Hair Loss from Scars

Scarring can occur as a result of a traumatic injury or a surgical procedure. Patients who have undergone face lift procedures, brow reductions, and many other types of cosmetic procedures may experience some degree of hair loss. Sometimes the loss is temporary and other times it is permanent.

In cases where the hair loss is permanent because of scarring in the region, we can transplant hair follicles into the scarred areas. Sometimes the growth rate when transplanting hair follicles into scarred areas is a little lower than we would expect in healthy scalp because the blood supply is compromised. Nonetheless we usually see some degree of growth which offers improvement to the patient. Typically after 1-2 procedures we can conceal a good amount of the original scar, if not the entire scar.

Another application for hair restoration procedures is for patients who have had the strip harvest procedure in the past and now wish to shave their hair very short, but cannot because their strip scar shows through. In these cases we can harvest follicles via follicular unit extraction (extracting follicles one at a time with a special instrument) and then transplant them into the linear scar thus concealing the scar by having new hair follicles grow through it. This can conceal the strip scar and allow the patient to wear their hair much shorter.