Do Strip Scars Become More Visible in Old Age?

[JeffC45]

As someone who is hoping and praying to live to a ripe, old age, I am trying to consider the consequences of my upcoming FUT procedure long-term. We all know the "safe zone" is LESS susceptible to DHT, but not necessarily immune. I assume that even the safe zone thins over time.

 

As the area where the strip was taken thins out in old age, does a patient have to worry about a previously concealed FUT scar becoming obviously visible? Is this one of the downsides of FUT? Has the procedure been around long enough for people to experience this?

[aWidowsPeek]

That's a huge DUH and that's why most people seeking a transplant should go with FUE imho.

 

Let the FUE bashing begin as usual.....haha

[E39]

I've seen a ton of older gentlemen with very visible strip scars.

[aWidowsPeek]

A few years ago I spotted a guy who was probably in his 50's at Walgreens and he had super thin hair and a VERY visible strip scar on the back of his head. I'm sure most people just think he was in a accident or had head surgery of some kind.

[JeffC45]

But won't such thinning also result in FUE scars being revealed by a thinning donor?

 

Also, I would think a good doctor would take into account current density and age in projecting whether a patient is a good long term FUT candidate.

 

I'm willing to guess the older people you saw had diffuse thinning and were not good candidates for FUT to begin with.

[aWidowsPeek]

If you had terrible BIG fue scars yeah. If your doctor uses a .8mm tool or smaller you won't even be able to see scars. I had 2000 fue grafts removed and you can't see ANYTHING.

[hsrp10]

I think it depends on how the original scar healed and which Doctor you went to.

Scar stetching is a real possibility, also if you did strenuous weight training etc. in the post op months after your HT that would have an impact as well.

 

However decently performed fue still depletes your donor, so if you have 4000-5000 fue grafts removed for example you may end up looking very thin at old age in the donor, so total lifetime donor management is important regardless of fue or fut.

 

These days SMP also helps with disguising old fut scars also.

[Melvin- Admin]

But won't such thinning also result in FUE scars being revealed by a thinning donor?

Also, I would think a good doctor would take into account current density and age in projecting whether a patient is a good long term FUT candidate.

 

I'm willing to guess the older people you saw had diffuse thinning and were not good candidates for FUT to begin with.

 

Very little hair is needed to cover up FUE scars, if anything the only problem I see with FUE down the line is the donor looking depleted or very thin, but I highly doubt anything 1mm and below will be visible even with a depleted donor or thinned out donor. In my opinion it's because FUE's pattern is intrinsically scattered across the whole donor region, this makes it very hard for the human eye to detect any abrupt changes from hair to scar.

 

I give the analogy of a brand new car, it would be much easier to spot a straight linear scratch even if it was thin, than it would be little dot scratches, especially if they are scattered.

 

Example:

See how difficult it would be to see these spots if they were not pointed out to you, or if you weren't looking at the car very closely. Just walking by the human eye would not detect the change.

 

Example:

Now see how your eye is automatically drawn to the drastic shift from paint to no paint in a linear line. This would be seen fairly easy even at a reasonable distance with no need to point anything out.

 

With that being said, i'm sure you've done your research and have weighed out the pros and cons extensively for your own personal situation, so there really is no need to psyche yourself out prior to surgery. There are many possibilities with surgery no surgery is guaranteed, if you are bothered enough by hair loss to commit to surgery knowing the implications involved then I don't see why a scar would hold you back. At the end of the day no surgical procedure is without scars.