 cm=2 sq. cm.

With FUE method, to harvest the same amount of hair we need to punch out 1 cm by 20 cm donor skin.  Because the wound is leaved open after surgery, if we punch out all hair in the area then it leaves no hair to cover up the donor site.  In order to cover up the punch scar, we have to punch out from an area of at least 5 to 6 cm wide and 20 cm long.

The total scar area in FUE is 20 sq. cm in this case.

So the FUE scar area is ten times bigger than FUT.

Most of the time the FUE punched scar will get bigger in the future. The tighter of the scalp the bigger the scars becomes. The scars are permanent so will stay there forever.

Donor Site Safe Zone

Professor Unger studied 328 men aged 65 years or older and determined the safe donor area (safe zone).
When you are 80 years old, 80% of the chance that  your safe zone at occipital area is only 7 to 8 cm wide, at lateral and posterior area only 5 cm wide.
If grafts harvested are not in the “safe zone” then hair at that area are not permanent hair. When the surrounding hair loss or even get thinner, thousand of scars will appear and extremely difficult to cover up. 

FUT graft and FUE grafts

Please see the two photos. The only difference is the FUT grafts have tissue around its follicles and the FUE grafts have no tissue. 

FUE is a blind procedure, the deeper the cutting, the more chance of dissection of the follicles. The standard method is to blindly punch through the skin then use a strong forceps to pull them out. This is the reason why there are no tissues are around the follicle level and the follicle is left exposed with no protection.

FUE Scar with Keloid

A keloid, sometimes referred to as a keloid scar, is a tough heaped-up scar that rises quite abruptly above the rest of the skin. It usually has a smooth top and a pink or purple color. Keloids are irregularly shaped and tend to enlarge progressively. Unlike scars, keloids do not subside over time.

This is a photo of a patient who had keloid and received FUE procedure.

What kind of hair style can I have with FUT surgery?

Since the FUT scar is a linear scar, so even these kinds of hair style can cover up the the scar.

With FUE surgery, thousand of small hypo-pigmentation scars will show.

Cutting Grafts Under the Stereoscope

As part of our dedication to excellent quality hair transplants, NHT Medical Center uses the latest state-of-the-art MANTIS stereoscopes, which provide our skilled surgical technicians with detailed visibility when cutting the grafts. This follicular removal technique provides the greatest number of grafts, as well as the least damage to the hair.

Why we don’t offer FUE procedure?

Why we don’t offer FUE procedure?

Because we don’t think it’s your best interest!

Don’t listen to what people tell you! Take sometime, do your study seriously, ask questions, use your own intelligent and make your own decision.

Differences between FUT and FUE:

The only different between FUT and FUE is donor harvesting.

FUT uses blade and FUE uses punch. The recipient site transplant are completely the same.

Different tool used produced different result!

Comparison	FUE	FUT
Is it the latest technique?	no, it is the oldest punch graft but change the size of punch
Tool	punch	blade
Donor harvesting	blind	under direct microscopy vision
Wound treatment	leave open	closed
Scar	thousand of small punch scars	one linear scar
Scar distribution (in same length)	5 to 6 times wider	one line only
Total Scar Size	10 times bigger
Scar long term effect	permanent	permanent
For keloid patient	disaster-hard to treat thousand keloids	easier- only one scar to treat
Quality of graft	defect graft (no tissue around follicle)	intact graft (come with tissue around follicle)
Growth rate of transplantation	61.40%	86%	Read Dr.Beehner's study
Impact to 2nd surgery	huge-scar tissues change the hair direction	minimum- can use different donor area
Length of hair need to cover up the scar	1 cm	2 cm
Hairstyle options such as marine cut	no	yes
Price	Double

Why most surgeons prefer FUE?

  

FUE: need only one technician

FUT: need 3-4 technicians

Some surgeons do everything by themselves without hiring any assistance to save on business costs. It is for their own best interest, not yours.

In addition to the overhead expense, the surgery fee is double for the FUE technique. The incentive using FUE for physicians are simply irresistible. Especially for new physician who’s just starting his practice with only 3 to 5 surgeries a month. It’s difficult to start a business when you need to hire 3 to 4 technicians to assist.

ISHRS Warning

Learn from one hair transplant surgeon’s own experience.

FUT surgery-donor site with suturing

Photos taken immediately after donor removal and suturing




Immediately after FUT surgery, no sign of surgery visible from donor site.

Dr. M Beehner’s Study about FUE and FUT

Below is  Dr. M Beehner’s  (3560 hairs/ follicles) study which was presented at the ISHRS annual meeting on Sep 2015.

Please see the two photos. The only difference is the FUT grafts have tissue around its follicles and the FUE grafts have no tissue. 

FUE is a blind procedure, the deeper the cutting, the more chance of dissection of the follicles. The standard method is to blindly punch through the skin then use a strong forcep to pull them out. This is the reason why there are no tissues are around the follicle level and the follicle is left exposed with no protection.

The impact to survival rate is 10-14 months after surgery- 

FUT 86% survival rate (765/890) vs FUE 61.4% survival rate ( 547/890).

The difference is 24.6 %.

We all know donor hair is limited, our worst nightmare is that we might run out of it someday .
Remaining concerns are, what’s the impact to the transplanted hair quality and the life of it? So far no one has done this study.    

FUT Scar

Our FUT Scars

FUE Scars

FUE don’t produce linear scar but create thousand of punch scars. To transplant same amount of hair, the scar of FUE will be 10 time more than FUT because FUE wounds are leaved open, so they will keep the same size but FUT wound are closed and almost of the time it will be reduced to 10% or less.  







More about FUE Scars

Photos taken immediately after FUE surgery

Photos taken immediately after FUE surgery.

For FUE, hair at donor site will be shaved completely for FUE procedure. The punch scars is over the safety zone. There are no way the hypopigmentation scar will be covered by donor hair completely in the future.