how should gray hair at the donor area be handled ?

[PD]

Hello,

 

I was wondering what one should do with the gray hair at the donor site (white in my case, as I am a black haired man) I am 37, I dont have too many just about 15% maybe.

 

 

 

1. Should the doctor take the strip in a way that there isnt too much gray hair?
   
2. Should the technician favor normal hair to graying hair while seperating the follicles?
   
3. If you are a prospective patient, what would you want to do?
   
4. If you are a doctor, what would you do ?
   

 

Thanks in advance for all the replies.

PD

[SERIOUS]

It just depends on the clinic. Some doctors will prefer to quickly dye the donor area after inspection before the surgery, some others will leave it that way because their technicians are trained to deal with it.

 

Either way, this is very common and you don't have to worry about it at all.

 

Your HT surgeon will do the rest.

 

Good luck

[1966kph]

hello pd, i had been wondering the exact same thing prior to a ht,maybe some docs or techs would be kind enough to elaborate on this.being grey round the donor area and darker at border line safe zone if i had a ht most of my donor would be grey so i would look wierd--grey brown grey,all the best and have a nice day....

[SERIOUS]

Oups... I just saw another angle to your question.

 

I thought you were wondering how difficult it can be technically to deal with gray / white hairs for technicians under the microscope (which can be a challenge for some)... but realized you might worry more about the "cosmetic" side.

 

Something you can be sure is that the surgeon will not consider the color of your hair to determine where and how to extract a strip. It's not part of the equation.

Technicians won't favor any follicles either... since the goal is to have all of them implanted.

 

In my experience the whole thing should blend well... and if the gray / white really bothers you the only solution is to dye. One positive aspect of dyeing the hair is that it will add fullness to the final result... something you might realize will help a lot to achieve the illusion of density you'll always look for with a transplant.

 

You might also see a general "darkening" of the hair where implanted... a strange phenomenon, but very common with hair transplants. It seems that hair pigmentation sometimes gets a second life when planted in a brand new "soil"

 

After all... at 37, the grey in your hair will just continue to increase, so you might just want to start dyeing a bit sooner than you expected... and as a bonus, get that fullness that will help the overall result.

 

Good luck

[1966kph]

hello serious..thanks for your responce,i presumed this would be the case and haveing read somewhere or other that grey hair is coarser the result should be a better appearance of density,all the best and have a nice day...

[Louise]

Hello PD,

 

Grey hair is very common and greying is gradual. As hair begins to grey, in a 3-haired follicular unit, often 1 hair greys at a time. When there is no greying, all 3 hairs may be black. Then it goes to 2 black hairs and 1 grey and then 2 grey hairs and 1 black to 3 grey hairs. This salt and pepper effect helps to keep the hair colour natural when transplanting grey hair.

 

When harvesting a donor strip, we want to transplant all the hair. You can leave it grey afterward or dye it. If someone has a distinct pattern of greying we may strategically use more grey hairs in some areas and less in others. If the whole donor strip is grey, Dr Simmons will use a Haber Spreader to minimize transection during the "harvesting process".

 

When dissecting grafts under microscopic vision grey hair can be translucent but we can trace the path of the hair from the surface to the white cap over the dermal papilla to avoid transecting the hair. We have found that dye stays on the surface and doesn't help that much with graft preparation.

 

 

Louise

[PD]

Thanks Serious and Louise,

 

I am a little concerned about ending up with more gray hair on the frontal third than what i got now.

 

i do agree, that all of them should be transplanted, some hair is better than no hair, i probably will have to start thinking about a new issue, hopefully not so soon....

 

If a patient or co-ordinator of Dr. Feller sees this post , please respond...

 

Thanks.