Long Hair FUE and the Donor Area Preview

In September 2016, Otavio Boaventura introduced a new method in hair transplantation called the "open punch" technique, a part of non-shaven Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE). This technique, which uses an oscillatory movement to prevent hair from wrapping around the punch, was designed to harvest intact long hair grafts. The open punch has a slit that accommodates the long hair shaft while the graft is being punched, with an optimal 0.125mm slit width and a 4.5mm slit depth. In a case study of a 36-year-old male with traumatic alopecia, the technique resulted in a 12.7% transection rate and 300 grafts harvested per hour. Boaventura concluded that the open punch technique could be beneficial for beginners performing traditional shaven FUE and could potentially improve transection rates in difficult cases, such as with curly hair patients.