Good4Utah Extra with Nicea Degering & Dr. Scott Thompson, Utah Facial Plastic Surgeon and Hair Transplant Specialist discussing the top hair transplant surgery techniques today.
Nicea: Dr. Scott Thompson is joinging me now from Utah Facial Plastics and we’re talking about top hair transplant surgery techniques. And there are really two main ones, correct Dr. Thompson?
Dr. Thompson: That’s correct. There’s a more traditional technique called FUT, or “strip”, where we remove a strip of hair from the back of the head and cut it up to obtain the follicles that are transplanted. And that’s a great technique but it does leave a scar on the back of the head. The other technique is called FUE, follicular unit extraction, where we actually remove each hair follicle individually in kind of a scattered checkerboard pattern and then move them to the front.
Nicea: How popular or successful are either one?
Dr. Thompson: They are both great techniques. It kind of depends on what the patient is looking for. For someone who cuts their hair really short, you might not want that linear scar so FUE (with NeoGraft) may be better. And sometimes we can get more grafts from the strip method, which is why we evaluate each person individually.
Nicea: Is there an idea candidate out there for FUT or FUE or both?
Dr. Thompson: I think anyone is a candidate for a discussion. Now if your 22 years old and you’ve lost all your hair you’re probably not a good candidate for hair transplant surgery because you probably don’t have a lot of donor material. Then if your thinning and your only 25, we kind of want to see what is happening. You only have a certain amount of hair back there that can be used so we have to be judicious in how we do that.
Nicea: Are the results permanent?
Dr. Thompson: Yes, the results are permanent. Now you’ll continue to lose the hair up here that you’re losing already. There are medications that help slow that down but typically, the hair that’s moved from the back to the front doesn’t go away.
Nicea: So frustrating for so many Americans….56 million deal with hair loss. If you have questions about either procedure, this is such a great place, Dr. Scott Thompson, to go to. Please go to Good4Utah.com/extra for all the details.