Years After Transplant, I Want To Shave My Head

I had a hair transplant at 22 years old in Dallas. I have to admit, it did look pretty good to begin with. But after some years, I continued to lose my hair. Fed up with the look and not wishing to continue with surgery and the additional potential scarring, I decided to shave my head.

Turns out that I have the “head” for a shaved look and got many comments on how good the look was for me, leading me to wishing I had never done the transplants to begin with. To anybody else I will always say “try the shaved look first before going with transplants – it’s permanent!” But I’m definitely not knocking transplants. It’s just no longer for me.

My dilemma now is two-fold and from looking around at the various posts, I see that you’ve answered my questions in various forms, but I guess I’m not clear as to what I should do from here.

1. I want to reduce the donor scar as much as possible. It’s wide from left to right, starting about the middle of my head – and noticeable (of course).
2. Next, the pitting and scarring left on the recipient site is noticeable under flourescent lighting and bright lights (not necessarily sun light). Is there any way to reduce this scarring?

Are you able to “correct” this situation? Should I send photos?

Again, I understand that I can never get back to perfect form and, granted, it doesn’t look too bad as it is now. Yet anything to reduce the scarring would be helpful.

Thanks.

I always tell people that transplants are forever and that is why selecting a doctor and taking the time to make the right decision is something that can’t be taken lightly and shouldn’t be done when you are in such an emotional state. You need to have a long term plan and this should have been discussed with you when you started at the age of 22. As a rule, 22 year olds do not make the right decisions (there are exceptions, however), so good doctors do not do this surgery unless there are clearly indications and an excellent doctor/patient relationship is made.

You outlined the problem well. You might extract the grafts using FUE, or excise them if they are localized enough. The donor scar can be minimized, depending upon what you present with. Good photographs would help me so if you send them, please include many views with some good close-ups and mail it to me at at the address on the Contact page. Once I see your photos, I might be able to give you more information and suggestions, but now I have no way to tell exactly the extent of the problem.