Scalp Reductions

I met with a doctor last week who suggested that I take out the bald area. I am very bald so the bald area is very big. Is this a good idea?

Removing the bald area (scalp reductions) were very popular surgeries 10+ years ago. Thousands of men have had it done. You might even see them at airports, where they have a scar down the middle of their head, like they had brain surgery. Starting with that as my answer, I think that you will see (from everything else I am about to write here) that I am not open minded about this surgery. First, I should state that I am a victim of this surgery, having had three such surgical procedures to remove my bald spot (much smaller than yours, I suspect). I was scarred, but I got lucky in that I did not pursue more than the three surgeries, for had I done so, I would have been really deformed.

These surgeries have many, many problems associated with them and they have been largely abandoned over the past 10 years, largely because of the efforts of myself and a small handful of other doctors who have brought the complication of this surgery to the public. The most important issue to remember here is that when you are considering a hair restoration procedure, you want low risk and high certainty in the outcome. These scalp reductions produced many, many risks and the outcome was only occasionally successful. This is not a good procedure to do. For more information, please see Scalp Reductions on the NHI website.

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Roger - June 29th, 2005 at 9:19 am

I also have had three scalp reduction procedures, 10 plus years ago. The procedures have significantly reduced the bald spot and have made a positive improvement in the appearance of the total Hair Restoration process, provided I style my hair a certain way.

If this is not done then I have a fairly long (6 inch) and fairly wide (1/4″) visible scar going down the top and back of the head, even into the fringe of the donor hair. This was complicated when an infection developed during the last procedure which did additional scarring (~1 square inch) to the scalp.

The doctor that did the surgery insured me that we would be able to disguise the scare and transplant into the scarred areas, 3 HT procedures(8-10 years ago and 500+ grafts per session), a siginificant part of the scar is still visible.

While I believe that the scalp reduction has done me more positive then negative(when properly styled) it seems with the new procedures it may be possible to achieve as good or better results with out subjecting yourself to the pain and torment of a scalp reduction. The pain a HT causes is peanuts to that of an SR!

With the thinned scalp(from stretching) and the scarring(scalp reduction) is there much of a chance for masking the scar? A part of the scar is in the donor area with decent density that it seems like it might be possble to revise to a much thinner line?

While satisfied with the total result, it would be nice to not have to worry about my hair style getting messed up and having this significant scar visible.

Roger