Scar Grafting with Dr Cole

[Have Hope3]

I am looking to get my first round of FUE sometime in February. I have narrowed it down to Dr. Cole and Dr. Cooley. Both of these doctors seem to have great reputations with scar repair. I will base my decision on availability, price, and convenience. Is it possible to get a repair without exposing the scar and shaving down all my hair in the back? Also, I have heard that the price has come down in the last year or two. Is that true? I will have to go right back to work the following Monday and would like to keep this matter private. Hoping I can put this whole think behind me soon! Thanks

[chicago99]

Hey NE, hope you have been well. Just wondering how the second laser treatment went? Did it get rid of all the redness? How long was the healing process? Any pics? Thanks in advance!

[northeastguy]

Hey All.....today I spent the morning with Nicole at Dr Shapiro's clinic to do a test with the temp SMP or Trico. Hopefully if all goes well we will go to town on monday. I will post some before and after photo's to see how SMP can compliment Not only scar repair but FUE in general. I'm exited about getting close to the final step of this journey. As for the beard grafting I did a year ago, its been a slow grow. It's early and some don't see much till 18-24 months so my fingers are crossed. At the very least, the SMP buys me time till that happens. I am currently sporting a .5-1 guard cut so not much hiding going on......stay tuned.

chicago..... the second pass did great. really not much redness at all if any on that lower scar.

[Stevie R]

Hey Northeastguy! Man you have come a long way, and your scar looked awesome at the 7 month post op point so I bet your looking even greater now. Did you have to go to a 0 guard for the laser treatment? What exact laser did you do again and how many passes of laser did you get? Do you feel that head hair can take 18 months to grow as well? Or do you think it may take 18-24 for the hairs to get to the right thickness in the scar even with head hair? Anyway looking great man and as always thanks for posting your story on here, it looks amazing bro and I am sure I can speak for everyone when I say we are all happy for you.

[chicago99]

Hey Northeast, really happy things are coming along so well. Looking forward to hearing about your experience with amp and pics. Best of luck with the full session of amp if you the test turns out well.

[Nicole007]

Hey All.....today I spent the morning with Nicole at Dr Shapiro's clinic to do a test with the temp SMP or Trico. Hopefully if all goes well we will go to town on monday. I will post some before and after photo's to see how SMP can compliment Not only scar repair but FUE in general. I'm exited about getting close to the final step of this journey. As for the beard grafting I did a year ago, its been a slow grow. It's early and some don't see much till 18-24 months so my fingers are crossed. At the very least, the SMP buys me time till that happens. I am currently sporting a .5-1 guard cut so not much hiding going on......stay tuned.

chicago..... the second pass did great. really not much redness at all if any on that lower scar.

Good morning northeast guy and friends, just wanted to pop in and say hi and express that we are very excited to be a part of finalizing this journey with you northeast. I'm Nicole the SMP specialist for Dr. Ron Shapiro and SMG. If any of you have questions about trichopigmentation (temporary SMP), please feel free to contact me. I am trained in both permanent and trichopigmentation (temporary) SMP technique, and, am happy to provide everyone information as a neutral resource. We actually just got back from completing some advanced training with Milena in Italy so we are very excited about the year to come and to share any new advancements, etc. You can email me directly at nicole@shapiromedical.com. And, I'll do a better job of keeping up with questions on here at well. I look forward to talking to you all and will be excited to discuss northeasts progress with you all along the way.

Trichopigmentation is more of a process than a "one and done treatment" and it may take multiple treatments to achieve the desired result. Northeast completed Day 1-2 of his treatment process and we are anticipating that we will see him two more times. Day 1 we really did more of a test patch than a treatment. We wanted to watch how his skin reacted to the pigmentation and see what kind of swelling he was going to experience. We had him rest over the weekend and then completed day 2. Generally speaking we space each scar treatment 4 weeks apart. We give the skin a full skin shedding cycle to heal. His Day 2 we considered really just the first pass. We like to move very slowly so that we are careful to avoid any type of pigment migration that may result from over treating the skin. Also, scar tissue (as I'm sure has been said) is extremely unpredictable from a pigmentation standpoint. Because of the FUE and laser treatments he is in a good position to start this process because he has better circulation and collagen production.
What we are monitoring for before we move on is:
1. Migration - we anticipate that the dots will grow approximately 10% with healing so we plan ahead and space the dots a correct distance apart to allow for some growth. Yet, keep them very still as micro-representations of hair follicles. It is very important that the dots stay tight and individual.
2. Pigment Retention: we do no blending in the first sessions because sometimes the scar will reject all the pigment and if we have put pigment into the healthy tissue surrounding the scar and it all takes it can create a highlight! This is the more common phenomena in trichopigmentation.
We will double and then triple his density at the next sessions. . . . . . . . . . . .
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This is a rough example, but, say that is the base. Now you see I have room to add more between these dots. Dots are never placed on top on one another, always next to and between to add darkness and density. This creates an irregular and natural pattern. (I know those look like straight lines and that pigmentation does not do that -- bear with me on that example).

The first session doesn't make a huge difference, it's really just the beginning and setting him up for success in the next treatments. We expect that after the third treatment is when it will be most desirable.

Thank you everyone,

Nicole

[Nicole007]

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This is what the diagram was supposed to appear like

[northeastguy]

Hey All,

Spent a good part of the day Friday with Nicole getting the second pass done. Here is a pre-photo I took outside just prior to the session. Once everything calms down and settles a bit I'll post a photo of the results from that session. I will be seeing her for 2 more visits... those however will be back to back in April. My current cut is a .5 up the back to a 1 guard on top mostly. I will not know what length I will be able to get away with till all sessions are done..... it is a process.
Also, I feel a have A LOT of beard growth to come.

[northeastguy]

Thought I'd throw this in.... this is a magnified view of the test pass we did last month. shows how small the dots are.

[northeastguy]

Photo is Post 2nd pass SMP at day 5. hair is between a .5 guard and a 1 guard. I ended up trimming this cut a little shorter after the session so it might look a little different in length from the above photo. Also, the ingrown hair is gone I will still post in a week or so after everything calms down and I do a fresh 1 guard cut for a good comparison.