Do all doctors in southern California take out a strip that is 2-3 mm wide? Any good surgeon knows that if you take out a strip wider than this, you have a greater risk of scarring from the access tention, right?

No, you are not correct. A strip 2-3 mm will not yield any significant amounts of hair. I often take out a strip of 1.2 cm or greater if I need the supply of donor hair. Wounds that are closed under tension may stretch, but that depends upon your healing characteristics. If a doctor makes a cut into the scalp without removing any scalp and just closes the wound with stitches or staples, a scar will still happen.

1. In scar-forming patients, it will scar. The more scar-forming the patient’s tendency is, the greater will be the scar.
2. In normal patients (95% of the population) it will form a scar less than 2-3 mm wide, with or without any skin removed (this is my guess, as I generally do not cut into normal people’s scalp just for the fun of it).
3. In about 10% of patients without any scalp removed, it will form a scar 1mm wide (I am guessing this as well).
4. In all patients, a scar will be seen if the head is shaved 100% of the time.

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