Pre-Op Anxiety

[Stig]

It's interesting that you call it the "dreaded" debate.

 

Yes, I mean to say that single hair grafts from FUE procedures are not as good quality as those from FUT. The reason is trauma. By being single follicular grafts they do not have as much tissue around them to protect them during the traumatic extraction process. Even if they appear intact they are mostly damaged when compared to their FUT counterparts which experience no such trauma at all.

 

There you go.

 

Sort of reminds of this. Just imagine that he is saying the word FUE instead of politician.

 

 

Edited February 2, 2016 by Stig

[harryforreal]

It's interesting that you call it the "dreaded" debate.

 

Hehe, yes, well I was seeking clarification as to the intent of your own words - which only you can provide and is not, generally speaking, debatable.

 

By being single follicular grafts they do not have as much tissue around them to protect them during the traumatic extraction process. Even if they appear intact they are mostly damaged when compared to their FUT counterparts which experience no such trauma at all.

 

Yes, I felt that this is what you meant, but wanted to make sure.

 

I understand that during FUT single hair grafts are manually "cut out" from a larger strip. FUE single haired grafts are individually extracted directly from the scalp.

 

Am I to understand that the amount of tissue surrounding a graft does not per se affect the quality of graft? That is, a single haired graft carefully cut out of a strip even if devoid of virtually all surrounding tissue may still be of better quality than an FUE single hair graft with considerable more surrounding tissue if the FUE graft experienced more trauma during the extraction process?

 

And what is the result of a damaged graft? It doesn't grow at all? Or the hair grows, but doesn't retain the same characteristic as before? If the latter, what characteristics do such damaged hair grafts display?

 

Thank you for responding!

[Dr. Alan Feller]

Hehe, yes, well I was seeking clarification as to the intent of your own words - which only you can provide and is not, generally speaking, debatable.

 

 

 

Yes, I felt that this is what you meant, but wanted to make sure.

 

I understand that during FUT single hair grafts are manually "cut out" from a larger strip. FUE single haired grafts are individually extracted directly from the scalp.

 

Am I to understand that the amount of tissue surrounding a graft does not per se affect the quality of graft? That is, a single haired graft carefully cut out of a strip even if devoid of virtually all surrounding tissue may still be of better quality than an FUE single hair graft with considerable more surrounding tissue if the FUE graft experienced more trauma during the extraction process?

 

And what is the result of a damaged graft? It doesn't grow at all? Or the hair grows, but doesn't retain the same characteristic as before? If the latter, what characteristics do such damaged hair grafts display?

 

Thank you for responding!

 

Yes, the amount of tissue surrounding the graft DOES affect the quality of the graft. A single hair graft devoid of virtually all surrounding tissue is a poor quality graft no matter which method is used. However, the super thin graft produced using FUE is a far inferior graft compared to the super thin graft produced using FUT.

 

A damaged graft will first and foremost simply not grow. Or, it may grow, but produce a hair with a thinner shaft. Or the hair may become kinky and thin, which means it will become incapable of picking up scalp oils giving it a dry or frizzy appearance.

[harryforreal]

A damaged graft will first and foremost simply not grow. Or, it may grow, but produce a hair with a thinner shaft. Or the hair may become kinky and thin, which means it will become incapable of picking up scalp oils giving it a dry or frizzy appearance.

 

That is a very interesting comment about picking up scalp oils, since one of the common complaints about hair transplants is that the hair looks kinky and frizzy. At the same time, if a hair passes through the scalp, even if it is kinky, should it not pick up the oils? I mean, if I pour some olive oil in a saucer and drag several different types of hair through the oil, will they not all pick up oil?

 

Also, and this is really a question I have wondered about, what about hairs that grow back thicker and darker?

 

Thank you very much for replying, Dr. Feller!

[Dr. Alan Feller]

That is a very interesting comment about picking up scalp oils, since one of the common complaints about hair transplants is that the hair looks kinky and frizzy. At the same time, if a hair passes through the scalp, even if it is kinky, should it not pick up the oils? I mean, if I pour some olive oil in a saucer and drag several different types of hair through the oil, will they not all pick up oil?

 

Also, and this is really a question I have wondered about, what about hairs that grow back thicker and darker?

 

Thank you very much for replying, Dr. Feller!

 

Thin immature hairs or hairs produced from injured follicles do not develop enough thickness in caliber to created deep enough pits to pick up the oil. So no, if you drag different types of hair through oil they will not all pick up oil equally because they don't have the absorbing ability that healthy hairs do. That is, hairs produced from healthy follicles.

 

I don't know about hairs that grow back thicker and darker. Thicker and darker than they were in the donor area?

[harryforreal]

I don't know about hairs that grow back thicker and darker. Thicker and darker than they were in the donor area?

 

Yes. Attached is a photo I made of a plucked transplanted hair of mine, the shorter hair - it is much darker and thicker. Next to it is a hair that I plucked from the middle of the back of my head for comparison (the long hair).

 

I have been trying to figure out why these transplanted hairs are thicker and darker. But as you can see, it is clearly the case.

[gillenator]

Hard to say if both hair shafts are terminal hair, one of them appears slightly lighter and thinner in diameter but that is not abnormal.

 

Donor hair is usually harvested from the occipital zone where the hair is usually non receptive to DHT and why it can appear thicker and darker.

[harryforreal]

The transplanted hair is thicker and darker than any native hairs I have - that is why I plucked the long hair from the middle of the back of my head for comparison, where presumably native hairs would be their thickest and darkest.