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Transplanting into Donor Scar

Hello,
I had surgery with NHI back on 01/24/2002, no problems, then had more grafts placed by a surgeon closer to home about 1 year after. Having been a trauma nurse for 6+ years, I told him to please be very careful around the donor area as there was not much elasticity. Post op had very bad infxn and after 10 days of oral abx I now have very large scars at the donor areas behind both ears and have to wear my hair long to cover these scars.

Since this is already heavily scarred, can anything be done to place hair here?

Yes, I know, I should have just gone back to you to get my second one done. Thanks

You are more than welcome to pay us a visit and we’ll see what we can do. We can address the scar and also transplant into the donor area if that is what is needed. There may be a better solution, but until I examine you, I can not render an opinion. It is interesting to note for the readers of this blog, I have not seen an infection in the donor area for more than 10 years. As you may know, we are an accredited facility through the AAAHC and during the last accreditation process we were told that amongst accredited facilities we were in the top 1% with regard to the incidence of infection. I believe that we are the only accredited hair transplant facility in California and possibly even the entire USA. This accreditation process inflicts the highest standards on its participating facilities and includes many if not most of the hospital-level outpatient surgery facilities in the nation.


2006-06-03 10:42:22Transplanting into Donor Scar

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Transplanting Into a Neurosurgical Scar (with Photos)

This patient had an extensive neurosurgical procedure with a corresponding scar. Even when his hair was longer, the scar showed because he had frontal recession from genetic balding. We performed a hair transplant (one session of 1433 follicular units) and successfully treated both the scar and the frontal genetic recession. The “after” photos were taken just over 4 months after his procedure.

I have done this type of corrective surgery on many people. It is a life changing experience for these people, not having to face their deformities every day. Unfortunately, few neurosurgeons understand what modern hair transplants can do, not only for their patients, but for their own balding sons.

Click the photos to enlarge.

Before:

 

After (only 4.5 months):

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Transplanting Identical Twins

I just saw pictures of identical twins, one transplanted with 3000 grafts and the other not. The twin who had transplants, also took Propecia at less than the recommended dose, while the non-transplanted twin did not take Propecia at all. The difference between the two was dramatic, of course.

I have seen many identical twins over the years. These two were done back in 1993, when one twin had 3300 grafts removed, and gave 800 of those grafts to his identical twin brother on that same day (on the house of course). The twin who had lost his hair had genetic MPB and wore a hair piece which pulled out most of his remaining hair and he became balder than the twin that had done nothing. Eventually, they both got transplants, and one more procedure was done where the recipient twin had to pay back the donor hair to his twin brother. The piece in the video is short, but you can see the dynamics between the two.

I also remember twins that had been done years apart. The first was done with the old plug technique elsewhere, and the second was done by me with FUT just 7 years ago. The one with the plugs does not like to talk about his hair transplant, while the patient who was done by me has been trying to get his brother to fix the old work. Unfortunately the “pluggy” twin has been gun-shy about surgery since he was plugged years ago and has not yet had repairs done.

From my experience, only a minority of twins go the transplant route. I wonder if it is because my focus is not to ‘sell’ hair transplants but to be a physician hair loss advisor and I do not exert pressure on my patients to go for the surgical solution.

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Transplanting hair from one person to another

This is a common question asked of me over the 27 years I have practiced in this field. I did transplant identical twins hair, from one to the other with great success but they had the exact same genetics, so that their body didn’t know the difference between them or the hair from one to the other.

A paper was published in Korea that suggested a way to do this in people, but showed the results in mice here: https://m.koreabiomed.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=4920

Mice are very different than people, so I wound not rush to South Korea with your wife or mother to get their hair on your bald head. This is more a dream than reality.


2019-02-01 15:07:44Transplanting hair from one person to another

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Transplanting Hair Into Burned Tissue

Dear Dr.
I am a recovered burn patient from childhood with forehead scars that extend to my left temple area. I was able to grow my hair to cover it as a young man until my late 30’s. My hair started to thin and I now wear a hair system to cover and blend the non hair scarred area. Are hair transplants now being able to be transplanted into scarred areas that are cosemetically acceptable. I have been told that bloodflow below my scarred areas is still good. Thank you for your response.

If your skin is what we call a full thickness, hair may be able to grow from it. If it is covered with a split thickness of skin and scar, it may not support hair growth. There are things that can be done today to bring your hair-baring skin here and may include a variety of surgeries like flaps, and balloon-stretching the normal scalp and rearranging it to cover the bare area. Some of the results are remarkable. I would be happy to give you an opinion and as you’ve indicated that you are in Southern California, I would suggest that you make an appointment with me and maybe together, we can address your problem. Please call my office at 800-NEW-HAIR to set up a free consultation.

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Transplanting Hair Into a Cranial Morcellation Scar

I have a scar that is about the width of my pinky finger that goes from ear to ear on my head. This is a result of a surgery I had done when i was younger from cranial morcellation of my skull. I was wondering if there is anyway to get hair put into this scar.

There are ways to address such scars, including hair transplantation (in some people) or scalp surgery by those who are experts in the field. From what you described, I can not tell you which way to go, but scar repairs from brain surgery is one of the areas where what I do works very well. I need to see some good digital photos of the scarring and possibly would need to meet you to examine your head before giving any real options. Tentatively though, it does seem like you have some options.

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Transplanting Hair from the Back of the Head to the Sides of the Head

Hello Dr. Rassman,

In researching hair transplantation, I have been unable to find an answer to what seems to me to be a pretty basic question: Can donor hair be relocated to the sides of the head? If so, would this be an option for me?

Here is a rundown of my situation: I am not sure what my pattern is, but I have lost a good amount off my hairline and the front 1/4’s of the sides of my head. The back of my head is pretty full, and the back 3/4 of the sides and area beyond the hairline on top are also relatively full.

Thanks so much for all your nice work

In men, hairs from the back of the head are considered permanent. This is the donor area in hair transplant surgery. You can transplant it anywhere on the body and it should grow. Thus, you can transplant hair from the back to the sides.

As to what you are referring to as “the sides” remains to be seen, as I do not know what you are exactly describing. If you would like a consultation you can always email us at hairdoc@newhair.com with photos.

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Transplanting Hair from One Eyebrow to the Other?

Several years ago, after waxing my eyebrows twice monthly, I decided to get electrolysis to shape them permanently. Now older and wiser, I realized that I took off too much on the ends and I am considering an eyebrow transplant. However, the remaining eyebrow is extremely thick, so I was wondering if you could so an eyebrow transplant using this excess eyebrow hair?

There are two issues here:

  1. Theoretically, you can transplant eyebrow hair from one eyebrow to the other, but it may produce unwanted hair loss and/or scarring in that area (even by using the FUE technique). And if you can harvest the excess eyebrow hair, it may not always grow. This in the end may leave you scarred and looking worse. I’m not trying to scare you from looking into this more, but it is a potential risk that you need to understand.
  2. You can have your scalp hair transplanted to your eyebrow with good results, but no doctor can reproduce the exact look of your original eyebrow… no matter how good the doctor says he/she is.


2009-07-23 09:25:58Transplanting Hair from One Eyebrow to the Other?

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Transplanting Hair from Body to Face

Would a body hair transplant work for just facial hair, like sideburns or even eyebrows

I would imagine that body hair transplantation (BHT) would work, but why not use scalp hair? I would match the hair and see what is best.

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Transplanting Hair Between Fraternal Twins?

I’m worried that the combination of continued balding and my very fine hair will make it difficult to naturally and densely cover my scalp via transplant. In the case of having a fraternal twin, female family members, or maybe even friends with hair to spare, is it ever possible to retrieve grafts from a donor that is not the patient? Would grafts from a female donor be viable on a male MPB scalp? Thanks!

Unfortunately, transplanting hair from any person other than an identical twin will fail and get rejected. Hair is like any other organ transplant, which would require anti-rejection medication that could lead to further health complications. I’ve written about this process and the medication required before.