Should I Have A Strip Hair Transplant First?
I am a twenty-seven year old male, and I have been suffering with hair loss since I was eighteen. Recently, I started researching hair transplants, but I have read conflicting information, which harvesting technique should I choose first strip surgery first?
To answer your question, we must ask you a question. What are your goals? If the goal is to maximize the donor capacity, then the answer should be yes. Why? Well, the simple reason is that FUT or strip surgery can safely harvest a more significant number of grafts. However, if the goal is to maintain a short hairstyle, the answer is no.
Combine FUT and FUE To Maximize Your Donor Supply
That said, to properly maximize the donor supply, you must combine FUE and FUT. Combining both harvesting techniques maximizes the donor supply. Generally, surgeons suggest that you undergo FUT first. We will go over the reasons why below.
Surgeons can pick and chose which follicular units they want to extract with FUE. Therefore, the healthiest and most robust grafts are selected. Hair transplant grafts are hair-bearing tissue that contains hair follicles in groupings of one (1) hair, two (2) hair, three (3) hair, and even four (4) hair per unit. The grafts with the most hair are the most desirable.
Hair transplant surgeons cannot pick and choose the grafts with strip surgery. When patients elect FUE first, surgeons will have fewer grafts to excise through the strip method. For this reason, surgeons always refer patients to undergo FUT and then FUE.
Conclusion
In the past, surgeons who primarily perform strip have argued that strip surgery is the superior harvesting technique. Conversely, in recent years, there have been a lot of hair transplant surgeons who exclusively perform FUE, who claim the method is barbaric and outdated. So whose right? Well, neither. Both harvesting techniques have their place in the field of hair restoration, and there is no better technique, as each person is unique, and one method may be better for an individual than the other for various reasons.
