Terrible scar, what to do? My long story as well

[Adam1]

Im 31 now but at 24 I had my first procedure with MHr in Tampa. small scar, about 4" and I want to say 1300 grafts? My temples were receding bad and they brought my hairline all the way up making it extremely thin and silly looking (I'm assuming to get me back in the door for another surgery). After a couple years my uncle who's a barber in wi told me about his landlord who had the surgery from dr Reese in mn and he couldn't tell anything was ever done. This got me extremely excited to go and have my first surgery corrected. Dr Reese was a former MHr surgeon who went off on his own to cater to patients a bit better. 2nd surgery went fine but I didn't know my scar would end up just above my ears on either side. I'm not sure about my number on this one but I want to say 2000ish. Great dr, great staff, but now this is twice where I'm told my scar should be 1mm or hand wrinkle size. A couple years later after emailing dr Reese's office I fly up there and they did a scar revision and a couple hundred grafts free of charge! Again great dr and great staff all the way but my scar still looks the same. I believe I'm a nw6? and propecia and overseas generic finastride has slowed it down a bunch but I know it'll all be gone eventually. I shave the sides with a 4 and the top with a 3 (I feel like the shorter it is the less thin it appears). Even with the 4 out back the absence of hair on the scar is visible. I'd just rather shave my head at this point but the scar is terrible and looks like a zipper. With thinking about 10 years down the road I'm not sure what to do at this point. I want to laser every other follicle off my body but if it'll be useful somewhere else I'll wait for one one to chime in.

 

After 2 surgeries, before revision:

Before anything:

Current:

 

Any suggestions on this will be greatly appreciated.

Edited December 3, 2011 by Adam1

[hounddog]

I know your pain buddy.. Hope is not all lost. I would start by putting some grafts into that scar via FUE. Is the scar flat? Same color as scalp? I think by putting some hair in there it will help out with cammoflaging it..

[skepticalguy]

Did he do a trychophytic closure on it? It doesn't appear so, get that done, then fue into it.

[HARIRI]

Haha. You call that terrible scar.. How about this one lol ... Thats mine (The ugly one behind my head is by my previous bad surgeon from Dubai but the fine good looking ones at the sides (Tri Closure) are Dr. Rahal's)

[HARIRI]

In your case, I think FUE the scar is the optimum solution since your scar is straight and that wide. It will work well with you. Try beard hair with Bisanga or Umar if you care about your donor grafts for future work. I guess you feel better now after looking at my scar haha. Looks like richter scale guess its the signature of my previous butcher. I agree with skepticalguy it doesnt look that your previous surgeon used the tri closure technique, I think it was normal closure with pretty big sutures as I prefer staples.

[mars]

Do NOT get fue into the scar with the scar the size it is now it will use up alot of grafts and take 3 passes and the scar will still be visable,get a revision by a top doc reduce the size of the scar then fue it but def get a revision first,if you are close to mn instead of reeves go see shapiro.

[Adam1]

The revision did get he tri closure technique. I haven't cut my hair that short so I can't say it's exactly the same but it is raised in most spots and anything shorter than a #4 will earn me the " hey what's that scar from" questions. Going on a cruise Monday. When I get back I'll cut it a little shorter to show it a bit more.

 

Dr Reese also talked to me about bringing my frontal corners back a bit (mhr's ideal hairline) via the hole punch thing for single grafts but there was a chance of leaving small red dot/scars. Has there been any improvement on those? I'll take a current picture in about an hour and update it into the original post.

[HARIRI]

I agree with you Mars, he just had one strip. So I guess having a revision first with tri closure is worthy to try. After a year, possible to get FUE to it. Actually thats what Im thinking of sometimes. Im quite confused, I want to FUE it right away to avoid risk of stretch back but sometimes I want to try and have a go although I was cut twice, to remove the dead scar tissue and make my scar straight line then FUE it. Any advices guys?

[hounddog]

hariri,

 

Your scar looks red like mine....Is it still that color or has it faded?

[mars]

harri i think a revision is always the way to go first,laxity depending of course,bullitnuts story is proof..huge scars pre op now averaging 2.5mm wide post op revision..

[skepticalguy]

Damn harirri~ Dubai huh? Maybe im just ignorant but That sounds like a country whose surgical practices may be not up to par~ What do they make the recipient incisions with in dubai? A piece of wood?

[skepticalguy]

Harrirri, WHere is the thin scar by rahal~ I don't see it?

[aaron1234]

Adam1,

 

I wouldn't call that a terrible scar. It's not amazing but if you can get by with a 5 guard then I say live with it. In my opinion, I would go for another round anyways if I were you with an elite surgeon. I know you said you were happy with your doc but he's not a renowned name in the industry. Go with an elite doc who can give you more hair on top and maybe also improve your scar.

[NEWHAIRPLEASE]

Adam1,

 

I wouldn't call that a terrible scar. It's not amazing but if you can get by with a 5 guard then I say live with it. In my opinion, I would go for another round anyways if I were you with an elite surgeon. I know you said you were happy with your doc but he's not a renowned name in the industry. Go with an elite doc who can give you more hair on top and maybe also improve your scar.

 

I totally agree. Get a great surgeon, get more grafts and improve your donor scar!

[Adam1]

What are the elites charging nowadays? All I'd need would be. Revision with a few donors replanted. I don't want my scar any longer than it is

[NEWHAIRPLEASE]

What are the elites charging nowadays? All I'd need would be. Revision with a few donors replanted. I don't want my scar any longer than it is

 

In general around 3-5 dollars per graft. Your scar wouldn't be any longer if you communicate that with your surgeon!

[N-6]

An attempt at scar revision would be my first option. I would then consider micropigmentation or tattoo in the scar may be my 2nd option. FUE into scar is expensive and seems more iffy in terms of ultimate results.

[Adam1]

Are there any pics of of good scars or before and after revisions?

[skepticalguy]

I think they should lay grafts in the incision as they close it on top of tri closure! So the hairiest part is right up the incision line!

[HARIRI]

Thanks Mars. @Hounddog, Yeah its still red, weird isnt it? Before my correction surgery it was so white but now its red although im 4 months post OP. @ADAM1, you will see many scar revision (scar excision) results of these two doctors Dr. Lindsey and Dr. Feriduni. But if you are looking for scar revsion (FUE into scar), you will find loads with Dr. Bisanga and Dr. Umar.

[bonkerstonker]

Hariri that scar is a shocker mate you must of been fuming. Has Dr Rahal removed all that bad scar now with your latest surgery and if not why not?

[Jotronic]

It is impossible to have a scar revision without making an incision that is no longer than the original scar. The ends have to be tapered as the new incision can't just stop in the same spot as this would create a "notch" and a blunt end to the incision. This is of course if the surgeon has even the slightest clue as to what he's doing.

[HARIRI]

BONKERSTOKER, These are my latest photos (4 months post op), Dr. Rahal managed to reduce my scar down to 0.7cm from 1cm because he couldn't managed to remove the whole scar tissue because i needed more grafts of 2500. So along with my strip he managed to remove maybe 0.3cm of dead tissue on top, however the two ends of my original scar got stretched back a bit. He even went further to the sides as you can see my side scars are very well created and pencil thin of a 0.4 cm thickness only. Prior to surgery i just had a scar back of my head, these two scars at the sides of my head are fresh ones and a tri closure was performed properly.

 

I'm thinking to get a scar revision by removing the dead scar tissue of my original scar to perform a tri closure properly and whatever grafts comes out of it (400-500) will be used to cover my pencil thin side scars and some temporal points. Hope my answer answered your question :-)

 

@skepticalguy, this butcher has a clinic called LADHAIR could you believe it, it stands for Los Angeles Doctors hair restoration. His name is Tahsin Alwahab (American-Iraqi Doctor), you couldnt believe it how he was placing incisions its like he is playing a game or something, so fast and with strong press. I really regret until this moment of having my 2000 grafts hairline with him. He knocked out all of my hair on my hairline (all of it). Plus he asked his untrained technicians to split all of my grafts into singles to charge me more. Thats why my gratfs were kinky because of poor handling. I wished I knew HTN before but guess that was my destiny. :-(

Edited December 9, 2011 by HARIRI

[bonkerstonker]

Yes pal it answered it well! God what a nightmare that surgeon needs putting in a ditch in the desert for that, I'd of thought you could just get it removed by a top surgeon but obviously not!

[HARIRI]

Hopefully I will try getting it removed this summer with Dr. Feriduni. He is going to perform a scar revision (strip) to reduce the thickness of the old scar, in detail he said he will have to follow the curve of the existing scar as much as possible so it will not completely be a straight line. Where the scar goes more below he will have to go down about 5mm and lift the lower part of the donor wound a bit to obtain a nice result, in this area he will use an extra intracutanous suture to avoid stretch back. He will also use a continuous intracutaneous suture and he will take as little extra skin as possible and then use whatever grafts taken into the thin side scars performed by Dr. Rahal and if there will be more grafts maybe some into temple points. Fingers crossed. So then by the Future I will just need to FUE the old scar with very few grafts as it will be less than 0.5cm wide after the revision :-)