Step-by-Step Surgery Process: An Illustrative Guide

This guide walks you through each stage of NHT's FUT 2.0 procedure using original illustrations to make the surgical process clear and approachable. Every step reflects the precision and attention to detail that defines NHT's approach to natural-looking, lasting hair restoration.

1 Donor Site Harvesting

A strip of scalp is surgically removed from the back and sides of the head in an area known as the "safe zone"—where hair is genetically resistant to balding. The donor site is closed with sutures or staples.

2 Microscopic Dissection

Skilled technicians use stereo microscopes to carefully dissect the strip into individual follicular units (naturally occurring groups of 1-4 hairs).

3 Graft Preparation & Sorting

Grafts are sorted by size: single hairs for the hairline, 2-3 hair units for mid-scalp, and larger units for maximum density in the crown.

4 Recipient Site Creation & Transplantation

Tiny recipient sites are created and grafts are implanted with precise attention to angle, direction, and density to match natural hair flow patterns.

Step 1: Donor Site Harvesting

Donor Site Preparation

We shave about 1/2 an inch for donor harvesting. Leave your hair at least 1 inch long to cover up the suture site immediately after surgery, don’t cut your hair too short or you will have a problem covering the incision line right after the surgery.

Harvesting the Donor Area & Suturing

We pride ourselves on using our proprietary “Twilight State Anesthesia” technique to provide our patients with the safest and most comfortable procedure. We have the patient in the sitting position during donor harvesting. Then we close the donor site with a suture.

Step 2: Microscopic Dissection

Donor Strips

The hair grows in groups. It may yield one to four hairs. These groups are called follicular units. A single follicular unit will contain 1 to 4 hairs. If a patient has a lot of hair then they will have a lot of 3 to 4 hair follicular units. If a patient has very thin hair, typically this patient will have 1 or 2 follicular units.

Hair grows for three to five years then it will shed. After three to five months it will regrow again. During this period we can’t see the hair by just looking at it. When the strip is removed, then we are able to see the follicles. These are the small dots in the tissue. This is about 10 to 15 percent of the total hair. So if the grafts were cut too small, a lot of the hair follicles will be removed. This is why we will use bi-follicular units often to yield as much hair as possible.

Caucasian Patient’s Donor Strips: High density, but finer hair.

Cutting Under the Stereoscope

NHT Medical Center uses the latest state-of-the-art, MANTIS stereoscopes. These stereoscopes provide our skilled surgical technicians with detailed visibility when cutting the grafts. This follicular dissection technique provides the greatest quality of grafts, as well as prevents the least damage to the hairs.
Our surgical team has one surgeon and four technicians. Other hair transplant clinics typically only have 2 to 3 technicians.

Asian Patient’s Donor Strip: Coarser hair, but lower density.

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Step 3: Graft Preparation & Sorting

Graft Sizes

We use three types of grafts.

1 to 2 hair Single follicular unit
2 to 3 hair Single follicular unit
3 to 4 hair Bi-follicular unit

The surgical technicians divide the donor strip into three sizes of grafts.

A combination of each of these types of grafts will provide a natural and dense-looking result.

Step 4: Recipient Site Creation & Transplantion

Making the Slits

For the Hairline and Frontal Area

There are two different types of slits, horizontal and vertical.

The horizontal slits are made for one or two hair grafts. This creates a softer and more natural hairline.
The next three rows of vertical slits are for 2 to 3 hair grafts. Then behind those rows, there will be 3 to 4 hair grafts to create the thickness and dense part of the hairline.

For the Vertex

The cowlick/vertex area is the center where the slits will be made by the surgeon in a circular/spiral direction. All the silts are made for 3 to 4 hair grafts.

Graft Implantation

Depending on the size of the coverage area, two to three surgical technicians implant the grafts. The technicians use micro forceps to pick up the grafts and insert them into the pre-cut slits. The direction of the slit is decided and created by the surgeon.

Immediately After the Surgery

Immediately after the surgery, the patient will have to wear a bandage over his/her head to provide pressure to the donor incision site. Patients can wear a hat to cover up the bandage.
After 24 hours, the patient may remove the bandage themselves.

Undetectable Donor Area Scar

The surgical technique to reduce the appearance of the donor scar has improved remarkably in recent years.
A lot of patients will have nearly invisible donor scar results, as the photos show below.

Each person’s skin is different, so we can’t guarantee that each individual’s results will be perfect.