Manual or Motorized FUE Hair Transplant?

Like most hair transplant patients, you did your due research on various follicular extraction techniques—and now you might be wondering which is the best method for follicular unit extraction.

There are two types of hair transplant extraction techniques: manual and motorized.

Manual extraction devices are generally considered the “original” FUE tool, namely because these were the devices first used in follicular unit extraction procedures. A manual FUE punch is metal, handheld instrument that affords a handle on one end and hollow, cylinder-shaped needle—a punch—on the other.

Many hair restoration experts report better feedback during the procedure, which makes for easier navigation around the follicular unit—meaning, the doctor will be able to feel the difference between the hair shaft and touching the surrounding connective tissue.

While doctors are able to readjust after enough practice, this touch sensitivity is significantly reduced when using a motorized punch.

One of the few hair transplant Turkey clinics, Dr. Selahattin Tulunay provides manual FUE hair transplant surgery and promises excellent results with this technique, due to its efficient and natural results.

Let’s take a closer look at what manual punch tool is and how it can help achieve successful results.

What’s a manual punch?

A manual punch is a cylindrical tool with a sharp edge device designed to drill the skin during a follicular unit extraction FUE hair transplant surgery.

A hair transplant specialist uses manual punch to rotate the punch back and forth between the thumb and forefinger while applying pressure to the donor area.

The sharp end of the punch is slipped over the hairs of the target follicular unit and the skin tissue is cut to a depth of 3.5 to 4mm- roughly the depth of an average human hair. Once the desired depth is reached, the graft is gently pulled using forceps.

What happens during a manual punch FUE hair transplant surgery?

During an follicular unit extraction FUE hair transplant surgery with the manual punch, a hair transplant physician locates a follicular unit graft for extraction, grips the manual punch tool by the handle, places the hollow needle around the follicle and pushes the tool into the scalp. This motion cuts the scalp around the follicular unit, and makes way for removal.

In order to achieve this, physician can use either blunt or sharp tipped tools—and can also choose from a variety of punch sizes.

After the scalp is punctured and the graft is ready for removal, hair transplant expert can further split the tissue surrounding the graft with a sharp tipped tool and then pull the graft from the scalp with forceps, or switch to a blunt tipped tool to help dissect the graft and prepare for forcep removal.

What are the benefits of a manual punch?

According to manual FUE tool evangelists, one major advantage includes greater handle to the hair restoration physician during extraction. This allows for a better feel and understanding of tissue resistance and the angle of the follicle.

Other benefits of manual punch in Turkey include a decrease in follicular damage related to heat, torsion and friction that can be caused by motorized devices.

Manual punch also provides a higher level of control during extraction—which includes control over the number of rotations per extraction.

Below are a number of benefits of manual punch FUE hair transplant, to name a few:

• Enhanced tactile feedback that makes for quick adjustments to compensate for and avoid transection.
• A smaller punch allows for more incisions to be made with less damage to the donor area.
• The incisions made through manual punch are significantly small, which reduces the risks of health complications and scar formation.

“Today manual punches are smaller than before. They used to be 4 millimeter. In comparison, the smallest punches used today are less than 1mm in diameter, which helps doctors provide efficient results, leaving patients happy and satisfied.” said Dr. Selahattin Tulunay.

Image credit: Internethaber