HAIR TRANSPLANT FORUM

Before coming to our clinic in April of ’08, this patient went to a well-known clinic to have a strip (FUT) hair transplant session performed. To make the situation even worse, the patient’s frontal hair line was mangled with large plugs. The patient’s goal was to repair the 5mm strip scar that ran from ear to ear (30 centimeters), minimize the appearance of the darker pigmented plugs on the front and repair the mangled orientation of the hair line.

The average strip is about 3 to 4 mm in width. Some clinics prefer revising linear scars, but we prefer to graft linear scars via CIT. Grafting scars can significantly improve the appearance of strip scars and doesn’t involve producing another linear scar. We find that many patients can see a 40 to 50 percent improvement after scar grafting. Strip scars usually require more than one session and often times yield is unpredictable due to blood supply for graft survival. After scar revision, some patients can see a significant improvement, but there are some factors that cause the revision to be less effective. Some complications to consider are “stretch-back” of the new linear scar, damage to surrounding follicles, and damage of nerves. Many patients can heal well but some will not regardless of the strip surgeons skill.

Dr. Cole transplanted approx. 160 CIT grafts to treat this patient’s strip scar and removed 180 plugs from the front line. We are pleased that this patient now has the ability to wear a much shorter hair style on top and in the back (donor area).k: