What Are Follicular Units?
Follicular Unit Transplantation New York, New Jersey, Boston
Follicular units are the natural groupings in which hair grows, usually made up of 1 to 4 hairs. As you can see from this magnified photo of a patient's donor area, there are distinct bundles of single, double, and triple units. Each unit shares the same blood supply, and the integrity of the unit is preserved in the transplantation process. Because of this elemental concept, nothing of an artificial nature is ever transplanted because these groupings naturally exist. This allows us to achieve our goal of producing consistently natural-looking results for patients who undergo follicular unit transplantation at our New York, New Jersey, and Boston offices.
Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) is regarded as the state of the art in hair transplantation techniques. Having performed thousands of strip FUT procedures, our doctors have perfected the process and made follicular hair transplantation results highly predictable. Essentially, FUT involves transplanting a patient’s natural hair into the follicular units of balding areas.
Donor Area Magnified
Follicular Unit Grafts Microscopically Cut and Ready to Place
Follicular Unit Transplantation Process
During FUT, your True & Dorin doctor will carefully excise a strip of skin from the donor area, suture the edges back together, and create individual grafts with microscopes. With this technique, the number of grafts transplanted will equal the number of follicular units that are present in the donor strip being harvested. Patients who undergo FUT generally experience only mild to moderate pain, which can be easily controlled by prescription medications over a one to three day period. The ideal intervals between treatments for FUT are well established at 10 to 12 months.
Recovery
With this means of transplantation, only the area of the donor strip is shaved. Thus, when follicular unit transplantation patients walk out of the office in New York, New Jersey, or Boston, the donor area does not show evidence of treatment. If their treatment is small enough to be covered by existing hair, they can often go about in public immediately without detectable evidence of treatment.
For patients who are experiencing more extensive balding, the new transplants will show for about 10 days, requiring most patients to take time off to keep others from knowing they have had treatment (unless they can wear a hat, work alone, or simply not care that others know they had treatment).
Results
Some early advocates of follicular unit extraction (FUE), an alternative method, have oversensationalized the risk of wide donor scars with FUT strip harvesting. The examples they present are not something we have ever seen with our strip technique. Patients considering FUT with strip harvesting at our clinic should rest assured; we will be careful to ensure that they have only a very thin scar.
Learn More about Hair Transplant
Dr. Robert True and Dr. Robert Dorin have the skill needed to achieve excellent results with follicular unit transplantation. During a consultation at our New York, New Jersey, or Boston offices, a True & Dorin specialist will gladly answer any of your questions about follicular units and more. Please contact us to for further information.