Hair Plug Removal?

Dear Dr. Rassman:

I am a 44 year old male with obvious hair plugs. I had three sessions from strip grafts back in 1995. In considering all of my repair options, I would like to just be naturally bald. Two surgeons have dissuaded me from having plug removals claiming that scarring would be a limiting factor. I was wondering how you would feel about a staged FUE removal of individual hairs over time allowing healing between sessions. I noticed that you replied to another inquirer that individual graft removal take a week to heal. Therefore, why not just space out the sessions to allow for adequate healing in the meanwhile? I’m not averse to small scarring as anything would be better than my current state. I am not interested in additional grafting as I’m convinced I am continuing to bald and will eventually have an island on the top of my head.

Any thoughts? Thank you.

I can not really address your specific issues, particularly when it comes to scarring, without at least seeing what you’re dealing with. You can use follicular unit extraction (FUE) to extract the big hair plugs, but sometime excision of the plugs work well. It all depends upon the extent of your problem. How many plugs do you have and where are they located (photos should tell me the answer)?

Sometimes if the frontal hairline is very pluggy and there is a concentration, removing the frontal hairline does not leave much scarring in many people. Is it your intention to be go completely slick bald (very difficult) or just a repair (much easier to do)? Send me good digital photos (reference this post when sending) and then we can set up a telephone consultation.

For those interested in seeing the difference a repair can do for a pluggy look, take a look at this patient.