Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) was widely used from the 1990’s onwards, and is still commonly used today. Often referred to as the strip method or sometimes Follicular Unit Strip Surgery (FUSS), FUT surgery costs less per graft than FUE and generally has higher long term retention rates after healing.
The major downside of FUT is that the procedure creates more significant scars that are often harder to conceal. Seen as a line at the back of the head, sometimes extending from ear to ear, although recipients of multiple FUT procedures will sometimes have donor sites at the sides of the back of the head. Cheaper FUT procedures with less experienced or high volume physicians often result in worse scarring as less care is taken on the incision and the closure.
Concealment methods vary depending on the nature of the scar. Revision surgery is becoming more common, and often the scar is removed anyway if the recipient has further hair transplant surgery later on. Sometimes patients will have FUE into the scar or choose scalp micropigmentation to conceal it. Fraxel and Vbeam can also be useful in some cases.
