Doctor:
I am a 17 year old male. At the age of 2, a boiling pot of water fell all over my body and left significant scars in my arms and head. About 1/3 of my hair is missing on my scalp; hair fails to grow in the maturing scars of my burn. Consultations with different doctors have concluded that it is not possible to get hair transplants in scars caused by severe burns because the hair will fail to grow. The only option I have is tissue expansions, but this seems like a lengthy and discomforting process. I would like to verify if it is true that hair transplants will not continue to grow overtime on scars caused by burns. Is this true? Does it depend on the scar? Are there other factors? Thank you.
Hair transplants will grow in some scars better than other scars. It depends how much infrastructure is in the skin (fat, blood vessels, stem cells, etc..) I have seen remarkable results from tissue expansion for large areas of scalp burns. The results are better with tissue expansion and as such has no comparison. Also, the course for tissue expansion is much shorter than transplants. Be open minded.
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