INDICATIONS :
- Men : Alopecia : androgenetic, cicatricial
- Women : Alopecia : androgenetic (if healthy donor area), traction, cicatricial, some effluviums
- All types of hair, including frizzy and curly afro-carribean hair
- From 25 years of age
- Densification of thinning hair, restoration of bald areas
- Restoration of beard, mustache, eyebrows, eyelashes
- Patients whose scalp elasticity is sufficient for excision / cicatrization, and with enough hair density.
ADVANTAGES :
- faster and slightly less expensive than FUE.
- good productivity (large number of grafts even in case of a limited donor area, high survival rate of grafts).
- shaving is limited to the strip area, and the remaining hair (at normal hair cut, at least 1 cm long) easily covers the sutured wound, therefore making the procedure unoticed by patient's relatives, or friends, or work colleagues.
- easier than FUE for men and women with frizzy hair (afro american type), because the hair root beneath the skin is also curved, making it more difficult to extract with the FUE technique (but not impossible..).
DISADVANTAGES :
- the removal of the strip is an invasive surgical procedure (cutting of skin, nerve and vessel section), which carries risks of postoperative pain, or complications (edema, dysesthesia, neuromas, local loss of sensitivity...). During 30 days after procedure, patient cannot do any sport or movements involving head flexion..
- presence of a permanent linear scar (usually a thin scar 0-2 mm wide, but under adverse conditions, it can be a large scar, thick and painful ..), which can stretch out over time, and which can be visible when wearing short hair.
- for mega / giga sessions, often needed to excise more than one strip (or a large one)...
- Requires a skilled medical team, with numerous assistants.
INDICATIVE COST : Between € 1,5 and € 4 per graft, according to number of grafts and depending on clinic's pricing policy.
