FUE vs scar revision

[HairTransplantOops]

I am 32 and made the mistake of having a hair transplant when I simply do not have a enough hair on my head to fill my frontal or crown. Not enough supply for the demand. I should have paid more attention in economics class before undergoing the procedure. So, now I am stuck with the typical ear to ear FUT scar with a balding top of my head. I think I can maintain this for at least 10 years and look simply like a thin 30 something old. My question is should I attempt an excision/revision or simply put FUE into my scar in attempt to trim it down to a respectable level all around (hoping for 1/4 inch or less with slight scar showing only)? My scar is 2-3 mm wide all around. I know there are plenty of you out there that have had this decision to make and it either bit you or you were successful. Maybe it is not worth the risk for the possibility of a 50% improvement?

Let me know what you guys think?

[doinmyheadin]

I am interested in this as well. Similar situation, 2-3mm scar which I think is very common. Personally I think if I had a scar revison it would not get much better. There are a few results online (but not a many of them) of fue into scar.

With fue into a scar the width mentioned would you be able to cut the sides and back down to a number 2 or 3mm clipper without seeing the scar line? Outside in bright natural light of course. I dont want to shave to zero or anything and dont want to do the SMP thing every few years.

[doinmyheadin]

Are there any Veterans out there who can recommend or have been through this?

[doinmyheadin]

Bump anyone?

[HairTransplantOops]

I am somewhat skeptical about your 1 mm or less scenario. From what I can gather, revisions are somewhat like playing with fire and can be unpredictable. To believe that you can completely make a scar "disappear" does not sound realistic. By no means, do I not think that it is possible but the fact of the matter is that there are risks with revisions. I have been advised by a couple of the top docs (3 MD with combined experience of over 60 years) in the U.S. that my scar is not worth the risk, but it does keep going through my mind to try a revision and simply see what happens (hoping for the best with fingers crossed). If there were a guarantee that it would be smaller by all means I would say slice me up.

[doinmyheadin]

HairTransplantOops I tend to agree with you. I have had two tranplanst one with a Australian doctor who used staples ( he was previously a plastic sugeon) and another with probably the most popular doctor around who uses satures, both did the trico closure. The second doctor cut out one side of the scar and extended it further up the side of my head. The scar from both operations eventually healed at about 2-3mm which I think is a lot more common than the 1mm scar FUT doctors promote.

Surely there are some veterans who can give some advice on the topic.

[arfy]

You could certainly try doing a small FUE session on a limited area, and see if the grafts survive. That way, if it doesn't work, you didn't waste a ton of money.

Be careful, the repair process is just as treacherous as a regular HT, with lots of unscrupulous doctors who are not qualified to do that kind of work. One guy goes to Dr. 1 for his first transplant, then he asks Dr. 2 for corrective surgery. In the meantime, another guy goes to Dr. 2 for his first transplant, then asks Dr. 1 to do HIS corrective work. It can be a merry-go-round of incompetence.

[GNX]

no offense Doc but I strongly disagree! there have numerous cases of patients having stip surgery buy great doctors and have been left with the typical ear to ear scar that had widened. the 1mm or less visible scar is just not accurate.

if I took the time I cud posts countless patients who have presented POOR strip surgery results that have a much larger scar then 1mm and the doctors were not no-name doctors either.

bottom line is you just don't how a patent is gonna heal and to say its most likely due to a poor surgical procedure is absolute nonsense!

With todays refined techniques and knowledge on how wounds heal favourably, a strip scar should be 1mm or less in width.

Having said that, unfortunately the most frequent cause for a bad strip scar is poor surgical technique. Unfavourable healing characteristics of the patient is a rare cause.

When a patient enquires with a bad strip scar the first thing I do is to ask who did the procedure. If the surgeon isn't someone that I know with an excellent surgical technique I will assume the cause is poor technique. In this case the most effective surgical treatment is a scar revision that involves a direct excision of the scar and closure with the best possible technique.

FUE grafting and SMP have limited efficiency in these situations as they do nothing to remove the existing scar. They only camouflage the scar to some extent. I will consider these methods only when I know the previous procedure was done by an expert and I suspect that the patient has unfavourable tissue healing characteristics, or when a proper scar revision is done with success and I still want to improve the camouflage.

In my experience, there hasn't been a single case when I did a scar revision and the scar didn't improve. The results ranged between complete disappearance of the scar to a significant improvement. There were a couple of cases where the scar improved but with less effect than I expected. I diagnosed that these patients had unfavourable tissue healing characteristics. I had an interesting case where both a body hair transplant and SMP on the scar done by reputable surgeons were not effective and a scar revision done by myself that removed all of these with the scar led to a significant improvement. The previous interventions had actually increased scarring and made it more difficult to do the repair.

[HairTransplantOops]

doinmyheadin, from the research i have done on scar width following fut surgery we are still on the low end of width and it could be far worse.

[ejj]

I would go FUE into scar. At the width your talking about, you may only need a few hundred.
Always go with the procedure with the least risk
Regards
ej