There’s a basic premise of a hair transplant: we take hair from one part of your body where you have plenty of hair and then move it to an area where you are lacking hair. This can be done in three different ways.

(Oh……….and once we take the hair from one area it doesn’t grow back in the old area)

1) Follicular Unit Transplantation (aka Strip Hair Transplant)

This is the original method of doing a hair transplant and is still done today for specific patients. The procedure involves making an incision in the safe zone of the donor area on the back of the scalp and then removing a long strip of tissue that contains the hair follicles that we plan to process. These sorted and processed grafts are then transplanted to your scalp where more hair is needed. This method has it’s pro’s and con’s:

Benefits of Strip Hair Transplants

• This procedure is great for people that don’t have a wide donor area available. It helps to preserve the donor area as the scar is limited to a small area and very few hairs outside the donor strip are affected.

• If you need a large number of grafts to get a good result, then the strip procedure is a good option for you as well. The reason this works so well is because the strip procedure allows us to get a larger number of grafts in a smaller area. It also allows us to come back to that area and do another strip procedure later on to obtain more grafts in a smaller area if a second procedure is needed. In the long run it helps preserve your donor area for future use. Once you have had multiple strip procedures you can switch to FUE (Follicular Unit Extraction) and have even more grafts available to you.

Downside of Strip Hair Transplants

• The scar: Unfortunately with any hair transplant there is going to be a scar. But here’s the thing with the FUT scar: It doesn’t have to be noticeable. Dr Pearce uses a technique called Tricophytic closure to help the scar heal as well as possible and help it to hide itself as it heals. With this closure technique, the hairs near the scar grow up through the scar helping it to blend in and be less noticeable. However some people wear their hair very short and the FUT scar will then be visible.

• Longer recovery: The Strip Hair Transplant has a longer recovery compared to FUE. The reason being is that there is a full length incision across the back of the head that needs to heal and surgical incisions take a full 6 weeks to heal. Dr Pearce asks that his patients refrain from any strenuous activity or heavy lifting for about 4 to 5 weeks before getting back into regular exercise after a strip procedure. The sutures from the strip procedure are removed about 2 weeks after surgery and then need about another 4 weeks to completely heal.