Should Hair Transplant Surgeons “Split” Follicular Unit Grafts During Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT)?

This concern comes from a member of our [tag]Hair Restoration[/tag] Social Community and Discussion Forums:

I underwent [tag]follicular unit transplantation[/tag] ([tag]FUT[/tag]) several years ago and was not pleased with the results. After the procedure, I found out that the [tag]hair transplant surgeon[/tag] and staff split, or cut, the [tag]follicular units[/tag] down to a smaller size before implanting into the [tag]balding[/tag] scalp. What does this mean? Should [tag]hair restoration surgeon[/tag]s practice “[tag]graft[/tag] splitting ?” Could this have caused the sub-par results?

From what I can tell, many [tag]hair restoration clinic[/tag]s do participate in this practice. However, I don’t believe splitting grafts is inherently unethical, nor do I believe it creates a sub-par result if performed properly.

It seems as if practices split [tag]follicular unit grafts[/tag] when they need smaller, 1-2 (or singular) hair units for refined areas of the scalp, like the [tag]hairline[/tag]. The controversy surrounding [tag]graft splitting[/tag] arises when clinics allegedly split grafts simply to charge patients more money (based upon a pay-per-graft type scale). However, most of the information regarding this practice seems to come from anecdotal evidence via the internet, and it does not appear overtly common. If ethical hair transplant teams (surgeons and technicians) are splitting a small number of grafts carefully (under microscopic visualization) to create a greater number of [tag]singular unit grafts[/tag] for the hairline, there does not seem to be any issues involved with splitting follicular units.

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Blake Bloxham – formerly “Future_HT_Doc”

Editorial Assistant and Forum Co-Moderator for the Hair Transplant Network, the Hair Loss Learning Center, the Hair Loss Q&A Blog, and the Hair Restoration Forum

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