Question:
What is the difference between FUE and the strip method and what are their advantages and disadvantages?
Answer:
FUE stands for Follicular Unit Extraction. A follicular unit is a natural grouping of hair follicles made up of one to four hair shafts that exit the scalp. During FUE, a device that makes small “punches” in the scalp is used to remove each follicular unit individually at randomly spaced intervals. This means that if you are recommended to have 2000 grafts then you will end up with 2000 small “punch” scars spread throughout your scalp usually in the back of the head. This method also requires the head to be shaved very short. FUE, therefore, does not leave a single linear scar as is seen in linear strip harvesting. Linear strip harvesting is a different method of obtaining hair grafts in which a single strip of hair is removed. The donor site is then closed on itself to leave a single, fine linear scar in the back of the head. This method does not require the entire head to be shaved and the scar is well-hidden within the surrounding hair if the hair is kept long enough to do so (only ~3/4 to 1 inch length). With this method, the scar would be visible if the head were to be shaved very short.