Small Plugs

I had a number of mini and micrografts done 10 years ago behind the hairline, so they weren’t visible. Now, because I lost more hair, these grafts are now visible and they look like a transplant. What can I do to fix the situation?

There are two basic approaches to repairing visible grafts. The first directly involves the old grafts. If they are small, you can punch them out using a 1 mm punch. This will remove the bulk of the hairs, leaving a few straggler hairs which look OK and there will be a tiny round scar. If the grafts are bigger, you can remove several small areas in each graft to break it up, or you can remove the entire graft with a larger punch or a strip excision. But the latter would leave a scar that would need to be filled in with follicular units after a couple of months. The second way is to do a transplant proceedure around and in front of the old grafts to hide and camoflauge them. If the grafts are small this works well. If the grafts are large, a more radical surgery may be needed.

For an example of the procedure, please see Dean’s Story.