FUE OR FUT · FUT

FUT hair transplant: the strip method, and what it really costs

Strip surgery takes a thin band of scalp from the back of your head, closes the gap, and divides the band into grafts under microscopes. It was the standard operation from the mid-1990s. It lost that place without ever losing a trial.

40–100%

What strip surgery costs as a share of the same clinic’s FUE price, at all 10 clinics we found that print both. Never more.

Randomised trials against FUE0None in PubMed so much as mentions both techniques.

Largest strip-scar study88 peopleMeasured at ten months. The FUE equivalent: 5 people, at one month.

Raised scarring, worst reported15.1%The commonest donor-site problem after strip surgery, in a Harvard and Johns Hopkins review.

Prices read from each clinic’s own website in October 2026, and compared only with that same clinic’s FUE price — so no currency or billing unit is ever converted.

01 — WHERE THIS LEAVES YOU

Cheaper, better measured, and offered less

Whether strip grafts survive better than FUE has been tested on 7 people, with opposite results. FUE or FUT →
FUE is sold under four brand names. Most of what is claimed for them does not hold. FUE and its brand names →
Who may make the incision depends on the country, not the technique. Who may operate →
The whole operation costs $525 in one country and $14,000 in another. Hair transplant cost →

02 — THE OPERATION

One cut, closed, then divided under a microscope

The surgeon removes a strip from the back of your head, where hair is least likely to thin, and stitches the edges together. A team then cuts the strip into grafts under magnification, one at a time.

That is the one difference nobody disputes. With FUE the punch goes in from above and each graft is cut below the surface, out of sight. With a strip, every graft is cut where someone can see it.

03 — THE SCAR

The scar that has actually been measured

A strip scar is one line, and it has been measured — in 88 patients at a Seoul clinic, and 30 at a Bangalore teaching hospital. Its width grows with how wide a strip is taken and how loose your scalp is.

The FUE alternative, hundreds of small round scars, has been measured in five patients, at one month. The technique sold on its scarring is the one whose scar has barely been looked at.

How many people each scar has been measured in

Strip scar88at ten months, 2017 · and 30 more in 2013

FUE dot scars5at one month, 2019

Both kinds of scar have been measured. One far more than the other — and never in the same patients.

04 — WHAT IT COSTS

The same or less, everywhere we looked

Where one clinic prints both prices, strip surgery is never the dearer one. In San Antonio it runs a dollar or two a graft below FUE. In Seoul, where clinics must publish their fees, it can be less than half.

A Hyderabad clinic prints one range for both. Not one clinic we found charges more for the strip.

Strip, as a share of the same clinic’s FUE price

Seoul · per hair, at 5,000 hairs: 1,760 won against 4,400 won40%

Seoul · per hair: 1,650 won against 3,000 won55%

India, several cities · per graft, from: ₹50 against ₹7071%

Chiang Mai · per graft: US$2.25 against US$375%

San Antonio · per graft, over 1,500: US$5.5 against US$779%

San Antonio · per graft, under 500: US$10 against US$1283%

Winston-Salem · per graft, from: US$5 against US$683%

Seoul · for 3,000 hairs: 7.7m won against 9.2m won84%

Bellevue · per graft: US$4.5 against US$590%

Hyderabad · per graft, one range for both: ₹35 against ₹35100%

10 clinics, each compared only with itself. The line is the clinic’s own FUE price; no bar crosses it.

05 — WHAT WOULD SETTLE IT

Three measurements nobody has taken properly

The trial that would answer this is not hard to design. Split each scalp, as both small studies did. Do it on enough people, chosen at random. Then measure three things.

How much hair grows from each side. How many grafts are damaged on the way out, counted the same way. How much scar each leaves, in the same people.

Nobody ran the comparison. Everybody sells the answer.

What the trial would measure

01How much hair grows from each side7 people, not randomised, two opposite answers
02How many grafts are damaged on the way outNo study found that counts it under both methods
03How much scar each leavesNever in the same people — 88 measured for strip, 5 for FUE

06 — QUESTIONS

What people ask

Is FUT cheaper than FUE?

At every one of the 10 clinics we found that print both prices, strip surgery costs the same as FUE or less — between 40% and 100% of that clinic's own FUE price.

How big is the FUT scar?

It is a single line across the back of the head. Its width has been measured in studies of 88 and 30 patients, and it grows with the width of the strip taken and how loose the scalp is.

Does FUT give better graft survival than FUE?

The one study that found a large difference favoured strip surgery: 86% of strip-harvested grafts grew, against 61.4% of FUE grafts. The other found about 1% more FUE grafts grew. Together they cover 7 patients, which is too few to settle anything.

What are the risks of FUT?

A 2025 Harvard and Johns Hopkins review found raised or keloid scarring at the donor site after strip surgery in up to 15.1% of patients — the commonest donor-site problem it recorded.

Is FUT still done?

Yes, though less often. The authors of a 2018 study noted that many surgeons have stopped offering it and that most new surgeons learn only FUE.

07 — THE REST OF THE REPORTING

FUE or FUTWhich keeps more hair — and why nobody knowsREAD →FUEOne operation, sold under four namesREAD →Hair transplant costSeven countries, priced and sourcedREAD →

Get your own number before you ask for a quote

Every price on this page is a rate. What you actually pay is that rate multiplied by how much work you need — and right now the only person estimating that is the clinic selling you the work. hairtrack measures visible scalp zone by zone from your own photographs, so you walk into the consultation already knowing.

One email when we open. Maybe a couple more in case we land in your promos folder.

08 — REFERENCES