Question for Dr. Cole about ridging...

ninedonealready

I have ridging all along my hairline from previous ht transplants.

I did have most of the some plugs removed from the hairline but the ridging still remains.

-Is there something that can be done to get rid of the ridging? (I have heard kenalog shots might be an option but the shots can cause permanent loss of the hair in the injection area.)

-Also, if the ridging remains, do grafts placed into the area of the ridging have good growth rate?

FIThair

Ridging is the consequence of too large grafts and/or too much extraneous tissue placed with the grafts.

Corticosteroid injections may help, but this is a delicate process: one must keep the concentration AND the total amount low to avoid fat atrophy and LOSS of volume. Ridging is an increase in volume per unit area, and fat atrophy would be the opposite, that is, a loss of volume per unit area.

Sometimes the best way to do the injections is to do just a little bit, wait to see the response and then a little more, etc...

Sometimes removal of plugs will accomplish the same thing. The injections can cause hair loss, but doing it carefully will usually minimize this complication.

Growth rate in ridged areas is variable. It may grow well, or not so well.

CITness

9done,

I urge you to send in a couple pics of your hair line so that you may have a proper evaluation by Dr. Cole. Your case could be a complex case that requires up to 6 months of injections or might even require some laser treatment but again, it would be difficult to specify without pics. I am very happy that you have come to the right clinic in search of repair treatments available. Welcome to our forum.

Free consultation:

http://www.forhair.com/contact_page.htm

My advice is not medical advice

nobel victim

Hi 9done, I can relate to your problem as I had a pretty ugly looking scalp after my work with the nobel clinic, as a result I have often wondered about improving scalp skin, less so now as I think that my de-bulking with Dr Cole improved the problem no end, and I now have fit grafts concealing the much, much, much reduced ridges, pits & cobble stones.

I have always wondered about various skin resurfacing methods applied to the scalp, - what would the effect of say an Ebirum laser be if if took the ridged scalp skin down towards the basal layer? I appreciate this might not be appropriate in some ht cases as the skins structure would be so uneven due to the displacement of the plugs & the surrounding, but most badly scarred patients would probably write off the surviving plug hair to get a more normal looking scalp?

Less aggressively is there any merit in say regular acid peels on the scalp or peeling creams or solutions like retin-a?

Just thinking out loud here I haven't tried any of the above! & wouldn't ask anyone else to just to satisfy my curiosity!

NV