Are scalp exercises helpful?

[morehair4me]

I hear some people do scalp exercises prior to a transplant, but it does not sound like everyone does them.

 

Are they a good idea to do or is it debatable how helpful they are?

 

I read there is a video on Youtube on how to do them? Is that the best place to look for them?

[morehair4me]

Interesting it never occurred to me that by doing the exercises you could have too much laxity which could do more harm than good.

[Bill - Seemiller]

Spex,

 

As far as I know, the only time too much elasticity is a problem is if the patient has Ehlers-Danlers Syndrome or "thin skin". This lack of supporting collagen can be inducive to scar stretching. However, I'm pretty sure that scalp exercises cannot cause this condition and any laxity acquired from performing them shouldn't put patients at additional risk of scar stretching. Other than physiology, the number one cause of scar stretching is too much tension on the wound. This can occur if a physician closes the wound under high tension or if the donor area is strained during the healing phase.

 

This is my understanding based on my research.

 

Bill

[Dr. William Lindsey]

I think you are correct Bill. Even when I have expanded skin for reconstructing entire noses, using balloon tissue expanders; once you take out the expander, the skin contracts very quickly. In a matter of a week or 2, all that laxity is gone. I would definitely prefer too lax to too tight when it comes to closure.

 

Dr. Lindsey McLean VA

[Bill - Seemiller]

Dr. Lindsey,

 

I appreciate you offering your professional input on this topic. It's very helpful as usual :-).

 

All the Best,

 

Bill

[Severn]

As I mentioned on another post, I did so many scalp exercises prior to my surgery that I actually developed a turkey neck from the resulting sagging skin. But I was doing over 1 hour per day. However it created enough laxity where I went from "tight" to "very loose". The turkey neck effect went away within 2 weeks after surgury.

 

Upon my initial consultation before scalp exercises, there was a question as to whether I could even get 2500 on one pass. It was possible I was going to have to do 1200 then come back for another 1200. But the doc ended up with 3000 and easily could have gotten over 4000 on one pass.

[Bill - Seemiller]

Test reply

[ThisOlHead]

If we do these exercises prior to surgery and then a strip is taken, followed by the skin tightening up again in a week or two, it seems like ...

a) the sutured area would be trying to heal while under tension once again, and

b) we would have to do these exercises for years if we did not want a tight scalp

 

 

... anyone?

... Dr. Lindsey?

Edited June 4, 2010 by ThisOlHead

[ThisOlHead]

since writing the above post, I've met with some doctors for consultations. One answered my questions by saying that "things are pretty mature back there" and that the scalp would not tighten up again. This helps my situation [e.g. approaching mid 40's and many surgeries and scars later], though I still wonder about the younger patient and how their scalp would respond.

-

New question: I've read that one of the causes of hair loss is through mechanical means i.e. too much regular physical stress on the hair. Wouldn't the scalp exercises over-work the hair in the donor area?

This topic is of particular interest to me, with very limited laxity and doctors suggestion to do these exercises for 4 months.

[ThisOlHead]

To answer my own question (above), I'll post this comment from Dr. Rassman, just in case anyone had the same concern.

 

"As long as you are pushing down on the scalp and not creating constant pull 24 hours a day, you should not have traction alopecia from this. Traction alopecia occurs when you keep your hair pulled or braided too tight constantly over the course of many months. Traction alopecia and scalp exercises are two different things."