HAIR TRANSPLANT FORUM

These photos depict a repair case Dr. Cole has been working on since June of 2008. This patient had received pluggy-looking grafts from another clinic and desired a much more natural result.

There are two distinct ways Dr. Cole can approach a repair case. One approach is akin to bulldozing a house, in which he basically removes everything at once and ‘rebuilds’. With this method, the patient will be left with much less hair for a time. The other method, and the one that this patient opted for, is more in line with “remodeling” a house. This is a lengthier process but much more subtle, and allows the patient to retain his hair throughout.

In this instance, Dr. Cole added more natural size grafts in front of and around the pre-existing plugs. This eliminated the see-through appearance and softened the plugginess. Unfortunately, all the softening in the world will still leave a wall of plugs with too high a hair density in the plugs. This is where this patient is currently at. In his most recent session, Dr. Cole began to eliminate some of the hair in the plugs to reduce their density. The effect is immediate and usually heals in a few days or a week. This will result in a much more natural appearance to the hair line with a significant reduction in the appearance of the plugginess. It is possible that a small follow up session designed to eliminate a handful of “bad actors” will be required in a 6 months to one year.

The gradual method of repairing a hair transplant is an acceptable way to maintain hair and still eliminate the pluggy appearance. With this method, it will take longer to eliminate the plug look, but it allows the patient to retain hair during the entire process. It also probably results in a better overall yield because, anytime you remove grafts, you will lose some in the re-implantation process.

During the first session, Dr. Cole created a more natural hairline and the patient was left with a thin ‘sheet’ of hair behind which remained a wall of plugs. Gradually, more plugs are removed selectively during each procedure until he achieved a sufficiently natural appearance throughout. We anticipate this patient will need one more procedure to achieve his desired result.


Original posted on the photo gallery: Patient JDA