sometimes its not better to start with fut to maximise graft count

[mr_peanutbutter]

i spoke to a respectable hairtransplant surgeon and he told me it can be better to start with fue first

 

for example:

 

-you receeded to norwood 2/3

- youre stable on meds now

- you want to do some minor hairline work with low graft count

- you still concerned meds will stop working and you have a high norwood family history so you really want to maximise lifetime graft count

 

 

in that case he recommends to start with fue bc even small fut affect the skin laxity in a bad way so starting fut first only makes sense when you already need a high graft count to transplant

 

mini fut are not recommended by him

 

thoughts?

[BurnieBurns]

Generally it’s thought fut first is better but it’s not essential. You can do fue first but you just run the very small risk of affecting the growth of surrounding hairs.

you’d be wise to consult with multiple surgeons to get a wide range of perspectives before choosing the one you feel most aligned with. 

[JoeD]

Related question that has been on my mind:
 

Let’s say one had a big FUT for the first transplant with ideal coverage of hairline and mid scalp and excellent healing of the scar. On the second procedure for crown, would it make sense to go FUE specifically because  multi hair, larger, thicker grafts can be preferentially taken? I would guess not much use for the fine singles in the crown? Whereas, if second one was a strip, would most certainly have mix of singles doubles, etc. 

[Z--]

I agree with your doctor, but that requires planning beforehand. I think it would be silly to get a scar for less than 2k FUT. 

FUE allows them to pick out the 1s to use on the hairline as well. For FUT, they’re limited by what the scar gives. So if you’re strictly looking at the front and it’s a smaller session, FUE is the way to go, imo. 

However, if the FUE is harvested from where the FUT would otherwise be harvested, you’d lose the benefit of doing FUT down the line, so it all depends on where the FUE grafts are taken. Best to utilize a doctor that is an expert in both if you are contemplating FUT down the line. 

[mr_peanutbutter]

8 hours ago, BurnieBurns said:

Generally it’s thought fut first is better but it’s not essential. You can do fue first but you just run the very small risk of affecting the growth of surrounding hairs.

you’d be wise to consult with multiple surgeons to get a wide range of perspectives before choosing the one you feel most aligned with. 

the thing is with one fut procedure the laxity of your scalp decreases which lowers the chances of a second succesful fut procedure

 

so in case you need only a small number of grafts fue is recommended first and fut later the road, simply bc the decrease in laxity would be more dramatic then the few missing grafts in the fut strip when fue is perfomed first

 

i find that interesting bc before that i read only that you should never do fue first bc it would decrease the strip graft numbers etc etc

 

 

[mr_peanutbutter]

4 hours ago, JoeD said:

Related question that has been on my mind:
 

Let’s say one had a big FUT for the first transplant with ideal coverage of hairline and mid scalp and excellent healing of the scar. On the second procedure for crown, would it make sense to go FUE specifically because  multi hair, larger, thicker grafts can be preferentially taken? I would guess not much use for the fine singles in the crown? Whereas, if second one was a strip, would most certainly have mix of singles doubles, etc. 

i think it would depend on your scalp laxity. scalp laxity is really the key

[mr_peanutbutter]

i find the approach here interesting

 

 

https://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/topic/63025-dr-marwan-saifi-wroclaw-2200-grafts-fue-22-feb-2022/

[mr_peanutbutter]

the benefit of FUT is that it allows you to move very large amounts of hair in one session, this works best when the scalp's laxity is virgin. Using up scalp laxity for a small fut session is a wrong strategy, FUE is much more suitable for such small sessions, also because it (in opposite to FUT) does not affect the laxity of the scalp, i.e. you can switch to FUT after FUE. If you compromise your scalp laxity for a small amount of grafts doing a MINI-FUT you risk not being a suitable candidate for FUT anymore (due to poor laxity) when you really need a high amount of grafts 

Edited May 3, 2023 by mr_peanutbutter