Scar Grafting with Dr Cole

[northeastguy]

Hey Stevie..... I like the idea of shaving down a small area to a zero guard. I have no interest of ever going down to a zero guard at any point in my life so see no reason to test it. 1 guard would be it.........and that is long down the road. Besides, any white dotting can be fixed by grafting a beard hair into it.
It's funny you mention extracting the hairs that are angled up along the lower scar and redirecting them. I have thought about it but doubt I'll go down that road. Not now anyway. The reality is, should I get to a 2 guard with absolutely no visible signs of scaring after I complete my second round and laser..... I'm a winner.
Yes, I plan to use the Palomar laser.... It seems the best and safest option to debulk and blend the lower scar. I doubt I'll go down the road of recell. Don't think I'll need it after this particular laser.

[Stevie R]

Ya I hear ya, sorry for badgering ya on the 0 guard thing lol, but there are many dudes who have relatively small scars that are younger that want to go to a 0 guard, I at the moment don't have that desire but I may eventually so I will do recell in between my next FUE session, if i do another session, but I think the recell fixes look amazing and belive a 0 guard can be achieved. It's looking great though man, couldn't happen to a nicer guy!

[ITNEVERRAINS]

northeast guy,

I was there Friday for a little touch up, gotta agree 100% with the blunt tip, 1000% less painful! The staff was great, did 1300 FUE non shaven, 387 to front, the rest crown/mid scalp. Even put two beard grafts in my strip so I can see healing of beard, as well as taking to previous strips.

I'll keep track of your progress, I see 1000 beard grafts in my strips from Cole sometime next year.

[jetfan11]

Laser??

Hey Stevie..... I like the idea of shaving down a small area to a zero guard. I have no interest of ever going down to a zero guard at any point in my life so see no reason to test it. 1 guard would be it.........and that is long down the road. Besides, any white dotting can be fixed by grafting a beard hair into it.
It's funny you mention extracting the hairs that are angled up along the lower scar and redirecting them. I have thought about it but doubt I'll go down that road. Not now anyway. The reality is, should I get to a 2 guard with absolutely no visible signs of scaring after I complete my second round and laser..... I'm a winner.
Yes, I plan to use the Palomar laser.... It seems the best and safest option to debulk and blend the lower scar. I doubt I'll go down the road of recell. Don't think I'll need it after this particular laser.

NE guy,

Gotta super important question for you. Aren't you afraid the laser will damage not only the hair follicles in the scar AND the surrounding hair follicles? I want to do cortisone and laser before I see Cole but I am petrified the laser will destroy the hair around it. For you it would be worse because you have hair growing out of the scar.

Is this Palomer laser something you researched a lot if so who did you talk to?

[jetfan11]

Recell

Ya I hear ya, sorry for badgering ya on the 0 guard thing lol, but there are many dudes who have relatively small scars that are younger that want to go to a 0 guard, I at the moment don't have that desire but I may eventually so I will do recell in between my next FUE session, if i do another session, but I think the recell fixes look amazing and belive a 0 guard can be achieved. It's looking great though man, couldn't happen to a nicer guy!

Stevie,

I didn't think recell was offered in the US. Have you talked to anyone about it like a consultation? How do you know it would even work for ht scar?

[Stevie R]

Jetfan, it is not offered yet in America but I have talked to a couple recell docs in Germany, the UK and Australia. The results on scars I have seen are amazing, I have just seen one on a strip scar and the after pic was dark so I could not tell but it looked skin like, yet he did not fue before so their was a lack of hair. I have also seen a guy fix his fue scarring of approximately 100 dots to now not being able to tell by him putting in head hairs into the dots and then recelling the dots and no hair was lost do to the recell procedure. Also, many have done fraxel or even co2 lasers with no hair being destroyed so don't worry about that, yet you obviously need to go to a good clinic to make sure your in good hands. If you want the pics contact me here http://www.hairlosshelp.com/forums/c...lcache=5440142 on a personal message then I will send you pics via email of these cases if you like so you can see the benefits of recell. But honestly a scar is a scar is a scar, I mean from what I have been told a HT scar is no different than others scars and the results I have seen from recell on scars are amazing, so don't buy into the BS that it only helps burn victims. Check out my thread here as I post a lot on recell, fraxel, co2, the derma roller and I give links to all the dudes who have had successful results as well as the reason why lasers (other than hair REMOVAL lasers) are not suppose to remove hairs. I think NE guy had an excellent find on the palomar, but I believe recell is better cause it sprays on REAL skin, your own skin. I am only debating whether to do palomar before recell to improve the results of recell, but I have not reached a conclusion to that yet. The key to fix this mistake in my opinion is A. getting a doc who has experiance doing scar grafting and gives the most limited scarring and B. getting the color of the scar to match the surrounding skintone which I belive only guys with light skin can acheive mos of the time. I am lucky that my hair is not going upwards at the scars bottom or top, I just need to fill in the scar (which is thin) then get the color perfect. I think the derma roller has helped my color and I did cortizone shots first which made the scar smaller and flatter, but dont do it unless your scar is raised as it can make your scar indented if it isn't raised which can be a problem to flatten out as opposed to a raised scar. Anyway if you are interested in those pics contact me, but I would suggest that you read that thread of mine and try to contact others who are knowledgeable on this as well but dont take a HT docs opinion as golden as they are HT docs not dermatologists.

[35YrsAfter]

getting the color of the scar to match the surrounding skintone which I belive only guys with light skin can acheive mos of the time. I am lucky that my hair is not going upwards at the scars bottom or top, I just need to fill in the scar (which is thin) then get the color perfect. I think the derma roller has helped my color and I did cortizone shots first which made the scar smaller and flatter, but dont do it unless your scar is raised as it can make your scar indented if it isn't raised which can be a problem to flatten out as opposed to a raised scar. Anyway if you are interested in those pics contact me, but I would suggest that you read that thread of mine and try to contact others who are knowledgeable on this as well but dont take a HT docs opinion as golden as they are HT docs not dermatologists.

Good advice. For me, the hypopigmentation of my shotgun scars makes them stand out slightly more than the lack of hair in them. Perhaps one or two hairs per 4mm round scar will help eliminate the appearance of scarring. I'm still a month or two short of seeing a semi-mature result of the beard hair grafts into my scars and crown. There was one row of shotgun scars that three month ago I was not able to hide. At this early point they are not nearly as visible. I can feel the new hairs as they are beginning to grow. They are coarser than scalp hair and should offer decent coverage. My donor area below my jaw where 500+ grafts were removed remained slightly pink for longer than I expected. The actual extraction sites are not visible, but a general pink appearance has remained for about two months. Dr. Cole told me that ACell causes a lingering slight pink appearance.

Dr. Cole placed a new study on my desk on Friday related to a new treatment for creating a scalp environment that is more suitable for healthy hair growth. It's one of those medical study reports that should be read several times. Sounds promising and the study photos were encouraging.

35YrsAfter works at Dr. Cole's office

[Stevie R]

Interesting, can you tell us more about this report? Take a look at that link I sent where I write about recell and I leave many links their including many convos with a top recell doc and so on. I think if you hair around the scar is going the right way and angle then it is just about the color cause a good FUE doc should be able to match the density fairly easy and if your scar is not too big I think the scarring would be minimal if not invisible. Every scar case I have seen that is not fixed is do to the color not the density of th ehair in the scar, yet sometimes I think that the lack of hair can also add to the lack of color matching as I have noticed my hairs inside the scar make the scar less noticable in those parts and blend the surrounding scarred area, I only hope recell can make my case unnoticeable at a 0 like Daveone and the guy who got his FUE dotting fixed by recell, it's great you guys have a concern for fixing these scars I imagine the technology will continue to get better with more and more research.

[jetfan11]

scar

StevieR,

Thanks for all that info much appreciated.

What's you personal scar situation and what methods have you done so far?

[Stevie R]

Hey man I did 125 grafts three months ago (315 hairs) into the scar wgich is about 4 1/2 inches long inbetween 0.5mm and 2 mm wide or so. Before that I did derma rolling for a month which helped the color fade and I used all types of creams and before that I did the cortizone shots which helped the width shrink in half in many parts and helped the color as well and made it flatter. My scar improves everyday as I am getting closer to the 4 month mark. In 6 month I will probably do recell, maybe 8 months, then I will wait 6 months and see if another pass if needed. The areas of my scar that are 0.5 mm look as they are almost fixed already with just 3 months growth and thin hairs within the scar, I can't wait til the hairs thicken up and I get a few months down the road to see my results as every guy with a scar my size who went to a top FUE doc who has done many scar cases can get it to a 1 guard or close to without a problem. Before my FUE pass I could go to a 2 guard and that is what I have now and it is improving, look at that thread I detail my whole story their as I have forgotton much of the detail of the cortizone shots and the derma roller and other things of that nature, take care.

[jetfan11]

scar

Awesome stuff. Where did you get a derma roller? Ill buy 1 right now.

[Stevie R]

I think I got a Dr Roller and a 1.0 mm first then later I got a 1.5, but look at my thread to make sure, it was like 40 dollars I think.

[Stevie R]

I got it on Amazon.com.

[gillenator]

I got it on Amazon.com.

Who would have ever thought of purchasing a derma roller on Amazon and I bet it's much cheaper from there as well.

[northeastguy]

NE guy,

Gotta super important question for you. Aren't you afraid the laser will damage not only the hair follicles in the scar AND the surrounding hair follicles? I want to do cortisone and laser before I see Cole but I am petrified the laser will destroy the hair around it. For you it would be worse because you have hair growing out of the scar.

Is this Palomer laser something you researched a lot if so who did you talk to?

I was assured by a few MD's and laser professionals that pulse dye laser or palomar fractional laser will not do damage to the existing hair or the follicles. laser hair removal and laser skin resurfacing is completely different. Talk to Md's in your area who do laser for skin resurfacing. I will continue to research this and assure myself that your concern is will not be a possibility in any way. Otherwise I will not risk it. I am reaching out to another MD as well as the makers of this laser.

little information...

http://www.palomarmedical.com/treatments/laser-scar-removal.aspx

http://saveyourface.com/whatsnew/2009/02/04/starlux-fractional-laser-skin-resurfacing/