Surgical Hair Transplants
Surgical Hair Restoration
Micro-Follicular Hair Transplantation
FREEDOMclinic is proud to offer effective modern hair transplanting techniques. On this page, you find details on how these techniques work, why they are used, and how they may work for you.
Although these techniques are known now throughout the world and considered to be the “Gold Standard” for hair transplantation, not all clinics and doctors use them. Why? The reason is simple: using the most advanced techniques is not as profitable for the doctor, and requires teams of highly skilled technicians of whom some doctors may not have access.
So how do you know if you are getting the best possible results from your surgery? The information below will be your guide. We also encourage you to contact us for a free educational and evaluative consultation with our certified patient education specialist. They will be able to answer all of your questions, and show you how the latest techniques in hair transplantation can benefit you.
FUT – Follicular Unit
Hair Transplantation
Scalp hair grows in tiny bundles or groups known as “follicular units”. During a hair transplant, a “donor strip” of scalp should be excised from the healthy hair at the back and sides of the scalp. This “donor strip” should then be separated into its naturally growing follicular units with the aid of binocular stereoscopic microscopes. These units are called follicular unit grafts.
The use of “mini grafts”, which are grafts containing more than one follicular unit, is now considered obsolete by modern standards of hair transplantation. There are several reasons for this: mini-grafts are usually prepared with insufficient magnification, which commonly leads to poor dissection, and even destruction of grafts, causing lower survival rates of the hair, and thus inferior results. This is very important when considering that the amount of hair available for a hair transplant is limited by your donor area.
Also, because mini-grafts are larger than follicular unit grafts, they require more space to regrow, and cannot be placed close enough together to achieve a natural looking density. This leads to extra transplant procedures, which may not be required with FUT.
FUT overcomes these issues because it ensures both a natural result and excellent regrowth. Typically, 100% of our grafts will regrow. Grafts should also contain a sufficient amount of tissue surrounding the hairs. This protects the hair follicles during surgery and preserves the follicles’ vital organs, ensuring high regrowth rates.
FUE – Follicular Unit Extraction
“Follicular unit extraction” refers to the practice of removing follicular units individually from the patient’s donor area. In this case, the harvesting of a “strip” is not required. FU’s can be harvested manually, or in some cases by machine. Most doctors still prefer the manual method, as the machine provides no real advantage.
Since a strip is not removed, the linear scar associated with hair transplants is avoided. The scars left from the removal of individual grafts are small and are usually invisible under very short hair.
The disadvantage of FUE is that it is more time consuming than FUT. Additionally, the cost is typically higher.
DENSE PACKING – FUT
Dense Packing refers to the practice of placing follicular unit grafts as closely together as possible. In order to pack grafts and ensure optimal regrowth, grafts must be extracted using strip harvesting, and prepared via microscopic dissection. The benefit of this technique is that it allows for a cosmetically acceptable density of hair to be achieved in just one session. This is important because patients are often more satisfied with the results after just one session of hair transplantation, rather than the 3 or 4 required with older techniques. Fewer sessions mean less “down time” from work and family, faster cosmetic results, and less cost overall.
Microscopic Follicular Enumeration – MFE
One of the most important questions you’ll need to ask when considering a hair transplant is, “am I a good candidate?” It’s easy for someone to tell you that you have a “good donor area”, without being specific. Most doctors will tell you that they don’t know how much hair you will receive until after the surgery. By that time, it’s too late to decide if surgery, or a particular doctor, is right for you.
There are 2 reasons for this. Firstly, most doctors have no way to accurately assess your donor area and the actual number of hairs it contains. The second reason is that many doctors don’t want you to know how many grafts you will receive, because this allows you to shop around for the best value.
FREEDOMclinic has developed a way to answer that question accurately. Using a technique called MFE, we can predict how many grafts and hairs you will receive from your transplant. Test results show accuracy within 3%, in most cases.
We also verify the number of grafts that are actually transplanted during your surgery. If for any reason you don’t receive the predicted number of grafts, you will receive an appropriate credit.
Using MFE we can also analyze the thickness of your hair shafts, which helps us predict how thick your hair will look once it regrows. All of these factors are extremely important when considering a hair transplant since it eliminates the guesswork and allows us to give you a much better idea of how your hair will look.
Hair density, hair thickness, and the number of grafts will all affect the result of your hair transplant. MFE guarantees that you are getting a good value for your money, because you will know ahead of time what you will receive, and you will only pay for what you receive.
MFE is available exclusively through FREEDOMclinic at no extra charge. Ask your consultant for details.
THE NEXT STEP: CALL US TO DISCUSS YOUR OPTIONS
Calling us, or completing our online consultation, will offer preliminary answers to your questions. Our ability to provide you with the most advanced and proven methods of both surgical and non-surgical hair replacement gives you a distinct advantage. At FREEDOMclinic, you get the detailed information for all of your options in one place.
Few clinics can make these claims: they either don’t have the medical background, or they don’t have the non-medical background. At FREEDOMclinic, we have the answers, and the solutions, that you need.