Hair transplant is starting to become a more and more sought after procedure by both women and men. To respond to this increasing need for hair transplant, many hair clinics provide hair restoration and hair transplant services. Among these services, the FUE and FUT procedures are the most widely used hair transplant methods. Given that they are abbreviated very similarly, it is very easy to confuse them. Before you decide on getting a hair transplant, it is good to get some information about the advantages and disadvantages of each of these procedures.
FUE method
FUE stands for Follicular Unit Extraction and it is a widely used hair transplant procedure. During this procedure, individual follicular units containing 1-4 donor hairs are removed from the scalp via a micro incision. Following this, micro blades or fine needle-point instruments are used to prepare the sites for receiving the grafts. The density and hair pattern are predetermined and the grafts are placed in a way so they mimic natural hair growth patterns.
FUT aka Strip method
FUT stands for Follicular Unit Transplant, whereby natural occurring groups of hair are transplanted to the balding or bald areas of the patient’s scalp. The doctor harvests a strip of tissue from the donor area, which is then dissected via microscopic dissection techniques to obtain individual hair follicles.
The advantage of the FUE procedure compared to the FUT procedure is that FUE it is truly minimally invasive and the tiny wounds have a fast healing time and cause low post-operatory discomfort. The FUT-strip harvesting technique comes with a longer healing time (around 2 weeks) and the risk of the wounds widening in case of strenuous exercise, which is not good news for athletes or people who perform physical work. In addition, with the FUT procedure scarring is more visible, which is a particularly significant disadvantage for people who wear their hair short. However, the advantage of the FUT-strip harvesting is that it is less expensive for the patient and given that in this case hair follicles are harvested from an area with more permanent hair, FUT leads to a higher ratio of successfully transplanted follicles.
Robotic hair restoration
Another hair transplant method that is also gaining some ground in the hair transplant industry is Robotic Hair Restoration, which increases the speed of hair graft harvesting, but the expensive equipment leads to an increased cost of the procedure. Also, the size of the punches can be larger than those made by the FUE transplant procedure.
Hair transplant costs in the UK
The costs of hair transplant procedures in the UK depend on the type of transplant that you choose, as well as the number of hairs the procedure requires. Thus, an FUE transplant for example would be around £2.50 per hair and the cost of a procedure can go up to even £7,000. Many patients are opting to have their hair transplant procedure done abroad, where they can save 60-70% on the total cost of the procedure. The same high-quality hair transplant services that are available in the UK are also available abroad, but at a fraction of the cost.