Female Sideburn Reconstruction

[Dr. Scott Alexander MD]

This Patient is a 67 year old female who had a facelift done previously. She lost her sideburns in this procedure. We reconstructed her sideburns and transplanted up into the existing hair along with, into the facelift scar itself. We transplanted 1341 total follicular units in the traditional strip method. 403 in single follicular units, 787 in double follicular units, and 151 in multi- follicular units. This patient sent us photos of her 1 year post operative progress. She will come in after her holiday so we can take additional pictures. We will keep updating as we get more.

[Rootz]

Her right side pic is blurry, but based on the left side pic I'd say this was just OK. I think 1341 grafts was a lot for this, and the yield doesn't seem very high. I see lots of grafts in the immediate post op that did not make it in the result. For FUT especially I would have expected a higher yield. This is just my opinion and I could be wrong of course.

 

The area on the her left that was purely transplanted hairs (bottom portion) looks thinner than the immediate post op would suggest. Lots of grafts holes shown before do not have hairs in the result. The area that did have existing hairs (very top portion) looks good, but it had existing hairs to begin with.

[TakingThePlunge]

I think this result looks good. While the right side photo is blurry, remember, that these were submitted by the patient. Hopefully the clinic will the opportunity to present better photos in the future.

 

Also, I think it's hard to assess the yield in the pics because the hair is not layering over itself as it would normally but instead is brushed up. This is always going to make it appear thinner.

[Dr. William Lindsey]

Thats a good job! Having done 3600 facelifts...one can avoid this pitfall by simply bringing the incision out under the sideburn....but then you don't get quite as much"pull". I favor leaving the sideburn as its hard to get a natural sideburn like Dr. Alexander did on most of these folks. Really nice result, you don't want a strong yield of thick occipital hair here..this looks good.

 

Dr. Lindsey McLean VA

[Rootz]

Really nice result, you don't want a strong yield of thick occipital hair here..this looks good.

 

Dr. Lindsey McLean VA

 

Are you suggesting if there was a yield issue, it was good because you don't want higher density there? Sounds like a waste of grafts. I'm still of the opinion a higher density (if all the grafts had grown in) would have looked a bit better.

 

Also, I think it's hard to assess the yield in the pics because the hair is not layering over itself as it would normally but instead is brushed up. This is always going to make it appear thinner.

 

I think that makes it a little bit easier actually. Look at picture 5/8 which shows the immediate post op. You can see the holes for the grafts pretty well. In particular note how the grafts form the outline of the sideburn, and how packed together they are (density). Now look at picture 8/8 which shows the result. The outline of the sideburn is missing many hairs, and look how the density contrasts. For example, pre-op I'm counting 10+ grafts in a small area towards very bottom tip of the sideburn. In picture 8/8, in that same area, there's maybe 2-3 hairs there. What happened to all the other grafts?

[hairthere]

I must admit I thought the graft count was a bit high considering the areas being addressed. That being said, I think it looks like a very nice result Dr. Alexander.

Edited June 10, 2014 by hairthere

[Dr. Scott Alexander MD]

TakingThePlunge and hairthere,

 

Thank you for the kind words. I appreciate it!

[Rootz]

TakingThePlunge and hairthere,

 

Thank you for the kind words. I appreciate it!

 

If I change my answer can I get a gold star too?

[Mickey85]

Yield does seem a bit weak actually.