A rescue to failed hair transplants. The Doctor Speaks…

Hair transplantation is an art in the medical field. It needs a lot of skill and knowledge. With the changing time and technology these days, there are many hair transplant clinics performing hair transplantation procedures. But unfortunately, most of them have very little knowledge about the field. This leads to poor results, patient dissatisfaction, low self esteem and depression.

It’s a Challenge:

We at Hairsure, get many such patients who have had failed hair transplant surgeries at other centers. Correcting these failed hair transplants is always a challenge because of the depletion in the donor area, scarring, bad hairline designs done previously. Other factors that challenge the doctor’s skill in redoing the transplant is the client’s feeling of hopelessness.

The Rescue Option:

While there are failures in hair transplant procedures, there still is a way to set it right! 

 

• Body hair can come to the rescue for patients with a depleted donor area.
• FUT Scarring on the back of the scalp, can be hidden by a scalp micro pigmentation or a scar revision.
• A bad frontal hairline can be completely redesigned through extraction of the wrong grafts by FUE technique and relocation.

Find out what Anant went through, after a failed hair transplant and get an insight into which other cases of failed hair transplants can be corrected.

Anant had received over 2000 grafts in a hair transplant that he underwent 2 years back. He waited for 6 months and realized that there was very little growth and also had a very detectable scar that did not let him cut his hair short. He had high hopes from the new hair that would grow after the transplant, that it would solve his image problems. But after waiting for such a long time when he saw no results, he found himself in a situation that was worse than having no hair.

Anant explained to us, that he was disappointed with the doctor’s lack of concern in addressing the failure of his transplant, and the detectable scar that troubled him every day.

After a complete analysis of Anant’s case, we explained him what caused the transplant go wrong and that we could rectify the problem.

Many patients who come to us for getting their hair transplant corrected, felt that there was something wrong with them. Here’s what we explained to Anant, could be the reasons for the failure of his hair transplant:

Drying Graft: The hair graft can dry up if it gets exposed to air for more than 10-20 seconds. Small grafts, are at greater risks for graft damage or drying. This could happen many times during the procedure:

• If the grafts are not immersed in a bath of a physiologic solution immediately after the graft is removed,
• While trimming the graft, when the grafts are structured with regard to their size,
• When the graft is moved  from one place to another,
• While the graft is placed.

Storing The Graft : The solutions that are used for the survival of the grafts must be well maintained and accurate in their compositions. If the graft is out of the body for long, the risk of damage is higher. This risk reflects on the skill of the experience of the doctor and the surgical team.

Handling Graft : Moving the grafts from the physiological bath solution to the recipient area takes some time. If the grafts are taken out and piled up on a surface to make it easy for picking, the grafts end up getting exposed to air. This exposure can cause the graft to dry up and die.

Placing The Graft : Placing the grafts is the most challenging as most of the times the grafts can get crushed while placing them. It is very important that he grafts must be delicately handled. Placing grafts requires a special skill that generally  takes more than a year to acquire. It is very important to have a steady hand while placing the grafts.

Depth Of The Graft: If a graft is placed too deep or too superficially, there are chances of the hair follicle getting infected. Placing the graft too deep kills the graft. Sometimes It can also produce pimples or folliculitis (inflammation of the hair follicles) after the surgery.

Anant was convinced with the possibilities of these reasons being the factors that caused his hair transplant to fail. He agreed to go ahead with another hair transplant with us and is now happy with his hair growth progressing! 

Information given below, can help if you or anyone you know need a hair restoration again after a transplant that did not give you great results. 

Cases where reconstruction is needed :

1. Defective Hairline: 
   • Unnatural Hairline Design: if the hairline is designed in an accurately straight line with no irregularities,  it makes the hairline look unnatural after the transplant.
   •  High Placement of Hairline: If the hairline is placed too high, it makes the forehead look extremely large. It can also continue balding. The transplantation does not show any results.
   •  Low Lying Placement of the Hairline: If the patient underwent surgery in his/her early 30’s, the hairline appears unnatural and low after few years making it look odd.low placement of the hairline can be corrected by removing the follicular units and re designing the hairline.

     

2. Compromised Density: After the transplantation, the hair  may look very scanty (less). The scalp is still visible in some cases. Planting the grafts in between can help correcting this scanty look on the scalp. This procedure requires to be done with a lot of care and skill as there is a risk of the existing grafts getting damaged.

   

3. Wide Scar After FUT: Strip technique of hair transplantation, gives a linear scar at the back of the scalp. If the incision is stitched or closed under tension, it can become a wide scar. Hair can be transplanted in this scar to make it less visible.

   

    

4. Stretched Scar: if the transplant surgery is done by someone with less experience, there are chances of many things that can go wrong. One of the most important thing that can make the scar stretch, is loose stitches after the surgery. Improper surgical tools also could be reasons for the scar to stretch. Any tension on the edges of the skin flap from where the strip is taken, can also lead to the stretching of the scar. Also, The doctors must give proper precautionary measures to the patients after the surgery and make sure they are followed.
5. Bushy Temples: Temples generally have fine and light coloured hair. If the density on the temples is increased while transplanting and thick hair are planted, then the temple becomes bushy. This can be corrected and redesigned to give a natural and softer appearance of the temples.

Below are a few patient images of  failed hair transplants  who approached us for rescue.

Below are a few images of some of the hair transplants we have done corrections on. Please do feel free to call us and visit us at Hairsure.

Twice FUT/Strip  surgery was done with poor hair density transplant ,pitting and scarring on the back of scalp

poor density hair transplant redone

FUT Scar correction

About the doctor:

Dr. RAVI CHANDER RAO  completed his MBBS from MRMC, Gulbarga in 1999. He practiced his Internship 2000 at Gandhi Medical College and did his MS in General Surgery from JJMMC, Davanagere in 2004 and was titled with the “Best Outgoing Student” award. He worked as a Registrar with KIMS, Hyderabad and later joined in MCh Plastic Surgery at the prestigious Nizams Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad. Having excelled in his academics and career so far it was only natural for him to join a team of qualified Plastic Surgeons with equal credentials and motives. Dr. Ravi Chander, with his experience, has added new dimensions to Cosmetic Surgery and his team. Dr. Ravi Chander Rao is one of the best trichologist in Hyderabad.

About the clinic:

HairSure is one of the leading hair clinics at Habsiguda, Hyderabad and we have the best hair transplant surgeons in Hyderabad practicing at HairSure. Trichologists at HairSure clinic are experts in hair transplantation and PRP treatment etc. Two of our main doctors are known to be the best trichologists in Hyderabad.