Fue Without Shaving Head?

[richardd1972]

I have had four strip procedures in the past and my hairline is pretty good now. I decided to have an fue to make my frontal hairline a little stronger as well as have about 200 grafts put into a donor scar. Everything was a go until the consultant told me they would have to shave my head. While I find shaving my head very unpleasant I also have about 6 or 7 donor scars on the back and sides of the head. I have made hotel, flight reservations as well as given them a 1000 dollar deposit. I'm really starting to freak out over having my head shaved with all those scars. I was very careful on my four prior procedures that even friends and family don't know I have had anything done. Again, I need about 200 grafts for scar revision and I was thinking around 600 or so to make my hair line stronger. Any help would be appreciated as I don't know if I can mentally cope with looking like a freak for at least a month.

thanks,

Richard

[Mountinvan]

Who is the Doc?

[Spex]

Its impossible to perform FUE extractions without shaving down. The clinic should have made you well aware of this prior to any booking was made.

Did they tell you prior you wouldnt need to shave and then only just told you they would ?

Could you in light of your numerous strip surgeries previously opt for another small strip surgery and revise some previous scar whilst harvesting appropriate numbers for the hairline.

This could be done with minimal downtime required as only a small track would need to be shaved down to perform the scar revision and with some length in the donor region which i assume you have already you could easily cover this area.

Dr Lindsey for example does this with minimal shaving in donor and also wouldn't need to shave the recipient area either for a small number into the hairline.

SPEX

[Mountinvan]

Spex, would it be possible to shave donor but cover with existing hair? Does recipient always need to be shaved for FUE?

[richardd1972]

Thanks for the reply Spex. It was actually Dr. Charles who I know is a great Doctor. I spoke with his receptionist on the phone and she even made hotel and flight reservations for me. Nothing came up about shaving my donor head until I spoke with Dr. Charles after I gave them my deposit. He was very understanding of my concern and proposed that he could do a small procedure of perhaps 500 or so grafts by just shaving different areas on the scalp. I thought about this for another day and decided that is was not worth having a procedure this small and called his receptionist and told her I changed my mind. I feel really bad as I don't think i'm going to get my deposit back and no mention of the shaving was conveyed to me until after they took my deposit.

[ZMHAIR]

We have performed a few FUE procedures (< 800 grafts) where even though you shave the donor area, your existing hair can cover that same shaved area. By lifting the hair and shaving a small strip below, about 1 inch in height, your existing hair can actually hide the shaved area. The main thing to keep in mind here is that as long as your hair above the donor site is long enough (usually 1-2 inches), it should be plenty enough to cover the donor site.

[Follicle Death Row]

Haha. Dr. Bauman calls it a stealth shave. Sounds funny.

[northeastguy]

Richard...... First things first, Dr Charles is a very good. If you decide to go ahead and get past the shaved head aspect of the procedure, your results will be great. As for Spex saying FUE can't be done without shaving down....that is not entirely true. Dr Cole does a version of the FUE procedure that allows the patient to leave their hair long. It is called C2G:

http://www.forhair.com/hair_transpla..._Technique.htm

"Patient’s who do their homework prior to a hair transplant procedure know that strip procedures offer few benefits over CIT®. The only true benefit up until recently has been the capacity to keep one’s hair longer with the strip procedure. CIT® on the other hand required patients to shave their heads in order to perform a larger procedure. For some this required careful planning so that they could shave their head and migrate back into their usual lifestyle. Shaving the head can make the patient nervous because it can result in a drastic change in one’s appearance.
For some, this simple factor became the driving force behind their decision to undergo a strip procedure rather than take advantage of the less invasive CIT®.

Not anymore. The new C2G technique allows the patient to keep their hair at their normal hair style during and following the CIT® technique. Now patients can have the best of both worlds. They no longer have to put up with the pain and the strip scar associated with strip procedures and they can still maintain their normal hair style."

... The procedure obviously takes more time and the cost per FUE is a bit more but if your goal is to not shave your hair it's worth looking into. As for me, my hair is short and I have a job where I can use a surgical cap daily so I can get away with the shaved cut for a month.


.....hope that helps.

[Spex]

Umm,

I just watched the video that was made to help show that you dont have to shave down for FUE on that link....

However the video just said that we ask the patients to grow their hair out as long as possible pre op. Why ?

They then show the donor area covered and layered down - not combed up to expose extraction sites) Why is that ??

Was the donor area shaved as im confused ?


Can someone show me a clear link to a NON shaved FUE donor site post op ?




You would have thought the video might have been clearer, however gosh strip surgery is frowned upon on that page hey. Its even put the fear in me..

Best
S

[northeastguy]

I think Richard made it very clear he wanted to start working on hiding the scars not make them longer. He simply asked if there was an option to do FUE without comletely buzzing all his hair. The link is there if he chooses to contact them and ask how it works. As can you. Even better, maybe someone from CIT can explain.

I'm sure it is similar to the post ZMHAIR had.....most likely a modified version.

The main thing is it looks like he has options to meet his goal.

I think if I posted the reduculous scars left by strip surgery it would definetly put the fear in most. And I went to a very well known guy. Does it mean all should avoid? Never an easy decision.