Balding Blog

My doctor implanted hairs over my existing hairs. The result of what he did destroyed my hair and my donor area. He told me that he had to do this because I was going to lose it anyway. I’m a mess now and am ashamed of what I allowed him to do on me. Now what to do?

Some doctors take advantage of young men who are scared to death about losing their hair. Some doctors are like predators and look for men who will fill their pockets with money. You need to find a good doctor who can assess your situation and give you a plan on what to do. Most good doctors can help you but a second mistake is not an option so be careful in finding a doctor.

This is a complication of a hair transplant, about as bad as one can get. This is massive folliculitis with pus draining from many of the pus pockets on his head (look carefully and you can see this). One might ask why this happened and I would make the following comments:

1. In over 16,000 hair transplant procedure in the 8 different offices I have operated, I have never seen anything like this in my practice.
2. This is most likely the result of a breakdown of the clean/sterile environment required for any surgical procedure, including the use of sterilized equipment, surgical tools and sterile disposable gauze, gloves and the like.
3. This patient should have sought medical attention way before these pustules advanced to such a level.
4. Each and every one of these pustules requires drainage by a surgeon and a culture and sensitivity for the bacteria that has caused this. This is critical for a successful rapid recovery because sometimes the antibiotic is not the correct antibiotic to kill the identified bacteria. The lab which tests for antibiotic sensitivities will tell which antibiotic will work to kill these bacteria. Infections with staphylococcus are often resistant to many antibiotics, so such tests are critically important when treating such a condition.
5. His chance of losing the hair grafts that were transplanted is high

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This picture recovered from a medical forum

The surgeon who did this hairline lowering procedure with a hair transplant, did not understand many things such as: (1) there must be a transition zone of single hairs in front of the newly created hairline, (2) the hair direction is not radial, but rather follows a discrete direction which was not adhered to here, and (3) there are many two and three hair grafts in the front of the hairline making it clearly Man-made. No hairline should look like this. Unfortunately, too many doctor who don’t understand the process, fail to learn the basics and produce victims who put their trust and their look in the wrong hands.

First, I would advise you to go back to your doctor and ask him/her the very same question you asked here. A good doctor will either give you your money back or redo it, that is, if you trust your previous surgeon to do it right the second time at no charge to you. Eyebrow transplants using scalp hair requires a special skill in identifying the ‘bend’; that is natural in each transplanted hair. So when put in by the surgical team, the natural curve of the hair must be placed to take advantage of it as it is placed. It must also be placed laying flat, consistent with your natural eyebrow hairs. Too many surgeons without considerable experience can’t seem to get either of these techniques right, and if they don’t, the eyebrow hairs stick out rather than lay flat as they should.

I saw this photo on an internet site where the patient asked how his recipient area looked and why the cracks where there. Clearly the doctor never told the patient how to take care of the recipient area. This poor man will have to walk around for almost a month with this ‘cake’ on his head and he will not be able to go out in public without a hat on his head. Compare the patient with the caked crusts to one of our patients who had proper washing (on the right). Below is our washing process for readers who do not want to get cake on their head.

Post Operative Recipient Site Care: An FUE is treated just like a regular hair transplant with regard to the recipient area, but the donor area has open wounds which require daily washing with soap and water. There should be no crusts present even on day one if the washing routine below is followed. Within 3 days of surgery, you can resume full activities, heavy exercises if you wish. The recipient area requires daily washes as well to keep the recipient area free of crusts. I generally recommend the use of a sponge and supply my patient with a surgical sponge to fill with soapy water and press on the recipient area daily. By repeating this daily, all crusts can be washed off without any fear of losing grafts. IF any crust are present, use a Q tip and dip it into soapy water, and roll it on the crusts and that will lift them off without dislodging them, but never rub them, just roll the Q tip on the recipient crust. I like to see no evidence of any crusting in the recipient area and the crusts from the donor area gone in 7-10 days with daily washing

Great piece. I tell the exact same story so I fully identified with your analysis. It is good to draw these conclusions from a successful experience rather than listing all of the mistakes you made (even though the mistakes can be deduced from what you say here). I would add that a Master Plan is critical for anyone considering a hair transplant because hair loss continues even after you have a hair transplant and if you don’t plan for it correctly, waste your donor hair on your immediate needs, when you need more in 10 years, you can be in big trouble. Thanks for writing such an elegant piece.

Top Ten Things to Know about HT from Someone who Had it Twice from tressless

This man used minoxidil and finasteride for 4 months with the focus on improving his temple peaks. The left side has reversed the hair loss on this treatment routline