A Very Small Bald spot.
I'm 22 Years Old?
About how many grafts and how much money would it cost to repair these two bald spots that
were caused by cuts during my childhood?
Thank you for your question.
At the age of 22 you submitted a question about 2 bald spot the result of childhood
trauma that resulted in areas of patches that don't grow hair and your asking about how
much will cost and how many grafts you will need.
Well, it's first important to define by physical examination, the type of scaring that is present
and that is something I can't do by just looking at your photos.
But there are a couple of concepts that I want you to learn about and I think it would
be helpful in you making a decision.
First of all, assuming by the photos that you are of African descent or that you have
a type of very curly hair quality, then we have a couple of things that we need be aware
of when it comes to making decision about doing transplants.
First of all, when you wear your hair very short you have to understand that any type
of donor which means taking hair from the permanent zone in the back and moving it to
the front whether you do an FUE or follicular transplant or a FUE follicular extraction,
where one is traditional donor strip, where strip of hair is removed versus the newer
recently very popular concept of removing hair from little punches.
When you wear your hair short some scaring will be present so you have to be mindful
about that and in my practice I generally recommend a strip and I'll explain why I do
but before we go on to that lets go to another concept.
Numbers of grafts for most people of African origin the hair can look a lot of volume but
the space between the hair follicles is actually greater than Caucasian or Asian race and essentially
hair grows in a circular or curly pattern.
And so you can understand if they are close to each other, it could be a problem with
growing hairs.
So when we evaluate someone for hair transplant, we look at the area that needs to be transplanted
and we estimate how many hairs can be placed in a way that would respect the blood supply
to the hair as well as are likely to survive and make it one of the things that even in
an area when you do transplanted hair that is not a scar like in case like yourself you
still don't get 100% growth of all the grafts that are placed with traditional hair transplant
so that brings me to the next concept .
In my practice, we have been fortunate to be in a leader ship position in this concept
I refer to as hair regeneration.
Although this doesn't apply to you this point but understanding hair loss or hair thinning
has something to do with stem cell based activity of hair follicles such that when hair is thinning
those stem cells becomes inactive and the hair disappears.
Well we have been using a material called extracellular matrix to assist with hair loss
from male pattern or female pattern hair loss but we also used it and this is origin of
the basis of non surgical treatment we have also used it for hair transplant.
You see, the idea is with advanced cell regenerative healing, the yield of the transplant becomes
considerably greater so we would have to use this extra cellular matrix that we are using
that is manufactured by a company called ACell.
And we would apply it to a transplant so that when we place the hair follicles, the hair
follicles are more likely to make it as well as the donor area where we harvest would also
heal better.
There is no technology that eliminates scar all together but I have found that a lot of
people who are of African descent who wear their hair very short even with a good scar
and incisional scar or FUE, you can still see it.
So you have to be very careful about the choice.
A lot of times, we suggest to our patients that they have to actually grow their hair
a little bit so that that would cover the scar the way it would just a little bit of
length.
Nonetheless, in terms of your treatment plan, we would have a discussion about the number
of hairs you will need.
I would evaluate the scar tissue.
Now in my practice I have transplanted hair in a lot of areas including scar tissues people
would have burns from the materials where there is a round circle patch.
I placed hair grafts and I have successfully able to grow hair so it's remarkable how resilient
hair follicles can be with a minimum amount of support even if thin scar.
Now with this new technology of hair regeneration or stem cells based, adult stem cells that
can further enhance the healing ability of the hair follicle.
There is an opportunity to get you the best result possible.
You see a lot of times, people have hair transplant if they have straight hair even if they don't
have not such great scars, if you grow your hair long, it would cover.
For someone like yourself really requires optimal treatment of every level because so
many ways there is very little forgiveness for something where you will be able to see
the result of having a procedure and that's kind of attention you don't want.
So summary I think you would be a good candidate for hair transplant.
I can't tell you the cost of these procedures vary from region to region and I require really
a physical exam so it would be unfair to cost you how much would it cost but understanding
the no of hairs that needs to be delivered, how hair the hairs will be harvested and using
advanced technology to me should be a standard of care now that we have been able to proceed
with this material and have been demonstrating it in the past 2 and half years in my practice
or so.
I think that you have an opportunity to learn more and make a decision and a choice when
you are ready and so I hope that was helpful and thank you for your question.