FUT is currently the gold standard of surgical hair restoration. FUE is different from it only in the manner of harvesting. In the former, as strip of skin as wide as 2 cm at times and as long as the number of grafts needed is take whereas in the latter minute punches are used to individually extract follicles either manually or mechanically and with or without the assistance of a robot.
The main differences between FUE and FUT are five-fold-
- There are great FUT scars and there are great FUE scars but in general, and having performed both procedures passionately, there is no beating an FUE scar in experienced hands.
- Due to its minimally invasive nature, the recovery after FUE is faster and downtime lesser.
- Anagen Selective Harvest or the “Golden Harvest” permits the surgeon to cherry pick the most robust grafts for a better result.
- The donor site is limitless- restricted only by the bounds of one’s imagination.
- Dormant hair in the resting phase are lost in FUT. This akin to shaking a fruit laden apple tree. All apples fall off, whether ripe or raw. However if we pick the ripe ones with due care, the raw ones will bear fruit with time and not be wasted like in shaking the tree violently.
The above 5 have no place of rebuttal by even the most die-hard FUT surgeon. This is the reason only these differences have been stated. All other stated advantages of FUE over FUT are fictional and market driven.
