Cancer and Hair Transplants

Hi Doc,
I have written to you before. For a while I have been “shopping around” for the best techniques, as well as how cost effective the available procedures are. So far by comparison, NHI has the most natural looks I’ve seen. (in the mild or moderate cases, the more severe cases are less convinceing.) However, my question is this: If you have oily skin, is this a problem for surgery or healing. Also, I was close to have the transplant surgery. I postponed further pursuit of the surgery due to possible symptoms of cancer. (Tests were negative thank God). Now if that ever were the case, I am assumeing that if you had a transplant surgery, chemotheropy would cause all hair to fall out. In conclusion, Is scarring so severe, that being bald or even desireing a haircut style cut close (military style) would bring an alarming rate of attention? I thank you in advance for answering my concerns…

To begin, I am happy to hear that the recents test for cancer were negative. No, oily scalp is not a problem for a hair transplant.

If you drive your life in fear of cancer then you have a problem that needs professional help. Chemotherapy MAY cause hair loss anywhere in the body as chemo impacts rapidly growing cells in the body. Ask yourself what drives your life. When hair is lost with transplants, it almost always returns after the the course of chemotherapy is completed. You can live in fear of what may happen and play into those fears by creating a life around “what if”. Healthy people may have a worst case scenario, but live their lives for meaning, love, happiness, family, friends, and such.

As far as your concerns about scarring, I would suggest that you research the Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) procedure. You can find more information about this here, here, and here.