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RO FUT means follicular unit transplantation, and its defining act is the strip. A narrow horizontal band of skin is taken from the back of the head, the edges are closed, and the band is carried to a bench where follicular units are separated out of it under magnification. The name describes the graft — a naturally occurring group of one to four hairs — not the harvesting method, which is why it is also called strip harvesting.
The closure is the part that determines the outcome. A line closed under tension widens as it heals; one closed with the skin edges relaxed can end up a fine mark. A trichophytic closure, where one edge is trimmed so hair grows up through the scar, is used to break the line further. None of this is visible in a graft count, and all of it decides how the donor looks in five years.
It preserves the density around it. Because everything outside the strip is untouched, the rest of the donor keeps its full density and remains completely available for punch extraction later. That is the technical argument for it, and it belongs to long-term donor planning rather than to a single procedure.
Its cost is fixed and permanent. A line across the occiput cannot be undone. It is hidden by hair length rather than by healing, so it constrains how short the back of the head can ever be worn.
Related terms
For punch-based harvesting instead, see the FUE technique. For how donor capacity is assessed across a lifetime, see the donor area guide.
