Amount of Time for Scalp Exercises?

[FollicularlyChallengedScar]

What is the minimum amount of time you should devote to scalp exercises if your laxity is not loose but also not considered too tight?

 

2 months, 3 months, 6 months, etc?

 

Also, can you decrease the amount of months necessary if you do them 2x a day?

 

What is the commonly referred to amount of time needed to get the maximum benefit from the exercises?

[ned]

I had a procedure with Dr Hasson, and he described my laxity within my scalp as excellent...in fact he kept on telling me the laxity was one of the best hes seen and made the actually procedure a lot easier to perform...

 

I probably started (the laxity exercises as shown on the Hasson and Wong website) about 2.5 months before the procedure. Instead of doing it once/twice a day, I got in the habit of performing the exercises when ever I was sat down. E.g 10mins in front of the TV, 5 mins at my desk in work, a couple of minutes at traffic lights etc etc. Its sounds silly, but it became a bit of a habit, but helped my procedure a lot. I probably ended up 'exercising' about 5 times a day.

 

so, over all, I benefited from little but often...hope this helps

[Jotronic]

FCSM,

 

Generally, even if you are only considering a procedure, you should start the exercises so the earlier you start the better your laxity will be. However, whenever we make a recommendation it is based on the assumption you are having a procedure at that time, not at two or four months down the road.

 

There are cases where we do recommend that a patient wait two or three months minimum but those are cases where we know for a fact that the donor scalp is not as loose as we'd like to get the job done right.

 

So, to answer your question, there is no minimum for most patients but if we have a specific requirement then we will say so.

 

Keep in mind that when I made the scalp exercises video the "30 minutes" I mention is not supposed to be in one sitting. It is supposed to be broken up through the day to avoid too much fatigue with the hopes that at least 30 minutes a day have accumulated. I will be making a new video shortly to clarify and update the exercises and how they should be performed.

[Dr. William Lindsey]

If you pickup any plastic surgery text you will find out about 2 properties of skin: skin creep and stress relaxation; both which are utilized by surgeons to expand skin or close defects. Scalp exercises don't use either of these and so I don't know quite how they work.... But they do work quite well, and I have patients squeeze their donor area a minute before each meal for 3 or 4 weeks preop. It does seem to help significantly.

 

Dr. Lindsey McLean VA

[Coligion]

How soon can you start scalp exercises after having a procedure? I would think if you start them too soon you could risk stretching the scar.

[Severn]

As I mentioned before, I decided to double the recommended exercise time to an average of 1 hour. Somedays I would do up to 2 hours though.

 

In july during my consultation at SMG, my laxity was judged as "tight" because of the scalp reductions I'd had 14 years earlier. The consultant even suggested that I might have to do two surgeries of 1300 FU's each to attain my 2500 graft target.

 

By the time my surgery took place in October, I went from "tight" to "very loose". Dr. Shapiro got 3008 grafts with ease and could have gotten a lot more. The removed strip didn't even go from ear to ear.

[Jotronic]

We recommend that you wait eight months before you start up with the exercises again.

[FollicularlyChallengedScar]

Thanks for the great responses guys.

 

I guess I was kind of expecting an answer of 6 months being the generally recommended amount of time.

[Maxxy]

Keep in mind that when I made the scalp exercises video the "30 minutes" I mention is not supposed to be in one sitting. It is supposed to be broken up through the day to avoid too much fatigue with the hopes that at least 30 minutes a day have accumulated. I will be making a new video shortly to clarify and update the exercises and how they should be performed.

 

Hey Jotronic,

 

Is there a minimum time you would recommend for each session? Would doing thirty, 1 minute sessions produce the same results as three, 10 minute sessions?

[Jotronic]

Maxxy,

 

I have not put that to the test but my guess would be that this would work.