FUE - Follicular Unit Extraction Ireland

Elite Follicular Unit Extraction (EFUE) is a hair transplant technique. It is one of the most advanced and effective methods of hair grafting, it uses a small round punch to extract a follicle and its adjoining hairs from an area of dense hair (donor site) to implant into a balding area (recipient site). The specialised punch remove the hair follicle from the skin without causing damage. The little round scars left at the donor site heal quickly and are for the most part hidden in the more abundant hair growing at the site.

In the FUT hair transplant method, Dr. Nel will remove a strip of tissue from the donor area, as opposed to harvesting individual grafts one at a time as with FUE. The patient’s scalp is anaesthetised and the strip of tissue is taken from the donor area at the back of the head (safe donor area), where the hair grows abundantly. Then the Surgeon and the surgical team will carefully dissect the strip, using microscopic dissection techniques, into individual follicular units. These prepared follicular units are then implanted into the tiny holes the doctor has made in the recipient area. FUT Technique and Trichophytic ClosureWhen Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT) is performed, it leaves a linear scar in the area the surgeon removed the strip of tissue. Up to recently this was one of patients’ primary concerns with FUT; but Trichophytic Closure is a technique used by the surgeon to make the scar almost invisible.  It’s a technique that leaves a far finer scar than previous techniques and gives a better cosmetic outcome for the patient, especially when they are wearing their hair cut very short after the procedure. Trichophytic closure involves the surgeon bringing together the edges of the wound, and overlapping them as he sutures them together. He cuts one side of the skin at an oblique angle (bevelling), and then brings the adjacent skin flaps together to close up the wound. Because of the angle at which the skin has been cut, the skin from both sides of the wound will then overlap. One piece of scalp tissue now lies underneath the other one, and within that skin lie hair follicles which then slowly grow through the tissue, effectively concealing the scar as it becomes integrated into the hair.

Eyebrow transplants restore eyebrows that are overly thin, scarred, or completely missing. This can occur due a number of reasons such as genetics, over plucking, hormonal abnormalities, or as a result of burns or accidents.   The same surgical techniques as hair transplantation are performed, by harvesting hair follicles from the donor area; usually at the back of the head at the lower hair margin or the margin close behind the ear, where the hair is finer. Dr. Andre Nel performs eyebrow transplants at Therapie Hair Restoration Clinic in Malahide, Dublin. He uses the FUT Strip surgery method to harvest a single strip of hair-bearing tissue from the back of the scalp. Single follicles are extracted and trimmed whilst retaining critical structures and are carefully transplanted into small incisions made along the pre-designed eyebrows. Typically the procedure involves the placement of 50 to as many as 325 follicles into each eyebrow, this depends upon the existing amount of hair and the desired size and density. Each follicle is individually placed; meticulously angled to mimic natural growth. The use of all-microscopically dissected grafts allows their placement into the smallest possible incisions so as to minimize scarring and damage to existing hairs.