FUE and FUT… what is the differnce? In hair transplant surgery the first step is obtaining the hair grafts that will be implanted.

FUE stands for follicular unit extraction, that is taking out one hair follicle at a time. By doing so there is minimal evidence of where the hair has been harvested from and is the preferred approach.

FUT stands for follicular unit transfer. while confusing to an average patient, the follicles are obtained by first cutting out a strip of scalp from the back of your head. These follicles are then dissected out from that strip. The disadvantage of this method is that there is a long linear scar on the back of your head. The number of grafts that can be obtained  is limited by the size of the strip that can be obtained. In most cases the size is no more than 12 cm by 1 cm. Given that there are approximately 100 follicles per square centimeter, the most number of grafts that can be obtained by strip harvesting is 1,200 follicles.

In FUE the entire back of your head is the donor area and harvesting 3,000 grafts is not uncommon. In short FUT is just simply another name for strip harvesting!!