Deformed Hair Plugs — I Just Want to Be Bald

I have been mutilated by your hair transplant community and I am angry as hell about it. It has forced me to modify my life to address the deformities of my hair, so I do not and can not have a normal life. I have lived in hats and closets for years, and now I just want to go bald and look bald. How do I do that? I have scars on the back of my head that is wide and long (5 of them), holes in the back of my head from the first surgeon who drilled them out before the second surgeon cut them out, I have pits in my head in the front and top and my hair line looks like a Frankenstein movie part that am auditioning for.

I was told about FUE-extraction but I know that it will lead to more scars. Another doctor told me to do a second step would be to do a scar revision as well, but with than number of scars, I really can not imagine that this can be done. I want to shave my head every day and want my head to be smooth. I have very little money and that makes the problem worse.

There are many things you could do to come out of the ‘closet’ that you are forced to live in. Technology and your decisions processes of ‘old’ (many years ago I suspect) meant that you made decisions at the time that were not wise in hindsight. You can and should get out of your situation and with today’s technology, you probably can.

I am sorry to say, but your plan may just get you in a worse situation than you have now. Scar revisions can be done but you will need to camouflage the new scars (which you will have) with longer hair. There are lots of tricks to make the scars better, like a trychophytic incision which allows hair to grow up from the scar from the edges, but no single solution short of FUE (at the proper time) can address the tendency for scars to widen. Dr. Nordstrom in Helsinki has developed a special suture to address these scars and he is a reputable surgeon, but you have many scars, so that this approach is not a good one unless you get it down to a single scar. Balloon expansion of your scalp, where you will look very bizarre for up to 3 months as your head is expanded to the size of a soccer ball, can deal with the multiple scars, reducing them into a single scar with reasonably assurance of success hopefully achieving only a single small scar is a reasonable approach for multiple scars in the donor area. With the pitting you describe, the scars and the progressive hair loss, adding dermabrasion will be a disaster producing still another set of problems, more than you need.

The key here is to establish reasonable goals with a good surgeon who has lots of experience dealing with people in your situation. I think that your goal should not be to shave your head or to restore you to a hairy man, but to restore you to a normal looking balding male without a freaky, man-made look. With a frame built to your face that is normal looking, and the plugs removed, camouflaged, and properly dealt with, you can achieve this goal. Trying to go bald with what you tell me you look like, will make the scars obvious. A hair system (wig) could be considered as well, though I generally recommend to stay away from those for a variety of reasons.

Be careful not to step off another cliff. You have a bad problem, but if you look at our war stories (see Dean’s Story link below), you might realize that others have been there and fixed that under my care. Get a good doctor first, bond with him/her and then develop a plan that you can afford and live with. Then stick to it.

For more repair information:

• The Art of Repair in Surgical Hair Restoration Part I – General Aspects of Repair and Basic Repair Strategies
• The Art of Repair in Surgical Hair Restoration Part II – The Tactics of Repair
• Dean’s Story – Step by step photos of a repair procedure
• Repair Work Photo Gallery – Before and after patient repair photos