Scar Grafting with Dr Cole

[35YrsAfter]

NE guy,

Thats amazing to fill 2 scars with 7 just 720 grafts. If you do 1 more pass you may have completely eliminated the scars altogether.

Regardless if my shockloss comes back I am totally doing this with Cole. I am petrified to use my donor hair as after this latest disaster surgery my donor looks a bit thin for sure.

I wonder if Cole could do my entire scar with beard hair. Oddly my beard hair is identical to my hair-coarse and wiry. Plus they are super thick. If they grew I could see them providing awesome coverage.

If anyone from Cole's office knows if you could do an entire strip scar with beard hair I would love to know.

I just asked Dr. Cole about only using beard hair to fix your scar. He said 100% beard hair should be fine. He recommends ACell with this type of repair.

35YrsAfter works at Dr. Cole's office

[jetfan11]

scar graft

NE guy,

Thats amazing to fill 2 scars with 7 just 720 grafts. If you do 1 more pass you may have completely eliminated the scars altogether.

Regardless if my shockloss comes back I am totally doing this with Cole. I am petrified to use my donor hair as after this latest disaster surgery my donor looks a bit thin for sure.

I wonder if Cole could do my entire scar with beard hair. Oddly my beard hair is identical to my hair-coarse and wiry. Plus they are super thick. If they grew I could see them providing awesome coverage.

If anyone from Cole's office knows if you could do an entire strip scar with beard hair I would love to know.

[northeastguy]

NE Guy,

I am so happy for you. Going to cole to do the same thing. Question for you the 3rd photo (where you look great btw) where your at 3/4 guard. Exactly how many scar grafting surgeries with Cole and how many grafts total.

Thanks again for posting and sharing very selfless. Its a huge help to me personally.

When are you going for your appointment?

[northeastguy]

NE Guy,

I am so happy for you. Going to Cole to do the same thing. Question for you the 3rd photo (where you look great btw) where your at 3/4 guard. Exactly how many scar grafting surgeries with Cole and how many grafts total.

Thanks again for posting and sharing very selfless. Its a huge help to me personally.

That is after 1 session of 720 grafts total in both scars. They were mostly single and double hair grafts. Knowing this, I should need no more than 1/2 that to create a consistent density within the scars and scalp around them. Say 200-350? Whatever it takes to wrap this up. obviously, that'll be up to Dr Cole once I'm in the chair and certain factors.....how many 2 and 3 hair grafts we get from the sides and the fact beard hair has a larger diameter than scalp hair.

detailed image of the scars...

[jetfan11]

scar graft

NE Guy,

I am so happy for you. Going to cole to do the same thing. Question for you the 3rd photo (where you look great btw) where your at 3/4 guard. Exactly how many scar grafting surgeries with Cole and how many grafts total.

Thanks again for posting and sharing very selfless. Its a huge help to me personally.

[northeastguy]

Thanks Gill for all your support. Very much appreciated. May 17th is the Date... noticed the typo on my post.

Few Photo's to post.....

First Photo is #6 guard. It was the shortest I could cut my hair. When wet, everything was visible.

Second photo was taken just prior to being shaved down At Dr Cole's office for the procedure. It is a #2 guard cut. My ultimate goal..... shorter if we can make it happen.

Third photo was taken at Dr Cole's office 3 weeks ago. It is a #3-#4 guard cut.

[gillenator]

On MayTh I will be going to see Dr Cole for my 2nd and hopefully last session to graft into the scars. It will be 11 months from the 1st session. This time all the focus will be on the scars only. I have limited donor from the sides of my head and the rest will come from the beard. After 5 strips, 2 scars, and a 1000 Fue procedure, my donor (mostly Back) is pretty much exhausted. I'm hoping to grab 2 and 3 hair grafts from the sides and all the singles from the beard. Pack those scars in one more time and make them history.

I continue to wish you the very best in your repair journey and let us know how everything turns out. Your making some great progress to date.

[northeastguy]

2nd Session

On MayTh I will be going to see Dr Cole for my 2nd and hopefully last session to graft into the scars. It will be 11 months from the 1st session. This time all the focus will be on the scars only. I have limited donor from the sides of my head and the rest will come from the beard. After 5 strips, 2 scars, and a 1000 Fue procedure, my donor (mostly Back) is pretty much exhausted. I'm hoping to grab 2 and 3 hair grafts from the sides and all the singles from the beard. Pack those scars in one more time and make them history.

[northeastguy]

This should give you a good look at the scars pre-procedure.

@ jetfan..... Have you been using Rogaine foam? May aid in stimulating the regrownth of that shock loss. Can't hurt.

[northeastguy]

Hi Jetfan..... really sorry to hear about your setback. Any reason why you switched Doctors if you were happy with the results you got from Bosely? Regardless, its water under the bridge at this point. My scars were not really raised. maybe the bottom one was slightly. 9 months later my top scar has healed quite well. The bottom has been a little frustrating. it is slightly raised mostly on the left side..... and we are really not sure why. It was also slightly pink for quite some time. Just 2 weeks ago my hair stylist told me the scar is much whiter now (that was her way of saying it looks more like my scalp color. Despite this slow return to it's original state, I got outstanding growth from the grafts. In addition to Cortisone injections for the scars raised state, look into Pulse dye laser, 1540 fractional laser, and IPL laser for redness. Here's a little info from a Plastics MD: Dr Seckel

http://www.realself.com/question/cortisone-pulsed-dye-laser-hypertrophic-scars

My plan is to graft one more time (may), let everything heal, then use laser to smooth and blend the tissue. I have been told by numerous Md's that both lasers I'm looking into will not harm the follicle.

I hope this helps...

[35YrsAfter]

35 years after,

Thanks for your response. I will definitely do what I can with cortizone injections. Also looking into laser. I appreciate your story on the strip scar shock loss growing back but mine is recipient area shock loss.

Basically I had 1000 grafts placed in my frontal 1/3 which had ton of previous grafts. Its 3.5 months later and very minimal signs of regrowth. I hope this Dr did not transect those follicles.

At 3.5 months post surgery do you still think I have a chance for shock loss recovery?

I had shock loss once. Back in the stone ages of hair transplantation, I had a scalp reduction which consisted of a 3/4 inch wide, 6 inch long strip being removed from the top of my head. nearly all of the hair on top of my head went into the resting phase. It was depressing for me to see my head look so bald at only 29 years old. It took about a year for the hair to grow back. All of the hair grew back pretty much the way it was.

I doubt that the doctor transected the previously placed hair follicles.

BTW, I personally don't see growth after HT surgery until about the 6th. month. Some see growth sooner. Some don't see growth until around the 12th. month.

-35YrsAfter works at Dr. Cole's office

[jetfan11]

shock loss

35 years after,

Thanks for your response. I will definitely do what I can with cortizone injections. Also looking into laser. I appreciate your story on the strip scar shock loss growing back but mine is recipient area shock loss.

Basically I had 1000 grafts placed in my frontal 1/3 which had ton of previous grafts. Its 3.5 months later and very minimal signs of regrowth. I hope this Dr did not transect those follicles.

At 3.5 months post surgery do you still think I have a chance for shock loss recovery?

[topcat]

jetfan thanks for posting your story. This is a serious procedure and not to be taken lightly.

[35YrsAfter]

I'm not really living a life anymore. Have a very high profile job visisble job as well. I'm on the brink of nervous breakdown. I've gotten through last 3 months on sheer will. I use dermatch for my very visible scar toppiks for what's left of my hair and pray to God my hair grows back. From what I've read 3 months to 6 months would be the time if I see recovery much of it will happen. My only back up is to get beard hair or body hair put into the scar so I can cut my hair short with some shred of dignity.

I found myself in a similar place. My hair became very thin all over. I was taking an antihistamine for chronic hives that had many complaints in the forums by users experiencing hair loss. They believed their hair loss was caused by this antihistamine drug. I stopped using this medicine and began using Rogaine and my hair improved. Eight years later my hair looks at least twice as dense as it did.

After I read your post, I went down to the surgery area and asked Dr. Cole about your raised red scar. He suggested consulting with a local doctor regarding steroid injections. Once you have been able to improve the scar, you should have a consultation related to having the scar grafted into. Beard hair works very well for this when scalp donor is in short supply.

As far as the shock loss goes, it nearly always grows back in the recipient area. We had a patient in today who had a small area of permanent shock loss at the end of his strip scar. It was about an inch and a half long and a half inch high. May have been caused by restricted blood supply to the area when the scalp was pulled tight together after the strip was removed.

Again, in most cases the type of shock loss you have experienced grows back. Rogaine helps blood supply and so does exercise if appropriate for you. Don't expose your head to the sun, don't smoke cigarettes and avoid stress as much as possible. Recent studies show that coffee is beneficial to hair growth as well.

-35YrsAfter works at Dr. Cole's office

[jetfan11]

life

I'm not really living a life anymore. Have a very high profile job visisble job as well. I'm on the brink of nervous breakdown. I've gotten through last 3 months on sheer will. I use dermatch for my very visible scar toppiks for what's left of my hair and pray to God my hair grows back. From what I've read 3 months to 6 months would be the time if I see recovery much of it will happen. My only back up is to get beard hair or body hair put into the scar so I can cut my hair short with some shred of dignity.