Follicular Unit Transplant (FUT) Specialist
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Hair Doc
Board Certified Dermatologists & Hair Transplant Specialists located in Cow Hollow, San Francisco, CA
Follicular unit transplantation (FUT) harvests many hair follicles at one time, which can fill in balding or thinning areas of your scalp. At Hair Doc in Cow Hollow, San Francisco, California, board-certified dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon, Peter Panagotacos, MD, carefully performs FUT to treat androgenetic alopecia. To find out if you’re a good candidate for FUT and compare it to other treatments, request an appointment over the phone at Hair Doc or book online today.
Follicular Unit Transplant (FUT) Q & A
What is follicular unit transplantation (FUT)?
Follicular unit transplantation (FUT) is a hair restoration surgery that moves healthy hair from one area of your head to another. During the procedure at Hair Doc, Dr. Panagotacos and Dr. Chen surgically cut a strip of skin from the back of your head and extract the hair follicles from it. The size of the strip depends on the number of follicles you need to fill in the balding or thinning area.
Dr. Panagotacos and Dr. Chen use a marker to redraw your ideal hairline before the surgery. He then injects local anesthesia and may offer a sedative to calm you down. He trims the hair from the donor area to be about two millimeters long, then cuts the graft. He closes the open donor area with sutures.
After removing individual follicles from the strip, Dr. Panagotacos and Dr. Chen implant the follicles within the guide he drew for your hairline. The new hair pattern should look natural once it heals.
Am I a good candidate for follicular unit transplantation?
Before you get follicular unit transplantation or any other hair restoration surgery or procedure, you have a consultation with Dr. Panagotacos and Dr. Chen to discuss all of your treatment options. They consider the type of hair loss you have, how much healthy hair you still have, and your medical history before making recommendations.
Dr. Panagotacos and Dr. Chen might determine that you’re a good candidate for FUT if you:
- Are over 25
- Have androgenetic alopecia
- Have a high hair follicle density
- Are balding toward the front of your head
- Don’t have much color contrast between your hair and skin
If you’re not a candidate for FUT for any reason, Dr. Panagotacos and Dr. Chen can direct you to plenty of other hair loss treatment options with high rates of success, including medications, topical products, follicular unit extraction (FUE), and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections.
What’s the difference between follicular unit transplantation and FUE?
FUT and FUE are very similar procedures and accomplish the same goals. However, they’re not exactly the same, and there are some differences to consider. While FUT requires the removal of a strip of skin, FUE does not. Instead, Dr. Panagotacos and Dr. Chen remove and place the individual follicular units using the highly precise ARTAS® iX robotic hair transplant system.
There are advantages to both procedures. FUT may be the better option for you if you need a large number of transplanted follicles to cover the balding or thinning area, and it usually doesn’t take as long to perform as FUE.
Follicular unit transplantation lets you transplant many healthy follicles into an area where your hair is falling out or getting thinner. Call Hair Doc to request an appointment or book online today.
