Follow my major repair

[topcat]

Hi Jetfan in my opinion once you are scarred and most especially extensively scarred shaving the head becomes impossible. There is just no way you can shave your head and have that scarring concealed regardless of the approach. You could get down to a very short hair style but shaving the head in my opinion can’t be accomplished.

A hairpiece is not an option for me as I am way too active. I can’t stand even having to wear a hat. If you look closely as my progress I think the logic behind my approach becomes very easy to understand.

If I had more beard hair I would be completely repairable to the point of not even having to use concealer. I have no doubt of that in my mind but unfortunately my beard hair is limited.

Thank you for the comments.

[topcat]

3 month update, healing is going well.

[topcat]

4th procedure 4 month update, recipient area and beard donor.

[topcat]

4th procedure 5 month update. I would definitely say the hair is starting to come in at this point. I judge this by the ease of ability to style my hair and the past 2 weeks have been very noticeable………………….hmmmm………much more hair there than before.

I would also like to note the crown area consists of extremely dense scar tissue from two hairlifts and one reduction. Dr. Bisanga did comment as he was making the recipient sites that it didn’t look too good as there wasn’t any bleeding. Either way would have been okay with me still wanted to give it a shot. Happy to say there definitely are hairs growing in that area. Any doctors observing my case might want to take note that this hair is growing in extensive scar tissue without the aid of any outside agents and this is at only 5 months.

[northeastguy]

Good information there regarding the lack of vascular support in the scars. It's always worth a try.... pick a spot and throw in 50. if they don't take, your not taking a hit... both monetary and scar wise. During my research, I had a few email exchanges with Dr Wasserbauer. She gave me the idea to test the scars vascular support by poking the scar with a needle.... if it bled within a specific amount of time, you were in good shape. It was that outcome that allowed me to be a little more aggressive in my first pass.

Before people start poking themselves with needles, I used a hospital issued single use needle.

[inspects]

Topcat, I haven't been on the forum for a while, but congratulations, you sure have come a long way since I first joined this forum.

Hope you're doing well.

[topcat]

Hi Inspects, everything is really going well in life thank you for asking and hopefully everything is good for you.

[Jotronic]

Topcat,

We've been noticing for a while that when grafts are placed into scar tissue, even thick and seemingly avascular scar tissue, and normal healthy tissue in the same patient the grafts tend to grow in scar tissue BEFORE hair grows in the normal healthy tissue. We've not used anything post surgery to help along with growth since the old copper peptide days from about twelve years ago. And with multiple passes into scar tissue it becomes more vascular and the color contrast with normal skin tissue lessens.

[topcat]

Jotronic, thank you for the comment and that is good to know as I always assumed that the scar tissue was going to be an issue. Would not have mattered either way but I was pleasantly surprised to see those hairs in the crown area when I took the picture, outside of that I really don’t examine my hair for growth.

When it comes to outside agents I think it’s easy to fool oneself that something is actually doing something when really it is not and that is why double blind placebo testing is considered the gold standard. Sometimes maybe it's not intentional but regardless when someone has hope they see things that just might not be there.

[Jotronic]

Jotronic, thank you for the comment and that is good to know as I always assumed that the scar tissue was going to be an issue. Would not have mattered either way but I was pleasantly surprised to see those hairs in the crown area when I took the picture, outside of that I really don’t examine my hair for growth.

Glad to help. I know this is an important issue for you. You can look at some examples of strong growth in scar tissue with two particular cases in mind. both have HD video and the one with the hot oil burn has the added photos of the recipient zone shaved so you can see the subtle color improvement to the overall tissue.

http://www.baldtruthtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1830&highlight=artificial+hair

and

http://www.baldtruthtalk.com/showthread.php?t=3186&highlight=burn

When it comes to outside agents I think it’s easy to fool oneself that something is actually doing something when really it is not and that is why double blind placebo testing is considered the gold standard. Sometimes maybe it's not intentional but regardless when someone has hope they see things that just might not be there.

Agreed.

[topcat]

Thanks for the links. Those are outstanding results and excellent photography. Changing someone's life like that has to be a great feeling and those that concentrate their efforts in that direction should reap the rewards because their heart is in the right place. Do that and the rest just follows in my opinion.

Those results you linked to make me believe all those comments I read over the years regarding fue into scar tissue had more to do with the person extracting being the issue and not so much the scar tissue.

[Jotronic]

Thanks for the links. Those are outstanding results and excellent photography. Changing someone's life like that has to be a great feeling and those that concentrate their efforts in that direction should reap the rewards because their heart is in the right place. Do that and the rest just follows in my opinion.

Thanks, Topcat. It really is a great feeling when we see the results from our hard work for patients such as these.

Those results you linked to make me believe all those comments I read over the years regarding fue into scar tissue had more to do with the person extracting being the issue and not so much the scar tissue.

Bingo, sir. You win the cigar of the day. In my opinion there is no reason why grafts should not grow in scar tissue that has formed from external trauma. I say this because some forms of scarring are due to internal factors such as lichen planopilaris or "scarring alopecia". Packing at a density that is too high can also limit the growth but that is a common issue no matter where you place the grafts, scar tissue or not.

[topcat]

4th procedure 6 month update

[topcat]

Something I would not have done before even though I always did my best not to let my situation affect my choices in life in the recent past would be compete in a full powerlifting meet. Normally I would have stuck with just a one lift meet if something came along. The reason being is that for the bench press the judge giving you the press command after the bar is motionless is about 20 inches from the top of your head waiting for the bar to become motionless. Well of course having someone this close to the top of your head would have given me kind of twinge in the past…………….lol…………….but now I feel very comfortable. Looking forward to a big state meet coming in a few days………….just love the adrenaline rush of competing in front of a crowd, really gets me going.

This is with just a small spritz of concealer and the result is being very comfortable in my skin.

[Jotronic]

This is with just a small spritz of concealer and the result is being very comfortable in my skin.

That is what it is all about, Topcat. Congratulations and good luck at the meet.