Category: Hair Transplantation

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Hair Loss InformationTrichophytic Closure Questions – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

When the strip harvest method is used, a linear scar is produced, but what if the doctor uses a trichophytic closure, would the scar be “virtually undetectable”? Would I be able to buzz-cut my hair without the scar being noticeable?

And also, does the number of hairs that grow through the scar vary by the person? And for my last question, if I felt the back of my head for the scar, would I feel it even if I couldn’t see it? (Would there be a bump where the incision was made)?

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Good judgments in determining the size of the donor area is the best determinant of the size of a donor scar. When the incision is too tight due to the piece of excised scalp being too large, then the enemy is tension. The use of special closure techniques minimize the scars and the tension, but a bad judgment at the time of surgery can not be offset with a repair process.

The readers interested in the subject of scars, may conclude that special techniques can make the scar disappear. Many surgeons would like you to think that their wonderful skills guarantee that the scars on their patients are either non-existent or non-detectable. I believe that the only surgeons who have never seen scars from strip harvesting are those surgeons who have never done the surgery. If any surgeons give you this line, then that surgeon is not honest, for scars (much of the time) have little to do with the surgeon and much to do with the patient’s healing capabilities, when proper techniques are used.

The use of trichophytic incisions do not offset bad judgments or poor surgery, but when used, they can close the gap in a 2-3 mm scar that usually accompanies a donor wound. The scar will still be present even if it is covered by hair, and yes, you may be able to feel it.

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Skin Changed Color After Moustache Transplant – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

i had 900 grafts trasplant on moustache and goatee area !!! after 2 weeks when i shaved my skin turned pink and orange and darker on the side !!!! is it a common thing ? how long it will last before it fades away and i also have a lot of pimple on my chin!! the fact that i shaved afeter to weeks is gonna affect the grafts…….thanx doctor

You should address these issues with the doctor who did your surgery. A good patient/doctor relationship is critical in achieving a desired goal. I would be concerned about things like pimples, because early folliculitis can behave that way. Two weeks after a hair transplant your skin may still be healing and it is sometimes normal to have some discoloration (especially after shaving, which causes irritation even more). The degree of discoloration should be something judged by your doctor so that you know if it is beyond what he expected.

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Reconstructing Temples in Patients – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Some posters on an Internet board (hairsite.com) say reconstructing temple points is a must for a Norwood 6 guy’s transplant to look natural. Is this true? Do you often reconstruct temple points in your patients who have advanced balding?

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Temple transplants are unusual. I offer them, but suggest to most patients to defer on them until the first session has grown out. Most pass on temple hair transplants, because the existence of good frontal hair usually solves most of their problems.

Temple transplantation shows the quality of a doctor. If the angles are not perfect, if the recipient sites are not small, and if distribution is not well placed, temple hair transplants look terrible.

I wanted to show a transplanted temple prominence, close up. The temple before photo is on the left — the after is on the right. The after photo was taken 9 months post-procedure. if you look very closely, you will see a few hairs in the transplanted area that were present prior to the transplant. Also note that the transplanted hairs have less gray than the hairs on the pre-operative photo. Color differences in transplanted hair reflect the color of the hair taken from the back of the head. This patient liked less gray, which is now his ‘new temple’ look.



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Copper Peptides for Follicular Enlargement? – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Have you ever heard of copper peptides for follical enlargment, hair growth, wound and scar tissue healing? Is there anything to it?

skinbiology.com

thanks

That site suggests that if you have guinea pigs, pigs, rabbits, rats, dogs, and a few other mammals, that they can repair their tissues and possibly live longer. I am not sure that I want my 14 year old dog to outlive me, but perhaps that’s just me.

I actually have used copper peptides to reduce the degree of redness in wounds in those people who are prone to get red after a scratch or surgery. Originally, the company claimed that it accelerated hair growth after a hair transplant, so we tried that on a number of people and did not find that it worked as a growth accelerator. The observation of reduced redness is what called my attention to some value for the compound.

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How Soon After 1st Transplant Can I Have Another? – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

after 2,360 graft transplanted . . . how soon could i have the second session. months?

I generally tell patients to wait a full 8 months so that they can see what they got. Prior to the first transplant, the patient has little real appreciation for what is going to be done and what he will look like. After 8 months (post op), the patient for the first time can appreciate what he got and what any disappointments may be. Often it is touch-ups (some want more bulk and thickness), and other times it is another area that becomes more important after the first area is hairy. Do not rush the second transplant. Take your time and now you can take control of what is happening to you

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Why Don’t More People Just Get Hair Transplants? – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

hi!

I’m wondering….

Lots of men are slowly getting bald mostly in front areas. In some stage of a life they usually develop “high forehead”. It’s unfortunately a normal course of events for majority of us.

I’m talking about mild baldness classified II to III or IIa to IIIa by Norwood Classes…

So my question is: why don’t these men simply transplant their hair from back to front. As I understood it lasts forever(if I presume that back hair is not sensitive to DHT)

I suppose looking long term it’s safer solution(using chemicals for 10 years might have some consequneces in 30years) and might be even cheaper.

So where is the trick/hoax that people don’t decide for it and instead of this possibility using drugs?

The answer is not clear. Changing people’s attitudes is a difficult task. Adoption of plastic surgery for vanity purposes is believed by many to be a feminine thing, not a manly thing. If you are going to embark upon a hair transplant solution it requires that:

  1. you recognize that you have a problem in the first place and want to do something about it
  2. will not be embarrassed for doing it (the old transplant plugs failed this test and the people are still walking around advertising an obsolete technology that scares most new people)
  3. get the education you need to make an informed decision (few people understand how easy it is to make a bad decision by being impulsive and not doing your shopping).

Did you know that wigs are more expensive than transplants, yet many people use them and avoid the “painful” perception that transplants can always be detected? Most wigs are detected and women make a game of it, trying to pick out those with wigs vs normal hair.

Over and over again, I find the occasional patient who hides the hair transplant from their brother, mother, and significant other. That is just how good they can be. The balding problem is widespread, because 50% of men will have some clinical balding by the time they reach the age of 45, yet less than 1% of men with balding ever start the research process for the transplant option and I suspect that it is less than half of them that go forward with a hait transplant. Tackling the hair transplant option seems to have some negative stigma associated with it. Of course, we all know that the man’s man is not vain about his hair loss, right?

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Using Mederma on Donor Scar – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Mederma is proven to make scars softer and smoother, and I was just wondering if I used this on my donor scar, would it impact any hairs from growing through my trichophytic closure?

I know that many people believe that Mederma works well for softening scars, but I can’t say for sure as I have no direct experience with it. That being said, however, I do not see any problem with using it on any donor wound in the healing phase after a week or so.

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First Six Months After My Transplant Was Textbook, Then It All Thinned Out – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

Dear Dr. Rassman,

I am beside myself. I have tried everything including minox and proscar to no avail. I held out transplants as my last resort to save my hair. However, after my first transplant, though it seemed it was text book up to six mo., after this, it began to thin back out as if it were my normal scalp hair!My transplants were done by a well known surgeon here in San Diego.

My Doc had no answer. My drmatologest thought it might be inflamation but was not 100% sure. Thinking it was a fluke, I opteted for a second transplant in the same area, and the same thing happened! What is going on? Is there anything I can do?

I did have dermatitis prior, durring, and after the transplants, and was battling some infected teeth, which unbeknownst to me were sending out low level infection to the rest of my body for years.

I am in good health otherwise.

Have you seen this before? Do you have any answers, or can you recommend anyone who could address this situation?

I really do not know where to turn to next.

Thank you for your help.

Firstly, I must restate that BaldingBlog is not intended to establish a medical diagnosis or offer a second medical opinion. Furthermore, I do not have the benefit of seeing you in person. Now with that being said, I can answer this in a general way.

If a hair transplant fails or is associated with hair loss, we can attribute it to two generalized causes:

  1. Poor technique and human error (not in your case, because you reported that everything grew out and was good for 6 months).
  2. Medical conditions that you acquired or that you did not know of that contributed to the hair loss.

I often stress the importance of measuring the miniaturization of scalp hair for the correct diagnosis and quantifying the degree of miniaturization so that if something like this were to occur, another measurement would be helpful in rebuilding a picture as to what happened to cause the hair loss.

I have had one patient tell me a story like you just told, but I believe that not enough time passed for me to draw conclusions on the matter.

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Transplanting Hair Into Scar Tissue – Hair Loss Information by Dr. William Rassman

If you transplant hairs into a scar, is it true that the scar gets worse before it gets better?(does the scar stretch before the scar actually has hair growing)? If so, does it eventually get better?

Disguising a scalp scar with hair transplants is an ideal procedure that is often done at NHI. There are other factors involved such as:

  • the location of the scar
  • your hair shaft thickness and the scar thickness
  • the contrast of your hair color to your skin color to minimize the appearance of the contrast
  • the character of your hair (wavy, curley, straight)
  • the length of your hair (very short hair will require more densities than longer length hair)

It is not true that the scar gets worse from a scar transplant and then gets better, nor does it stretch from getting hair placed within it.

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Was My Transplant a Failure? – Hair Loss Information – Balding Blog

Hi Doctor,

I had my transplant on 6th july this year. I managed to go through good post-operative care for ten days but on the 12th day, I started getting rid of my scabs by gently rubbing my scalp even when it was dry. That was basically because I misunderstood my doctor who actually told me to gently press scalp at times of any itching. So everytime the scab fell off I saw a hair attached to it too and in rare cases there wasn’t a hair to it. I still have many transplanted hair left on my scalp and I am currently 20 days post-op. I have doubts that I have possibly dislodged my grafts and I am afraid my transplant may result in a failure. Incase if I have dislodged some grafts, will this affect the grafts which have not been dislodged. And is the presence of graft noticable on the scalp with a naked eye?

I am well aware that I shouldn’t have done the rubbing on dry scalp but does that mean that I have made a BIG mistake and there is no point in expecting the new hair growth at all?

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I believe you are overreacting. If everything was good for the first 10 days, there is little possibility that you lost any grafts/hair. What you are doing is shedding the hair that was transplanted. It will go into a hair cycle of telogen and then ‘wake-up’ and start growing at about 3-4 months. This is normal and certainly nothing that you’ve said in your email indicates that what you did will have any negative long term impact.