The Saratoga Hair Center at Williams

WHICH IS THE BETTER TRANSPLANT, FUE OR FUT?

Hair restoration and transplantation has come a long way in the last 20-30 years. In the 1970’s and 80’s, hair transplanting was in it’s infancy era where 4mm round plugs were the standard. Unfortunately, these round plugs were highly visible and left a negative impression in people’s minds regarding hair transplant procedures in general.

 The good news is that over the last 10 years, the methods and techniques of hair restoration have advanced significantly.  Today, skilled and experienced surgeons are using smaller, more natural looking grafts for restoration. The results of these smaller grafts, along with the evolution of follicular retrieval techniques have made hair transplantation more acceptable and attractive among hair loss sufferers.

 In order to keep up with the growing popularity of the hair transplantation procedures, technologies have been invented to do what the surgeon should actually be doing which is the graft retrieval process (extracting the hair follicles that will be transplanted). These robotic solutions that are offered in the marketplace leave clients wondering if they are worth the money, and more importantly, the result of their hair transplant.

 In general, there are 2 main types of hair transplantation, FUT (follicular unit transfer) and FUE (follicular unit extraction). Studies have been done to evaluate the follicular graft retention when retrieved manually by the hands of a skillful surgeon via the “strip method” (FUT) and by a robotic system (FUE) -where technicians use a device for graft retrieval.

 It was concluded that, in most instances, the Strip Method or (FUT) generated the most viable amount of grafts which affected the overall satisfaction results of the procedure.  Other benefits of the FUT method included less time for the procedure and a lower cost to the client. The study also included that 90+% of donor scars were difficult to detect when a highly experienced and skilled surgeon completed the procedure.

 The FUE method which is Follicular Unit Excision (pulling out follicular units one by one) is often done by traveling technicians using a device and this method showed a lower survival rate of hair follicles thus affecting the result of the transplant. More importantly, the use of technicians performing the excision of the grafts has actually been banned in several states due to inconsistent results and the potential dangers of allowing non-medical staff to perform invasive procedures.  The FUE method also takes much more time and is more expensive. At the Saratoga Hair Center, the FUE excision method is done only manually by our surgeons, not by gimmicky machines and not by technicians. The indications are firm and tailored to each individual to optimize results.

 What is marketed as the latest and greatest isn’t always the case.  Dr. Slaughter and Dr. Beehner have raised the bar in hair restoration by educating clients about what is true and what isn’t in hair transplantation. Thousands of clients over the last 30 years have put their trust in Dr. Beehner and Dr. Slaughter’s skilled hands and the thousands of before and after pictures will show you why.

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