Trichophytic Closure

A trichophytic closure is an FUT technique where one edge of the wound is trimmed so hair grows up through the healed scar, breaking up the line.

Where you'll meet it

In an FUT consultation, if the surgeon is good, and not at all if they are not. It is also used in other scalp surgery, including some forehead and hairline-lowering operations, for the same reason: to make an incision line inside hair-bearing skin less visible.

How does a trichophytic closure work?

After the strip is removed, the surgeon trims a thin sliver, typically a millimetre or two, from the edge of one side of the wound, usually the lower edge. That removes the top of the follicles along that edge but leaves their roots in place. When the wound is closed, the trimmed edge tucks under the other, and as it heals those follicles grow hairs up through the scar itself.

So instead of a bare line with hair either side of it, there is a line with hair emerging from it. Hair growing through the scar breaks up the edge the eye would otherwise pick out.

How much difference does it make?

A real one, though not a disappearing act. A trichophytic closure will not make a scar invisible, and it substantially reduces how obvious one is at shorter hair lengths. At a number four or longer, a well-healed FUT scar is usually invisible with or without it. Shorter than that, the difference between a closure with hair growing through it and a plain line can be the difference between a scar people notice and one they do not.

Nothing hides an FUT scar on a shaved head. If you might ever shave your head, that is still the deciding question, and FUE is still the answer.

What else decides the scar?

Tension, mostly, which comes back to scalp laxity and how wide a strip was taken. A trichophytic closure on a wound closed under tension still widens. Closing in layers, with deeper stitches taking the strain off the skin, also helps. Then there is your own healing, which varies between people and is harder to predict if you have scarred thickly before, whether you smoke, and whether you avoid stretching the area in the first couple of months.

What can be done for an old scar?

If a previous FUT scar healed wide, revision surgery can cut it out and close it again, often with a trichophytic closure this time. FUE grafts can be planted into the scar itself, and scalp micropigmentation can camouflage it. Often a combination works best. None of them fully undoes a wide scar, which is why getting the first closure right matters. Repair and revision covers the options.

What should you ask?

Whether they use a trichophytic closure as standard, how they decide strip width against your laxity, whether they close in layers, and what average scar width their patients end up with. Then ask to see donor scars at a year with the hair wet or lifted, which is the photograph galleries never include.

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