Doctors on Hair Loss & Hair Transplant surgery.

I’m told by various strip physicians that the strip scar is a thin as a pencil mark. Is this true?

This is completely dishonest. The average strip scar is 2 to 3 mm wide and it can stretch from ear to ear. If you plan to cut your hair short, this can be a problem for you as it is obviously a man made scar. It is an obvious sign that you had a hair transplant. No one wants anyone to know they’ve had a hair transplant, however. No one wants anyone to know they had hair loss or that they ever considered hair restoration surgery. Even shorter hair styles can expose the strip hair transplant scar. Frequently we are told that a hair cut of a number 3 or shorter exposes the strip scar form a strip hair transplant.

There is a new fallacy you are hearing from strip surgeons, as well. They claim that their new trichophytic closure technique produces pencil thin scars that are invisible. We’ve seen 5mm wide scars produced by this technique. Five millimeters is ¼ inch wide. It is a huge gap with no hair in it. When the trichophytic closure works, it rarely works in the rear of the scalp. You will not see an advantage along the sides of the scalp usually. Furthermore, the tighter you make the scalp by performing successive strip procedures, the more likely it is that your scar will widen and stretch out. Furthermore, these strip scars can turn whiter than the surrounding skin or bright pink. This produces further contrast to the scars should they be exposed by a short hair cut or by a medical illness that causes thinning or loss of your hair.

One other problem you will never hear about from your strip surgeon is that strip procedure causes irreversible changes in your donor area hair growth angles. A strip is nothing more than a scalp reduction in the donor area. It alters hair growth angles for the rest of your life.

There is no reason to have a strip procedure. It really is up to the patient to demand the alternative, which is far better. Patients should begin to demand CIT, which is an advancement over our older FIT procedure. There is CIT and no quite CIT. Many physicians will tell you they perform FUE. This FUE procedure does not meet the quality of CIT. CIT is a proprietary procedure with quality instrumentation. Only CIT has proven results day in and day out with all types of hair including wiry, kinky hair seen in men of African decent.

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Tags: cit, cole isolation technique, donor area, fue, hair cut, hair growth, hair transplant, hair transplant surgeons, hair transplant surgery, instrumentation, physician, scalp, scar, strip, strip hair transplant, strip scar, thinning, trichophytic closure

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This video demonstration was taken during live hair transplant surgery with one of Dr. Cole’s patients.  With strip harvesting or traditional FUE, the patients are very limited in their personal appearance and have difficulties getting back to normal daily activities because they are asked to shave their head.
Shaving the head allows the physician to have high visibility of the donor area which is necessary for donor hair extraction. With the new C2G technique, the patients are able to keep their normal hair style before and after the CIT technique!
Now patients can have the best of both worlds. They no longer have to put up with the pain associated with strip scars and they can still maintain their normal hair style.

 

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Tags: c2g, cit, dr. john p.cole, hair style, hair transplant, hair transplant surgery, patients, strip scar, surgery, video

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What are the ways to camouflage strip hair restoration scars?

Camouflaging Strip Scars

Scars in the donor area from strip harvests may be problematic for many men. They may be short or run from ear to ear. Sometimes they widen over time, occasionally to more than two centimeters, which is deforming. This is usually due to an overly tight scalp, too low a placement, or poor surgical technique. They also change the direction of hair growth below the scar, relative to above the scar, which may cause a “shadow” of the linear scar to be evident even with the hair grown out somewhat.

IN order to minimize the appearance of scars, several strategies are available. There are cosmetics such as Dermatch, which may help disguise the scar. The hair may also be grown out fairly long to attempt coverage. This, of course, may not be an option for those with an over harvested donor region.

Surgical scar revision may be attempted, often without success. This consists of excising the scar and them suturing up the wound, hoping that the resultant scar will look better than the original one. This can work in some instances; however, if the condition that led to the scarring is not remedied, then even the best revision may fail.

Grafting into the scar is another option. Because yields tend to be lower in scars, this may take more than one surgical procedure over many months to have a significant cosmetic effect. Either body or scalp hair may be used; scalp hair is generally a better choice if it is available.

Tags: dermatch, donor area, hair cycle, hair growth, hair restoration, scar grafting, scarring, strip scar, surgical scar revision

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Dr. Cole, what is the C2G stand for?

C2G stands for the Cole Isolation technique to go or CIT to go. CIT is a proprietary method of harvesting individual follicular units one at a time such that there is no need for a strip harvest. Strip harvests leave linear scars and no one can predict how wide the scar will be or whether it will be pale white in color or red in color. Either way the strip harvest leaves you will a linear scar that obviates your capacity to wear your hair short and leaves you vulnerable to others suspecting you’ve had a hair transplant previously. Often patients are so concerned about their strip scar that they cease going to a barber or hair stylist for fear of exposure.

In an effort to overcome this social stigma we developed the CIT procedure. The single negative to this procedure has been the requirement for patients to shave the donor area. This can result in problems blending back into society or into one’s work place. The goal of C2G was to develop a procedure that allows patients to keep their hair long so that they can return to their normal social environment within a few days.

C2G is a procedure where only individual follicular units are trimmed and the resulting individual follicular units are then transferred to the top of the scalp after harvesting them via CIT. Only the individual follicular units are trimmed so that you have a normal appearing donor area from day one and you also have the advantage of avoiding the strip scar altogether. Now there is no reason to avoid taking advantage of all the long term benefits of CIT. This includes no linear strip scar, no prolonged strip scar pain, no prolonged strip scar tightness or numbness in the donor area, more hair per graft (more bang for you buck), and a lower follicular injury rate (transaction rate).

There was once a draw back to CIT. Now there is none. C2G is the future of hair restoration surgery.

Tags: c2g, cole isolation technique, donor area, hair restoration, hair transplant, hair transplant surgery, strip, strip scar

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what is the best possible treatment for baldness for a 23 years young male?

The best treatment for a 23 year old male with hair loss will vary somewhat depending on the degree of hair loss at this young age. If you have an advanced degree of hair loss, surgical solutions should not be considered. The reason for this is simply that hair loss is a lifelong process. Once it begins, it will continue the remainder of one’s life. Typically it will advance in stages. This means there will be periods when the loss is stable and periods when the loss accelerates quite rapidly. An advanced degree of loss usually means that one will lose an excessive amount of hair over their life time beyond the capacity of the donor area to keep up with the pace of loss. Eventually there will be a mismatch between supply and demand. This can result in an unnatural result later in life. One should avoid crown work when possible at this age or at least minimize the size of the grafts to one and two hair grafts that will appear more natural as the surrounding hair is lost later in life.

For the advanced degree of loss at an early age, medical and other non-surgical solutions would be the best options. These include DHT blockers such as Propecia and Avodart. It also includes minoxidil (Rogaine) along with Nizoral shampoo. We like Hair Cycle shampoo and conditioner too. One might also consider a hair piece.

Less aggressive degrees of loss should also be treated medically, but one might also consider a surgical solution. The surgical solution should never include a strip procedure. Rather one should have FUE or FIT when they are less than 30 years of age. It used to be that the only surgical option was a strip surgery that left a permanent strip scar. Today, this is not the case. Alternatives that avoid strip scars are available today and a much safer surgical solution.

It is a good idea to put off surgery as long as possible when you are young. The longer you wait, the more likely you are to know the bald pattern you are likely to develop into. In addition, you may find that you panicked as a 23 year old and solved the problem surgically. As men mature, sometimes they become comfortable with their hair loss. Once you begin surgery, you increase the probability that you may require additional procedures as you mature and your hair loss progresses. If you are certain that you want to maximize the hair on your head and you are not expected to have an advanced degree of loss, then surgery may be an option for you, however.

Tags: avodart, bald pattern, dht blockers, fit, fue, hair cycle, hair loss, hair piece, minoxidil, nizoral, non surgical solutions, Propecia, rogaine, strip, strip scar, young age

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