strip harvesting at old "rounds" area

[seventhour]

Hello,

new to this board but not to hair transplants. I initially had work started in the late 80's when plugs had taken a back seat to "mini's" and "micro's".

 

Unfortunately, I ended up with a clinic that was showing off pictures of excellant hair transplants of that day to advertise in order to get you to bite. They exclusively used photo's of patients with mini's and micro's for advertising the procedures, but they themselves were selling the large plugs. Being young, dumb, and greatly taken of advantage of I succumbed to the pitch. After seeing how the procedures turned out, I began to investigate the hair transplant technology furthur and found out about the popular mini's and micro's. At least 75% of all clinics were using the smaller plugs, but as my luck had it I walked into one that still employed technology of the 70's. I was mortified at the disregard for the newer and better technology and the deceitfulness and sheer ignorance of the staff concerning what they were dong to people. I'll never forget their remark to me after I accussed them of using barbaric techniques on me when there was more refined technology to offer. They told me that I would be getting ripped off if I went to the other clinics because I was getting more hair for the money with them. That told me all I needed to know about them...they were just selling hair.

 

Anyway, fortunately I never had a lot of money to put in the thing at the start so they never totally destroyed my harvesting areas. Since then I've kept up with the technology and had strips removed to produce micro's and mini's in the 90's and fu's in the late 90's to the present. My last 2 sessions were about a year ago and they were equivalent to about 2200 fu's.

 

 

That just about managed to make the entire old work area presentable and I'm almost not ashamed of the whole thing (some 20 years later). I have the need for some small sessions just to touch up and finalize. Maybe 300 graphs or so, but all of the "sweet" spots regarding good donor area have been exhausted. All I have left is the large area of old 3mm (I think they're called 3mm) harvested area to utilize. There is hair in those areas but I'm not sure how well it can produce good quanities of fu's as well as viable fu's?

 

I'd appreciate any input and experience one may have in this area of having harvested with those conditions. I've personally heard conflicting opinions of harvesting there. One has said it's useless to do so because the scar tissue surrounding the potential fu's causes alot of failure in growth. While another has said, that it can be done but you have to be careful in the disecting.

 

Here again, I'd appreciate any input on other's experiences.

 

Thanks

[seventhour]

Hello,

new to this board but not to hair transplants. I initially had work started in the late 80's when plugs had taken a back seat to "mini's" and "micro's".

 

Unfortunately, I ended up with a clinic that was showing off pictures of excellant hair transplants of that day to advertise in order to get you to bite. They exclusively used photo's of patients with mini's and micro's for advertising the procedures, but they themselves were selling the large plugs. Being young, dumb, and greatly taken of advantage of I succumbed to the pitch. After seeing how the procedures turned out, I began to investigate the hair transplant technology furthur and found out about the popular mini's and micro's. At least 75% of all clinics were using the smaller plugs, but as my luck had it I walked into one that still employed technology of the 70's. I was mortified at the disregard for the newer and better technology and the deceitfulness and sheer ignorance of the staff concerning what they were dong to people. I'll never forget their remark to me after I accussed them of using barbaric techniques on me when there was more refined technology to offer. They told me that I would be getting ripped off if I went to the other clinics because I was getting more hair for the money with them. That told me all I needed to know about them...they were just selling hair.

 

Anyway, fortunately I never had a lot of money to put in the thing at the start so they never totally destroyed my harvesting areas. Since then I've kept up with the technology and had strips removed to produce micro's and mini's in the 90's and fu's in the late 90's to the present. My last 2 sessions were about a year ago and they were equivalent to about 2200 fu's.

 

 

That just about managed to make the entire old work area presentable and I'm almost not ashamed of the whole thing (some 20 years later). I have the need for some small sessions just to touch up and finalize. Maybe 300 graphs or so, but all of the "sweet" spots regarding good donor area have been exhausted. All I have left is the large area of old 3mm (I think they're called 3mm) harvested area to utilize. There is hair in those areas but I'm not sure how well it can produce good quanities of fu's as well as viable fu's?

 

I'd appreciate any input and experience one may have in this area of having harvested with those conditions. I've personally heard conflicting opinions of harvesting there. One has said it's useless to do so because the scar tissue surrounding the potential fu's causes alot of failure in growth. While another has said, that it can be done but you have to be careful in the disecting.

 

Here again, I'd appreciate any input on other's experiences.

 

Thanks

[Bill - Seemiller]

seventhour,

 

Welcome to our discussion forum.

 

I'm sorry to hear that you've been through the hair mill and back again, but pleased to hear that with some additional surgeries that the area is a bit more presentable.

 

Regarding another surgery using strip excision: regarding how much a physician can take will depend on your remaining scalp elasticity.

 

Regarding its success rate in your specific case, you should probably talk to an elite hair restoration physician. If you indeed have scarring throughout the donor area from the old plug removal, this may complicate things however, I can't imagine that it would be unsuccessful. Other patients have been in your shoes before and have had successful follicular unit hair transplantation.

 

Do you have any surgeon in mind for your next surgery? I'd consider consulting with at least 3 of our Coalition physicians who have a proven track record of producing state of the art hair transplantation.

 

Best wishes,

 

Bill

[beachair]

I had 11 procedures with the plug methods, and I was still able to yield 2900 FU grafts. And, the surrounding donor area isthick enough to conceal the past surgeries.

It's pretty amazing what these new-fangled methods can produce!

bb

[thanatopsis_awry]

Have you looked into FUE? Also, it is good to hear that you seem to have recovered so well (physically AND psychologically) from your past (barbaric) procedures.!

[seventhour]

Thanks for all the responses thus far. From my discussion with DR.'s concerning harvesting from my old "rounds", it seems that they're all concerned about problems that may arise, at "my" stage, with elasticity. I hear it come up again and again in various consultations but the MD's never say I have a problem with it but that they just have to watch for it.

I assume they are all talking about whether or not my scalp has enough flexability (once a strip is removed) to be sewn back together.

 

Is there some tensile test to show whether one has proper elasticity? Or is it that you go until a problem arises and then you know your through!

 

Here again, elasticity is a factor; but, has anyone else out there been warned about possible or probable complications to harvesting "old rounds" for fu's?

 

Also, I'm in south Georgia. Any good MD's you could recommend in my area would be appreciated.

 

thanks

[TheHairLossCure]

Seven,

 

Are you looking for more grafts to create better coverage or to further conceal of the old work? If the latter is true, perhaps you can look a removing some of the more troublesome/prominent old grafts, breaking them up under the scopes, and replanting them as smaller units. That may be an option and, if so, it will not require traditional donor harvesting. Just a though.