Thank you for your question. You’re asking if it’s okay to have micropigmentation performed
two months after hair transplant and you submitted a photo that appears to be almost immediately
after the transplant was performed showing the distribution of the grafts. And certainly
it looks very good and you want to know if you can also do micropigmentation in the area
of the transplant. Well, I can certainly share with you my perspective.
I’m a board certified cosmetic surgeon and a fellowship trained oculofacial plastic and
reconstructive surgeon. Hair transplant has been a significant part of my practice, practicing
in Manhattan and Long. And I’m also the founder of Trichostem™ Hair Regeneration
centers which are a non-surgical treatment for hair loss developed from our hair transplant
procedures to help people with male and female pattern hair loss using the wound healing
technology that we developed. So certainly I can give you my perspective in how we came
to develop Hair Regeneration and why my recommendation will be as follows.
So when you think about hair transplant, it is a graft. And in other words, you are taking
hair that is attached to skin and moving it from the back of the scalp all the way to
front of the scalp wherever you want to fill it. And in your situation, it’s placed along
the frontal hairline. Now I’m sure what you’re concerned about is developing a certain
density or periods of density in order to blend in with your existing hair area. However,
what concerns me is that you have to allow the hairs to actually grow. The 2 months period
after transplant is a period where there is some shock loss of your grafts. There may
be some grafts that will stop growing and you won’t see the actual shaft and you will
wonder as the next couple of months will go on whether or not your grafts are taken. It
is part of the normal process of healing and it takes at least a year to appreciate the
full growth of the grafts. Now that being said, it means it takes a year to see which
grafts took and which didn’t and where micropigmentation will be of potential benefit but most concerning
really is the potential trauma. To understand micropigmentation, you basically
have to think of tattooing. Tattooing is the application of an ink into the deeper part
of the skin called the dermis. So in order to deliver that ink, you have to use needles.
Well, if you can imagine those needles passing into the existing hair or into the area of
the grafts. Even if it is set to a more superficial level, there is potential for trauma and potential
loss of grafts. So I would advise against micropigmentation in those areas. If you want
micropigmentation in those areas where no graft procedure was done, certainly that’s
probably acceptable but I think you need to allow yourself the full healing.
When we developed Hair Regeneration we were actually using a wound healing material to
help maximize the growth of hair grafts and as well as to treat the hair that was thinning
to help it grow thicker. At this point, we are actually using Hair Regeneration independently
without surgery to help people with thinning hair so they can actually, non-surgically,
get coverage that is comparable to hair transplant. Of course we still do hair transplant like
your own where there is a frontal area that doesn’t have hair. And if you want hair
in that area, Hair Regeneration can help the grafts heal and possibly stimulate growth
in existing area but hair grafts is appropriate. But that being said, understanding that there
is a lot of work in putting those grafts in and give yourself the opportunity to help
those grafts grow. Be patient and wait until the grafts fully develop and grow and I’m
sure, if you ask your surgeon, your surgeon would agree. So in the meantime, just be patient.
If you want to try to blend, sometimes the use of topical fibers can be of value but
again this is something you should discuss with your operating surgeon.
So I hope that was helpful, I wish you the best of luck and thank you for your question!