What Is The Difference Between The Woods Technique and An FUE Hair Transplant? - Part Two

Written by admin on July 6, 2008

This question was originally answered by Dr. Bradley Wolf on April 8, 2008. Below are Dr. Alan Feller’s comments for this same question.

To date, all FUE is essentially the same. That is, the follicular bundle is first targeted. Then the doctor scores around it with a punch or punch like tool. Then a forcepts is used to grab and pull the graft free of the lower layers of tissue that anchor it in. In theory, that would be it and all would be well. However, reality places certain limitations and obstacles in our way.

No matter which “form” of technique used, the current day FUE practitioner must subject his FUE grafts to THREE major detrimental forces:
1: Torsion (twisting)
2. Compression (Squeezing)
3. Traction (pulling)

If not for these three destructive forces, FUE would have replaced strip surgery as the mainstream method of surgical hair restoration in 2002. As it is, however, none of these harmful forces are present during strip surgery and so this method maintains it’s supreme dominance and remains firmly intrenched as the industry standard.

Nevertheless, I believe the future of FUE is still glaringly bright. As more and more doctors start incorporating FUE into their practices for non-megasession procedures its credibility continues to grow. Indeed, FUE has already found its rightful place in the pantheon of accepted medical procedures.
As the poplularity and demand for FUE grows, research and development will follow, and the revolutionary changes required to launch FUE into the mainstream will be invented.

Dr. Alan Feller
Member, International Alliance of Hair Restoration Surgeons
Member, American Hair Loss Association